Here on the East Coast, most of us have little choice but to stay inside – and wait out the wrath of Irene. But elsewhere, you can go to the movies. David Edelstein has some recommendations …

It has been a loud, 3-D summer at the multiplex, and while I’m perfectly receptive to the odd $150 million superhero picture, it wasn’t so odd this summer, it was the norm – and I’m ready for movies that aren’t in-your-face with a surcharge for the glasses.

The comedy “Our Idiot Brother” won’t win any prizes, but its mellow vibe is a blessed relief. Paul Rudd plays Ned, a friendly, go-along-to-get-along screw-up of a brother to three high-strung sisters played by three appealing actresses: Emily Mortimer, Elizabeth Banks and Zooey Deschanel.

Ned goes to prison after a cop in uniform approaches him to buy dope. Really! See for yourself:

… No, stop the clip. It’s too painful.

Anyway, when Ned gets out of jail he visits his sisters and messes up their lives by being too guilessly honest.

He undermines their very foundations. This being a comedy, family ties strengthen rather than strangle.

The uplift would be hard to buy if Rudd weren’t so lovable. I have no idea what he’s like in life, but I’d be stricken to hear he’s a jerk: It would be such an affront to the notion we can see through a performance into an actor’s core.

His radiant niceness amid all the neurosis gives this shambling comedy a measure of grace.

Speaking of grace: That’s the Holy Grail for Vera Farmiga’s Corinne, the heroine of “Higher Ground,” which is also Farmiga’s amazingly graceful directorial debut.

It’s based on a memoir by Carolyn Briggs about her life as a religious fundamentalist-and how she finally fled the male-dominated hierarchy.

But it’s not primarily an attack on religion. Farmiga’s touch is gentle and deeply sympathetic. The scenes in which she’s baptized and inducted into this faith-based community are rapturous.

It’s the Seventies, and this church is full of scruffy, folk-music types who believe the Lord writes His gospel also in rocks and trees.

She finds transcendence.

And, of course, she comes crashing to earth. But not without a fight to stay aloft. When her friend speaks in tongues, she’s full of envy…

She replays Robert DeNiro’s “You talkin’ to me?” as “Please talk to me!” while her druggy-secular sister listens in.

Yes, the doctrinaire fundamentalists are insufferable, 대만 카지노 but Corinne doesn’t slam the door. She’s not self-righteous. She actually admires their faith.

And after a bummer summer, Farmiga’s debut has restored mine – in the transcendent power of movies.