As a documentary-portraiture complement to this weekend's release of the end-times blockbuster "2012," there's Chris Smith's "Collapse," an alternately frightening and mournful talkathon starring the conspiracy theories of ex-LAPD cop-reporter-author Michael Ruppert. Filmed in a spare basement made to feel like an interrogation chamber, the cigarette-smoking, mustached Ruppert -- whose fringe notoriety can be traced to his 1970s claims that the CIA asked him to run drugs -- unloads a byzantine, impassioned case for society's full-speed-ahead doom. The two big reasons: waning oil supplies and a pyramid-scheme economy.

The unseen Smith, who occasionally tosses in a provoking question, is less interested in testing Ruppert's bona fides than in creating a zoo exhibit feeling that segues into a therapy session. The latter vibe emerges when Ruppert, perhaps exhausted from relentlessly harping about humankind's stupidity, venality and treacherous policies, gets emotional about his own relationship to bucking the system and even allows hopeful tips to color his apocalyptic monologue. (Save seeds, people.) With a formal elegance that often feels like a tribute to Errol Morris' character studies, "Collapse" is a grueling peek at a doomsday prophet's rigorous mind but in a sly way also a compassionate look at the strain Ruppert endures from knowing he has only ever been right.

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Robert Abele --

"Collapse." MPAA rating: Unrated. Running time: 1 hour, 22 minutes. At Laemmle's Sunset 5, West Hollywood.

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Coming of age, with a few twists

The typical high school comedy is revamped in "Dare," a coming-of-age romp that ups the explicitness of first-time sexual encounters and looks hard at teenage angst. The story follows three teens in their final semester of high school: overachieving aspiring actress Alexa (Emmy Rossum), who decides to sex up her drama geek image by sleeping with bad-boy jock Johnny (Zach Gilford), a romance that gets complicated when Alexa's best friend, Ben (Ashley Springer) -- a loner struggling with his sexuality -- seduces Johnny.

Director Adam Salky expanded the film from a short he developed with screenwriter David Brind at the Columbia University graduate film program, which focused on the two boys. The feature allows for the inclusion of Alexa, who serves mostly to fuel the flames of confusion for Johnny. As the teens struggle with their three-sided relationship, their choices for the future and, for Johnny, a troubled home life, their characters become surprisingly more complex, particularly as Gilford's Johnny tries to understand who he really is and who he will become.