In Theaters: MUMFORD Written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan. Running time: 111 minutes. Rated R.

Lawrence Kasdan’s terrific new film, “Mumford,” is about people — people who need people. It’s very good. Quirky but never silly, gentle but never dull, the film is a standout that recalls director Robert Altman in spirit, director Frank Capra in tone, and the television show “Northern Exposure” in its closely knit, neighborhood feel.

The film stars Loren Dean as Mumford, a clean-cut, boy-next-door psychotherapist who has recently started to practice in the town of … Mumford, an uncanny connection that suggests the film’s underlying mystery has nothing to do with Mumford’s neurotic clientele, but everything to do with Mumford himself.

The film, which quietly champions, then cleverly eschews the merits of therapy, is driven by its performances, including Mary McDonnell as a compulsive shopper, Jason Lee as a lonely, boyish billionaire, Alfre Woodard as a sharp, sensible coffee shop owner, and Hope Davis as a woman possibly suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome. But its charm and spark ultimately come from the enigma created in Mumford.

To paraphrase one of the film’s characters: Everybody has a dirty secret, a rousing story, another life — Mumford just happens to have the variety pack.

Grade: A-

On Video: RAVENOUS

Directed by Antonia Bird. Written by Ted Griffin. Running time: 101 minutes. Rated R.

Antonia Bird’s culturally bulimic film, “Ravenous,” is about people — people who eat people. It’s not very good. It makes “Flesh Eating Mothers,” “Rabid Grannies,” “Bloodsucking Pharaohs of Pittsburgh” and, yes, even “Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death” look as if they were farm-raised by Julia Child.

The film, which suggests humans are the other white meat, isn’t a complete waste of time; parts of it are beautifully shot and there are moments of tension. Bird, who took a memorable jab at audiences with the eyebrow-raising “Priest,” has a camp sensibility that lightens what could have been a truly pungent stew. She knows she can’t take much of this seriously, so she leavens her film with much-needed humor. That saves some of it.

What undermines most of it is Ted Griffin’s script, which cranks out such stunning lines as “He’s licking me!” before trudging on without a conscience to destroy whatever credibility its stars, Guy Pearce and Robert Carlyle, had before coming to the project.

The film takes place during the Mexican-American War, but it never featured a Taco Bell tie-in, proving, in the end, that this bloody, soupy mix wasn’t completely without restraint after all.

Grade: C-

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear each Monday and Thursday in the NEWS, each Tuesday and Thursday on WLBZ’s “News Center 5:30 Today” and “News Center Tonight,” and each Saturday and Sunday on WCSH-TV’s statewide “Morning Report.”