The grasslands of Inner Mongolia are stunning. That’s helpful, because this film has a few perplexing moments; it’s nice to give your eyes something to admire while your brain un-pretzels. In the first part of the film, Thomas the English-speaking tourist visits Mao’s rustic lakeside home to do some sketching. The backwoods host and the tactless guest have nothing in common. Cue the East-meets-West hilarity, right? Not quite. First, there’s a shared afternoon dream featuring a floaty sword-fight dance (wuxia pian, technically). Then come the aliens with the glow-sticks. Shortly after that, we’re somewhere totally different — an artist’s chic studio space. The characters have also changed: They aren’t characters anymore. They’re themselves. Mao is Mao Yan, a classically trained Chinese oil painter. And Thomas is Thomas Rohdewald, director of the Shanghai Expo’s Luxembourg Pavilion and model for more than 100 of Mao’s paintings. In real life, the two have been collaborating for more than a decade, and their onscreen conversation (in Chinese) flows like they’re old friends — even with an alien urinating in the room. Those adept at finding meaning and symbols and metaphors will have plenty to work with. For everyone else, Thomas Mao is a lovely glimpse at what art films in China look like today. (China | 77 mins) Read our story about this