The holiday is a time when families and friends spend much of their quality time at the movie theater, so why don’t you join them? Here is a list of movies in theaters now, ranked by genre and star rating.
Drama
‘Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans’ ***1/2
R, 2:01
Inspired, messy riff on the 1992 “Bad Lieutenant,” starring Nicolas Cage at his most fruitfully unhinged as a drug-addled New Orleans police detective fighting demons while his city recovers from Katrina. The plot is secondary in director Werner Herzog’s atmospheric noir. — Michael Phillips
‘An Education’ ***1/2
PG-13. 1:35
Charming coming-of-age story set in 1961 London, based on Lynn Barber’s memoir, about a bright young Twickenham London teenager, beautifully played by Carey Mulligan, who falls for a shady older man (Peter Sarsgaard). The excellent supporting cast includes Emma Thompson and Olivia Williams as opposing educational forces in the beguiling heroine’s life. — M.P.
‘The Messenger’ ***1/2
R, 1:45
Beautifully acted drama starring Ben Foster and Woody Harrelson as U.S. Army Casualty Notification officers, and Samantha Morton as a war widow they meet on the job. Co-writer and director Oren Moverman has a fine touch with all three exemplary performers. — M.P.
‘Precious’ ***1/2
R, 1:49
Wrenching, powerfully acted drama about an illiterate Harlem teenager whose home life cannot quench her spirit. It’s amazing that a cast encompassing a screen newcomer (Gabourey Sidibe), a pop diva (Mariah Carey as a social worker) and a comedy veteran (Mo’Nique) works as well as this one. — M.P.
‘2012’ ***
PG-13, 2:38
Director Roland Emmerich wipes out an entire planet via tsunami, earthquake, volcano and risible dialogue, and John Cusack, Amanda Peet and Chiwetel Ejiofor fight, valiantly, for their lives, and for the life of a little Russian dog. — M.P.
Julie & Julia ***
PG-13, 1:50
Meryl Streep, having a high old time, continues her “she can do anything” streak in writer-director Nora Ephron’s engaging account of how Julia Child came to write “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” The parts of the film dealing with transplanted New Yorker Julie Powell (Amy Adams), cooking and blogging her way through all 500-plus recipes, is less interesting but no less well-acted. — M.P.
‘The Road’ **1/2
R, 1:59
Viggo Mortensen single-handedly makes this adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel worth a look. It’s an honorable if static attempt (though oddly sentimental in some of its touches) at filming a borderline-unfilmable end-of-the-world allegory. — M.P.
‘Skin’ **1/2
PG-13, 1:47
A truth-is-stranger-than-fiction story plucked out of South Africa’s apartheid, of a girl classified white at birth, then reclassified “colored” when she is about 10, then classified white once more a few years later, and her father’s fight to force the system to change her race back to white, and the ripple effects of that battle. — Betsy Sharkey
Comedy
‘A Serious Man’ ****
R, 1:45
Physics professor Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) can’t keep track of everything going wrong in his suburban Minneapolis life in this droll, meticulously observed Job-like fable from the Coen brothers. I liked this film — personal, mordantly witty, rife with 1967 Judaica — better than “No Country For Old Men,” not to mention their last film, “Burn After Reading.” — M.P.
‘The Informant!’ ***1/2
More Top Picks Best Car Gps Navigators
R, 1:48
Cheeky deadpan comic docudrama, directed by Steven Soderbergh, about Archer Daniels Midland corporate whistle-blower Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon), whose collusion with the FBI and apparent interest in doing the right thing is clouded by certain … little … chinks in his corn-fed armor. Damon reveals sharp comic instincts throughout, without tipping into caricature; better than a movie star, he’s a droll character actor. — M.P.
‘The Invention of Lying’ ***
PG-13, 1:40
Terrific premise, unevenly but charmingly executed: Set in a world very much like our own, the story stars Ricky Gervais (who co-wrote and co-directed) as a sad-sack writer who tells the first-ever lie known to humankind. Jennifer Garner co-stars. — M.P.
‘The Men Who Stare at Goats’ ***
R, 1:35
A quirky comedic drama about one of the stranger aspects of the modern U.S. Army: A time when certain high-ranking officers felt that the New Age techniques of the counterculture could transform military practice as we know it. George Clooney plays the soldier with the goat-felling ability, but Jeff Bridges steals the show as a specialist who goes native in the most amusing way. — M.P.
‘Pirate Radio’ ***
R, 1:56
The rock-saturated “Pirate Radio” proves life really is better when it’s set to a ’60s soundtrack. From the Kinks, the Rolling Stones, Hendrix, the Who, the list goes on … nearly 60 cuts in what may be the coolest music video masquerading as a movie ever. — B.S.
Biography
‘Coco Before Chanel’ ***1/2
PG-13, 1:50
For someone who was as celebrated internationally as France’s Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, not much is known for sure about her formative years. Chanel’s reticence stimulated co-writer and director Anne Fontaine and star Audrey Tautou, who collaborated, to turn “Coco Before Chanel” into a superior filmed biography. — Kenneth Turan
Action
‘Red Cliff’ ***1/2
R, 2:28
The first Chinese-language film from John Woo in more than a decade is an entertaining hybrid — part Saturday afternoon matinee war epic, part Xbox 360-esque role-playing strategy game, part sweeping costume drama (featuring some of the worst wigs and bad eyebrows in ages) and part signature Woo. — Christopher Borrelli
‘The Twilight Saga: New Moon’ ***
PG-13, 2:10
Surprisingly pretty good. The second in the “Twilight” series reunites Kristen Stewart and fwoopy-haired Robert Pattinson as teen human and ageless vampire, respectively, with werewolf romantic triangulation (in a firm abstinence-only realm) provided by Taylor Lautner. The books are terrible; so far, the film versions have been better in every respect. — M.P.
‘Astro Boy’ **
PG, 1:34
Routine and, despite the pastel color scheme, rather oppressively violent big-screen adaptation of the Japanese manga and TV hero — half-robot, half-boy, all-pointy-hair. — M.P.
Horror
‘Zombieland’ ***1/2
R, 1:21
Jolly, gory post-apocalyptic lark, starring the odd-couple duo of Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg as two survivors of the worldwide zombie plague. Without adding anything new to a hallowed genre, the movie delivers a surprising number of big, cheap, stupid laughs. — M.P.
‘Paranormal Activity’ **1/2
R, 1:26
A micro-budget horror flick about things that go bump in the you-know-what in a nice new home. At the right moments, it is genuinely hair-raising. Something about seeing terror through the viewfinder of a video camera lends it veracity. — Roger Moore
Documentary
‘Good Hair’ ***
PG-13, 1:30
Chris Rock investigates the billion-dollar African-American hair industry, in between scenes leading up to the 2007 Bronner Bros. International Hair and Beauty Show in Atlanta. The comedian’s ambivalence about what black women do to (and spend on) their hair, in the name of living up to a dubious standard of beauty, guides this engaging documentary. — M.P.
‘Michael Jackson’s This Is It’ ***
PG, 1:51
Produced with the full, watchful approval of the Jackson estate, this flattering assemblage of concert rehearsal footage shows what Jacko was working on in the weeks and months preceding his death at age 50. It’s worth seeing for the twisted pop king’s rivetingly idiosyncratic dance chops. — M.P.
‘Capitalism: A Love Story’ **1/2
R, 2:06
The latest broadside from the most necessary mixed blessing in American movies, Michael Moore. The documentary ranges from credit-swaps to foreclosures to underpaid pilots to striking Chicago factory workers, taking on an entire economic system and making room (too much room) for wearily familiar Moore tactics: security-guard harassment, ironic singsong-y voice-overs, etc. But the most compellingly argued material really does add up. — M.P.
More Top Picks How We Test
Family
‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ **1/2
PG, 1:28
Clever, glib, destined to divide audiences, Wes Anderson’s meticulous stop-motion animation version of the Roald Dahl story features the voice talents of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray and others. I was a little cool toward it, but you — you’re not me, after all. — M.P.
‘Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs’ **1/2
PG, 1:21
Fairly inventive, exceedingly manic expansion of the 1978 picture book, pumped up to disaster-movie proportions. The Jimmy Neutron-type protagonist is voiced by Bill Hader; the flying linguine and ice cream treats arrive in portions designed to make a Vegas buffet aficionado cry, “Enough!” — M.P.
Holiday
‘Disney’s A Christmas Carol’ **1/2
PG, 1:36
Roughly half of Robert Zemeckis’ adaptation works well, with Jim Carrey giving an honest and relatively un-shticky performance as Scrooge. The other half is mired in motion-capture animation limitations and overextended theme-park 3-D wows. In all, a mixed but entertaining bag (too scary for younger kids). — M.P.
Fantasy
‘Where the Wild Things Are’ ***
PG, 1:34
Plaintive, beautiful, memorable — this may be the richest American film of the year. Director and co-writer (with Dave Eggers) Spike Jonze expands the 1963 Maurice Sendak picture book about the boy in the wolf suit whose tantrum leads him to a far-away land of pointy-toothed beasts, without overinflating its concerns of family instability and hard-won acceptance. It won’t be for everyone, but I loved it. — M.P.