Movies Gallery Fall Movies We Can't Wait To See ''Riddick,'' ''Anchorman 2,'' ''Catching Fire,'' ''Rush,'' ''Ender's Game,'' ''Gravity,'' ''The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,'' and dozens more previews By EW Staff Published on August 16, 2013 04:00AM EDT Close 01 of 60 Ender's Game (Nov. 1) On the surface, Ender's Game looks like a straightforward sci-fi adventure, a sort of teen Starship Troopers about a wunderkind named Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield) who's recruited by the military to lead humankind's last stand against an insectlike race of aliens. But as fans of author Orson Scott Card's much-loved 1985 novel know, there's plenty more to the futuristic tale than that. ''There are a lot of really important themes — leadership, bullying, compassion — and Ender is an intriguing, complex character,'' says Butterfield. Much of the action takes place in a zero-gravity Battle Room, where young soldiers are trained to fight aliens in intense combat simulations. ''In the book, the Battle Room is a big black box, but I thought it would be more visually exciting to make it a huge glass orb so you could be looking down at Earth and up at the stars,'' says director Gavin Hood (X-Men Origins: Wolverine). ''When I told my visual-effects supervisor what I wanted to do, his eyes nearly popped out of his head.'' —Josh Rottenberg 02 of 60 Dallas Buyers Club (Nov. 1) ANNE MARIE FOX With his latest character, Matthew McConaughey continues his streak of playing sexed-up scofflaws (see: Magic Mike, Killer Joe). ''He's a real bastard,'' McConaughey says, ''a drug-taking, ass-running wild man.'' The film is based on the real Ron Woodroof, a straight electrician who in 1986 contracted HIV at a time when AIDS was considered a gay disease. Frustrated by a paucity of FDA-approved drugs, Woodroof launched a lucrative business smuggling meds from overseas. ''He was a hustler and a dealer, straight up,'' says McConaughey, who lost nearly 50 pounds to play the role. ''It's a very anarchic story.'' —Sean Smith 03 of 60 Last Vegas (Nov. 1) Chuck Zlotnick Four old boyhood friends, played by Oscar-winning legends, hit Las Vegas for a bachelor party — one of them, Billy (Michael Douglas), is now engaged to a woman half his age after a lifetime spent resisting matrimony. According to director Jon Turteltaub (National Treasure), there are perks to directing such pedigreed stars — like pumping Kevin Kline for Big Chill stories. Or learning that Morgan Freeman is great at playing drunk (who knew?). Or jumping in the front seat of a cab when Robert De Niro films a scene in the back on the way to see a lounge singer played by another Oscar winner, Mary Steenburgen. Amazingly, none of these heavyweights — ''my personal icons,'' as Freeman describes them — had ever worked together on screen before. —Karen Valby 04 of 60 Diana (Nov. 1, limited) Stella Pictures Diana, Princess of Wales, was one of the most celebrated (and scrutinized) figures of the 20th century, from her glamorous 1981 wedding to her tragic 1997 death beside then boyfriend Dodi Fayed. But director Oliver Hirschbiegel's biopic centers on a less well-known period: her two-year relationship with British-Pakistani surgeon Hasnat Khan (Naveen Andrews). Under his influence, Diana (Naomi Watts) traded couture for flak jackets and became an advocate for banning land mines. ''I didn't really know a lot about Diana, and to be honest, I never really cared,'' says Hirschbiegel (The Invasion). ''That man got her to reinvent herself and find a new aim in her life.'' And helped make a princess a real political force. —Lindsey Bahr 05 of 60 About Time (Nov. 1) Universal In About Time, a young man (Anna Karenina's Domhnall Gleeson) learns from his father (Bill Nighy) that the guys in their family have the ability to travel through time. Does this mean the writer-director responsible for such rom-com classics as Notting Hill and Love Actually has gone over to the sci-fi side? Not exactly, says Richard Curtis. ''It's actually an anti-time-travel time-travel movie.'' Instead, he says, the film poses more of a philosophical question: What really matters when it comes to time? ''In my opinion, it's about the most ordinary things,'' says Curtis, who has stated that this is likely the last film he'll direct. ''The message of this movie is to relish the day, to relish your life. I decided I should perhaps take my own advice.'' —Sara Vilkomerson 06 of 60 Thor: The Dark World (Nov. 8) Jay Maidment Winter is coming to Asgard — and that suits the planet's resident storm god just fine. Winter in this case is an edgier, earthier tone for Thor: The Dark World that director Alan Taylor no doubt imported from distant Westeros and his work on HBO's Game of Thrones. The spires of Asgard still gleam as they did in Kenneth Branagh's 2011 film, but star Chris Hemsworth says there's now a grit to go with the gloss. In the film, Asgardian warrior Malekith the Accursed (Christopher Eccleston) wages an intergalactic war that threatens Thor's beloved earthling Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), while Thor's evil brother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston), plots his own revenge. The stakes (and consequences) are high — a new trailer suggests that Thor loses a hand to Loki's sword. But Hemsworth seems unfazed. ''Maybe I will have to learn to use the hammer with the left hand, you know?'' he says. ''Or I could ram it straight down into the stump. That would be very Game of Thrones in approach.'' —'Geoff Boucher 07 of 60 The Wolf of Wall Street (Nov. 15) Martin Scorsese's new film tells the real-life story of a high- and hard-living stockbroker, Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio), who made millions of dollars through securities fraud and eventually spent 22 months in jail for it. The director gives us a bird's-eye view of early-'90s Wall Street excess, replete with yachts, women, and massive cocaine habits. Despite the period accoutrements — tortoise-shell glasses, over-the-shoulder yuppie sweaters, and garish ties — Scorsese's tale of greed and financial malfeasance offers many parallels to the current economic climate, as well as to some of his star's more recent films. DiCaprio sees his performance as the capper to an unofficial trilogy that began with the monarchical slave owner in Django Unchained and continued with iconic American dreamer Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby. ''They take place in three different time periods, each separated by about 60 years from the next,'' DiCaprio told EW last December. ''But they're all deeply American stories about wealth and the ways in which these men try to hold on to and achieve that wealth.'' —Keith Staskiewicz 08 of 60 The Best Man Holiday (Nov. 15) Michael Gibson In early 2011, director Malcolm D. Lee gathered the large ensemble cast of his 1999 debut, The Best Man. ''By the end of this dinner, I'm going to pitch you an idea for this movie,'' he told them. When the plates were cleared, everyone was on board for a Christmastime reunion sequel. Football star Lance (Morris Chestnut) is about to break an all-time NFL record for rushing, while his former best man, Harper (Taye Diggs), has fallen on hard times. His novels aren't selling, and he has been struggling to start a family with his wife, Robin (Sanaa Lathan). Count on Lee to gift-wrap a little drama for under the tree. —Lindsey Bahr 09 of 60 Great Expectations (Nov. 15) Johan Persson As he set out to direct Charles Dickens' classic novel Great Expectations, Mike Newell fixated on one question: ''Why is Pip such a little s---?'' To Newell, the story's orphan hero (played by War Horse's Jeremy Irvine) is ''treacherous and unthinking, uncaring of the people who love him most.'' That includes Miss Havisham (Helena Bonham Carter), a wealthy spinster who hasn't stepped outdoors since being left at the altar decades earlier, and her ward, Estella (The Borgias' Holliday Grainger), who won't return Pip's affections — even after he's thrown into London's high society. Ultimately, though, Newell pities Pip. ''He's an abused child,'' he says. ''What you're looking at is: What is the fallout of emotional abuse?'' —Grady Smith 10 of 60 The Book Thief (Nov. 15) Jules Heath Based on Marcus Zusak's 2006 novel, The Book Thief is an unusual kids' story about a girl in Nazi Germany named Liesl who steals to support her family. It's also narrated by Death — not a sickle-wielding grim reaper but a ''wry, likable, and witty'' figure, according to director Brian Percival (Downton Abbey). Percival hasn't cast the voice of Death yet, but after seeing more than a thousand hopefuls throughout Europe, Australia, and North America, he chose 13-year-old Canadian actress Sophie Nélisse — a gymnast who had been training for the 2016 Olympics — to play Liesl. ''In Sophie, you've found someone you want to put your arms around and protect from this dreadful world,'' says Percival, ''but at the same time, you expect a knee in the groin at any moment.'' —Stephan Lee 11 of 60 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Nov. 22) Murray Close Since the late entrance of director Francis Lawrence, who replaced Gary Ross last year, many trims and tweaks have been made to adapt Suzanne Collins' sequel for the big screen. But the beating heart of the book remains intact, Lawrence promises. ''It's still really Katniss' story?there are no diversions from her. I wanted to be true to the book, and I didn't want to reinvent it in any way. It just needed an adaptation.'' President Snow (Donald Sutherland), fearful of the growing unrest in Panem, sentences a stunned Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence, no relation) and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) to return to the Capitol and fight to the death once more in an all-star edition of the Hunger Games. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Plutarch Heavensbee, the new Head Gamemaker, and Jeffrey Wright is a former victor hurled back into battle, along with Snow White and the Huntsman's Sam Claflin as District 4's trident-wielding charmer Finnick Odair. Lawrence brought in a new costume designer, Trish Summerville, to amp up the level of manic sophistication in the Capitol's high fashion. And a new visual-effects supervisor, Janek Sirrs (The Avengers), should deliver the effects required for the grander scale of the new arena. Most encouragingly of all, Hunger Games' heroine is happy. ''Francis is really passionate about the book,'' says Jennifer Lawrence. ''It didn't seem like he was just excited to make a huge movie.'' Do you hear that, readers? He's one of us. —Karen Valby 12 of 60 Delivery Man (Nov. 22) Jessica Miglio What would you do if you suddenly found out that you'd fathered 533 kids years ago via anonymous sperm donation — and that 142 of those kids have now filed a lawsuit to discover your identity? In director Ken Scott's remake of his own 2011 French-Canadian comedy Starbuck, Vince Vaughn plays a good-natured but incompetent meat-truck driver who finds himself in just that conundrum. Don't expect to see Vaughn in his fast-talking loudmouth mode; this is a gentler performance that aims straight for the heartstrings. ''He's a very genuine, sincere guy who's trying to figure out his priorities,'' the actor says. ''The situation is extreme, but the tone is very real and grounded.'' —Josh Rottenberg 13 of 60 Nebraska (Nov. 22) Merie W. Wallace Ask Alexander Payne (Sideways, The Descendants) why he decided to direct Nebraska — the only screenplay he's ever shot that he didn't write himself — and the first thing he brings up isn't the story's simplicity, depth, or humor (though he'll mention those later). It's the title. ''I don't think the script would have reached me if it had been called South Carolina,'' he says. ''I'm from Omaha, so I was eager to learn more about the rest of the state.'' He got his chance, filming the $13.5 million black-and-white indie dramedy about an old-timer named Woody (Bruce Dern) and his son (Will Forte), who set out on a cross-state road trip after Woody gets a letter saying he's won a $1 million sweepstakes. ''He's a guy who has probably lost at least one bank of lights in right field,'' says Dern of his character's wobbly mental state. The 77-year-old actor, who weathered a 30-year drought of starring roles, won the Best Actor prize at Cannes for the film this past spring. ''It's the best part anyone has ever given me,'' he says. —Adam Markovitz 14 of 60 Oldboy (Nov. 27) The poster for Spike Lee's Oldboy shows a black-clad Josh Brolin emerging from a steamer trunk that sits in a grassy field like a forgotten casket. The striking image fits the thriller, in which Brolin plays a man seeking revenge on the mysterious villain who kidnapped him and locked him in a room for 20 years, then inexplicably let him go. Oldboy is the 21st feature from the feisty Spike Lee, but his first remake. It follows in the bloody footprints of South Korean director Park Chan-wook's 2003 film — itself based on a popular 1996-98 Japanese manga — which won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival and the loyalty of action-film connoisseurs worldwide. (At one point Steven Spielberg and Will Smith pursued the project.) ''It's a big cult film,'' says Lee. ''The fans love it, love it, love it. And I do too, but that's a challenge that led to good things.'' Lee remains undaunted, especially since he got a message of approval from Park himself through their mutual friend Brolin. ''My man told Josh that as long as we make our own film and not try to duplicate what he's done,'' says Lee, ''he'll be happy.'' —'Geoff Boucher 15 of 60 Black Nativity (Nov. 27) Phil Bray In an adaptation of poet Langston Hughes' acclaimed 1961 stage musical, Jennifer Hudson plays Naima, who got pregnant at 15 and ran away from her deeply Christian family in Harlem. Fifteen years later, a penniless Naima sends her son, Langston (newcomer Jacob Latimore), to spend the Christmas holiday with his churchgoing grandparents (Angela Bassett and Forest Whitaker). The teenage boy winds up spending a lot of time with the church choir, who perform gospel-inflected carols — along with R&B and hip-hop numbers — throughout the film. Bassett jumped at the opportunity to work on a film associated with Hughes, whose poems she remembers reading aloud at church and in pageants as an adolescent growing up in Harlem. ''My entry into acting was through his poetry,'' she says. ''He spoke to my 15-year-old psyche.'' —Grady Smith 16 of 60 Frozen (Nov. 27) Disney After losing the chance to voice Rapunzel in 2010's Tangled, lifelong Disney fan Kristen Bell landed the lead in the studio's new animated musical Frozen, inspired by the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale ''The Snow Queen.'' In this version, the magical snow-controlling queen Elsa (Idina Menzel) has unintentionally cursed the kingdom of Arendelle with eternal winter, leaving her plucky sister Anna (Bell) to try to end the chilling spell. Happily, Anna doesn't fit the usual Disney-princess mold. As Bell explains, her character proves that ''goofy girls, girls that are nerdy, girls that put their foot in their mouth, girls that don't have great posture or can't figure out what clothes match each other — they can also be heroines.'' —Maricela Gonzalez 17 of 60 Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (Nov. 29) Most Americans think of Nelson Mandela as the Nobel Peace Prize winner who endured 27 years of prison before leading South Africa toward peace and racial equality as president. This biopic, based on Mandela's best-selling 1995 autobiography, zeroes in on his young adulthood as a lawyer, womanizer, outlaw, and saboteur in the decades-long struggle against apartheid. At the film's emotional core is the bond between Mandela (Pacific Rim's Idris Elba) and his second wife, Winnie (Skyfall's Naomie Harris). ''I wanted to capture the love he had for his wife and for what he was doing,'' says director Justin Chadwick (The Other Boleyn Girl), who spent a month in South Africa interviewing those close to Mandela before taking on the project. ''I was very keen to show him as a man. I wanted to make it personal.'' —Sean Smith 18 of 60 Out of the Furnace (Dec. 6) Kerry Hayes Back in 2011, director Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart) promised Christian Bale that he wouldn't make this mystery thriller without him. Scheduling conflicts forced Bale to pull out, but the star couldn't get its story out of his mind: An ex-con (Bale) avenges his missing brother (Casey Affleck) by going after a crime boss (Woody Harrelson) in the steel town of Braddock, Pa. ''When I had a couple days off from filming The Dark Knight Rises, I would drive out to Braddock,'' says Bale. Luckily, his schedule cleared up, and Cooper reports that the actor's strong and quiet performance is his best yet. ''He's really masterful, but in a not-showy way.'' All the better to hear the Oscar buzz building around it. —Adam Markovitz 19 of 60 Inside Llewyn Davis (Dec. 6, limited; Dec. 20, wide) Alison Rosa ''There's no success like failure,'' sang Bob Dylan, and ''failure's no success at all.'' Dylan was the most iconic of the folk poets to come out of the cafés and cold-water flats of New York City's Greenwich Village in the 1960s, the milieu inhabited by the Coen brothers in their new film. His words are especially resonant for the misanthropic protagonist, a talented musician (Oscar Isaac) who nevertheless sees triumph, both personal and professional, slipping out of his grasp. ''Success and failure is on such a knife's edge, that's a lot of what this film is about,'' says Isaac, 33, who for years has been working steadily but not showily in films like Drive and Robin Hood. The Juilliard-trained actor is also a musician, a key factor in his casting. ''The universe aligned perfectly for me to get this part,'' he says. ''But that doesn't always happen, and it doesn't happen for Llewyn.'' —Keith Staskiewicz 20 of 60 The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Dec. 13) Warner Bros The second installment of Peter Jackson's adaptation of the 1937 J.R.R. Tolkien novel The Hobbit promises to be even more action-packed than the first. Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) and his band of dwarves meet up with some new Middle-earth faces, like the man-bear ''skin changer'' Beorn (Mikael Persbrandt), the heroic Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans), and the fierce elf warrior Tauriel, a character created specifically for the movie and played by Evangeline Lilly. And then there's Smaug, the arrogant dragon who greedily guards a hoard of gold that Bilbo and the dwarves are determined to reclaim. Benedict Cumberbatch was charged with (fire-)breathing life into the creature, employing the same motion-capture technology utilized to create Gollum. ''I was kind of a virgin to the whole [motion-capture] thing, but I absolutely f---ing loved it,'' Cumberbatch says. ''I was in all my gear with the dots on my face like an aboriginal warrior of the future. You really feel free to play. It was extraordinarily fun.'' Doesn't sound like there was much desolation at all. —Josh Rottenberg 21 of 60 Tyler Perry's A Madea Christmas (Dec. 13) KC Bailey Personalities, classes, and races clash as Madea (Tyler Perry) and her niece Eileen (Amen's Anna Maria Horsford) travel to the Southern town of Buck Tussel to spend Christmas with Eileen's daughter (Think Like a Man's Tika Sumpter), who has been hiding the fact that she married a white farmer (Eric Lively). Such secrecy doesn't sit well with the volatile Madea, particularly when she meets the hubby's unsophisticated parents (Kathy Najimy and Larry the Cable Guy). ''Madea is a real character in black families,'' says Horsford. ''She tells the truth regardless of whose feelings get hurt.'' Expect her to put the missile in mistletoe. —Lindsey Bahr 22 of 60 American Hustle (Dec. 18) Francois Duhamel American Hustle is inhabited by colorful and cunning con artists (Christian Bale and Amy Adams, playing partners and lovers), a somewhat unhinged FBI agent (Bradley Cooper), a volatile power broker (Jeremy Renner), and a loose-cannon housewife (Jennifer Lawrence). This fictionalized take on a real-life 1970s federal investigation into political corruption known as Abscam may not seem like an obvious follow-up to David O. Russell's 2012 hit Silver Linings Playbook. But as with that film and 2010's The Fighter, the director was drawn to exploring characters whose inner and outer worlds are both in turmoil. ''These characters, with their flaws, are the ones I fall in love with,'' he says. ''For me, it's always about the characters surviving. That's what it's been about the last two films, too — the struggle against your own flaws as well as everything around you. That's what everyone is doing in this picture. That's what everyone was doing in 1978.'' —Sara Vilkomerson 23 of 60 Her (Dec. 18, limited) Warner Bros In the near future, Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix), an introverted not-quite-divorced writer, buys a new computer operating system named Samantha (Scarlett Johansson) whose almost-human voice is so empathetic that he begins to fall in love with ''her.'' If you're already thinking of Siri jokes, get in line. Luckily, writer-director Spike Jonze is known for crafting films of emotional and tonal complexity. Her also features Amy Adams as Theodore's confidante and Rooney Mara as his neuroscientist ex. But the central challenge was for Phoenix to act out a love story with an invisible costar, for which Jonze tried several different techniques: Phoenix and Johansson shot some scenes together with Johansson off camera; Phoenix had an earpiece that played him Johansson's recorded lines; and Johansson recorded her lines over what Phoenix had already filmed. Still, Phoenix attributes their on-camera chemistry to something else. ''It's probably just luck,'' he says with a laugh. ''There are times when things just come together.'' Which isn't a bad tagline for the film. —Sean Smith 24 of 60 Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (Dec. 20) Paramount A full decade after the first Anchorman became one of the most beloved comedies of the past decade, and quite possibly the most quoted, Burgundy and his on-air team — blustery sportscaster Champ Kind (Koechner), imbecilic weatherman Brick Tamland (Carell), and ladies'-man field reporter Brian Fantana (Rudd) — are finally back in action. The sequel is set a few years after the original, in the late '70s and early '80s. It finds Burgundy — who has lost everything and been reduced to announcing the dolphin show at SeaWorld — getting a shot at redemption when he and the gang are brought into the new world of 24-hour cable news. Christina Applegate returns as pioneering female anchor Veronica Corningstone, whose stormy relationship with Burgundy has gone through some major ups and downs in the intervening years (no spoilers here). Kristen Wiig joins the cast as Brick's love interest, and a host of celebrities have reportedly shot cameos, including Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Kanye West, Jim Carrey, and Harrison Ford (as a seasoned, Walter Cronkite-esque newsman). ''We actually attempted to get President Obama in the movie — that would have been the cameo of cameos,'' Ferrell says. ''But he's got a lot on his plate.'' —Josh Rottenberg 25 of 60 Saving Mr. Banks (Dec. 20) Francois Duhamel Studios usually go to great pains to cover up the behind-the-scenes fighting that takes place during a troubled movie production. But half a century is apparently the statute of limitations, with Walt Disney Pictures telling its own big-screen version of the bruising battle to make its beloved 1964 musical Mary Poppins. Tom Hanks plays Disney himself, while Emma Thompson stars as the terse Australian-born novelist P.L. Travers, who sparred with him at every stage of the adaptation of her classic book. The film also features Bradley Whitford as screenwriter Don DaGradi, and B.J. Novak and Jason Schwartzman as ''Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious'' composer brothers Robert and Richard Sherman. ''What's so wonderful are the [frustrated] reactions of the guys who are writing and creating this film to the negativity and sheer beastliness of this fantastically recalcitrant woman, who wouldn't be having any of it,'' Thompson says. ''This juggernaut is being stopped in its tracks by one middle-aged woman in a good pair of shoes.'' And not a spoonful of sugar in sight. —Anthony Breznican 26 of 60 August: Osage County (Dec. 25) August: Osage County, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play by Tracy Letts, is about a family swirling in a dust storm of dysfunction. The matriarch, Violet Weston (Meryl Streep), staggers around a sprawling house in rural Oklahoma, smoking, suffering from mouth cancer, and popping Percocet like peppermints. When her husband (Sam Shepard) vanishes one day, her daughters and their families return to provide support. It doesn't quite play out that way. Violet's daughters — Barb (Julia Roberts), Ivy (Julianne Nicholson), and Karen (Juliette Lewis) — have all been damaged by their mother. And each becomes the target of Violet's verbal cruelty until, in one epic family-dinner battle, Barb seizes control and the drama spirals into bitter confrontations and heartbreaking revelations. ''This kind of material is like the acting Olympics,'' says Roberts. ''Tracy Letts has built this absolute house of cards where everything has to be placed perfectly. It's so perilous. And then to have Meryl Streep play your mother...these are things I've dreamt about for the past 25 years.'' —Sean Smith 27 of 60 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Dec. 25) For more than a decade, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty has been a twinkle in the eye of various screenwriters, filmmakers, and stars. Under Ben Stiller, pulling double duty as both lead actor and director, it's finally a reality. Inspired by the 1939 James Thurber short story (previously the basis for a 1947 Danny Kaye film), the movie follows a shy man (Stiller) who spices up his dull existence by imagining himself in fantastical, heroic situations. As photo editor for the final issue of Life magazine, Walter heads out on a real adventure to dangerous corners of the world seeking a missing shot by a famous photographer (Sean Penn). He is aided by his co-worker Cheryl (Kristen Wiig), who helps him rouse his courage. Thanks to his overactive imagination, Walter even summons a vision of Cheryl whenever he needs a nudge on his journey. Given the film's tricky blend of humor and pathos, of reality and fantasy, it's no wonder Hollywood had a hard time bringing the project to the screen. ''It's so hard to describe this movie because it's so many different things,'' Wiig says. But if you can imagine it, it's probably in there. —Anthony Breznican 28 of 60 Labor Day (Dec. 25, limited) Dale Robinette The guy who is bleeding from his side needs help. But he's not asking; he's telling. That's the setup for the drama Labor Day, starring Josh Brolin as an escaped convict who takes shelter with a mentally fragile, reclusive single mom (Kate Winslet) and her teenage son (Changeling's Gattlin Griffith) over the course of one long late-summer holiday weekend in New England. Whether they are helpers or hostages is a question even in their own minds. Brolin's Frank Chambers displays a tenderness toward the frightened mother and son, but the news reports describe him as dangerous — and he isn't exactly forthcoming about why he was in prison in the first place. Says director Jason Reitman, ''There is an undeniable bond, they're both scared, but they both seem to need each other.'' Or they might just be the worst thing in the world for each other. —Anthony Breznican 29 of 60 47 Ronin (Dec. 25) Universal Before he could play Kai — a half-Japanese, half-English tracker who joins a famed band of ronin warriors in 18th-century Japan — Keanu Reeves needed to get some hands-on time with a samurai sword. ''The katana is a two-handed sword, so the style and the basics were all new for me,'' Reeves explained on a soggy 2011 shooting day in a U.K. forest. ''For one thing, well, you really do need to hold on with both hands.'' 47 Ronin hits theaters one year after its planned release date and north of its $175 million budget. Under debut director Carl Rinsch, the production has endured reshoots, rejiggered F/X, and communication issues — Rinsch needed a translator to talk to his mostly Japanese cast. —Geoff Boucher 30 of 60 Grudge Match (Dec. 25) Greg Peters Yep, Robert De Niro and Sylvester Stallone play rival pugilists stepping back in the ring for one last fight. And yep, they starred in some other pretty famous boxing films. You don't have to remind director Peter Segal, who studied Raging Bull and the Rocky movies closely. ''I counted every punch in my [composition book],'' he says. (Rocky IV was the punchiest.) But Segal's sports comedy is more than a fantasy mash-up. ''It can be dismissed as a high-concept idea,'' he says, ''but there's a lot of heart.'' Enough for Warner Bros. to move the film from its original January 2014 release date to Christmas. —Darren Franich 31 of 60 The Invisible Woman (Dec. 25) David Appleby Ralph Fiennes hadn't read much Charles Dickens until he learned about Nelly Ternan, the author's secret young mistress and muse. But once Fiennes decided to direct a film about their illicit affair, he tore into the canon, paying special attention to the novels written after the 45-year-old married Dickens took up with the 18-year-old actress (Felicity Jones). ''I had fun trying to identify the Nelly elements in Our Mutual Friend,'' says Fiennes, who also plays the writer and amateur stage impresario. ''He was fastidiously obsessive about every element of production, and apparently he was a very good actor,'' he says. ''So I sort of felt that my double duty was a bit Dickens-like.'' —Jeff Labrecque 32 of 60 Philomena (Dec. 25, limited) Judi Dench hasn't scored an Oscar nom since 2006's Notes on a Scandal, but her fortunes could change with Philomena, a drama that sparked a bidding war at Cannes this year. Dench stars as a real-life Irishwoman who ventures to America with a journalist (Steve Coogan) to find the son she was coerced into giving up for adoption decades earlier. While shooting last winter in Northern Ireland, London, and Washington, D.C., Coogan helped the 78-year-old actress keep her mind off the cold. ''He's the most brilliant mimic — you shut your eyes and you can be in the car with Sean Connery,'' she recalls. ''Steve made me almost cry with laughter every day.'' —Stephan Lee 33 of 60 Lone Survivor (Dec. 27, limited) Greg Peters Zero Dark Thirty showcased the talents of the elite Navy SEALs at a moment of triumph, but not every mission has such a happy ending. In 2005 four SEALs were ambushed by Taliban forces in the Afghan mountains, a fubar situation that ultimately cost 19 American servicemen their lives. The one hero who made it home was Marcus Luttrell, whose best-selling 2007 account of the ordeal is the basis for the film. The training and physical demands of playing Luttrell were shocking, even to the ultrafit Mark Wahlberg. ''We wanted to make it as real as possible,'' says the actor. ''I didn't do anything [athletic] for two months afterwards because I was so beat up.'' —Jeff Labrecque 34 of 60 Riddick (opened Sept. 6) After the $100 million-plus The Chronicles of Riddick proved a box office disappointment in 2004, director David Twohy was happy to return to the low-budget roots of the franchise-starting Pitch Black. ''We weren't a studio movie,'' he explains. ''We didn't focus-group it to death.'' (The independently financed threequel is being distributed by Universal, which also oversees star Vin Diesel's ascendant Fast & Furious series.) In the hard-R Riddick, Diesel's titular galactic antihero with the night-vision eyes is once again marooned on a wasteland planet, fighting for his life against creatures that lurk in the dark. This time around, he's also facing off against a crew of bounty hunters, including Katee Sackhoff, returning to the space-badass milieu of Battlestar Galactica. For Diesel, reprising such a dark role was both a thrill and a challenge. ''Riddick is a very extreme person,'' he deadpans, explaining that he ''went to the woods for about four months and centered before playing this character. That antisocial demeanor is something I have to work with. I'm much more prone to being, 'I love you!''' Spoiler alert: There won't be many hugs in Riddick. —Darren Franich 35 of 60 Touchy Feely (opened Sept. 6) John Jeffcoat What's with the title of writer-director Lynn Shelton's new dramedy? Think literal. The Sundance Film Festival darling follows a pair of siblings who experience sudden, dramatic shifts in their senses of touch. While Abby (Rosemarie DeWitt), a massage therapist, develops an intense aversion to bodily contact, her emotionally stunted brother, Paul (Ray Donovan's Josh Pais), emerges with a seemingly healing power of touch that boosts his dental practice. ''It's about identity, that eternal question of who am I and how do I fit in the world,'' says Shelton. ''It's about becoming comfortable about living in one's own skin.'' And, we suppose, who's touching it. —Sara Vilkomerson 36 of 60 The Family (opened Sept. 13) Relativity Media A mafioso-turned-snitch now going by the name Fred Blake (Robert De Niro) settles himself and his family in a sleepy, insular French village under witness protection. What could go wrong? The story is based on Tonino Benacquista's comedic action novel Malavita, whose English translation bears the title Badfellas. Already there's something inherently amusing about the casting of De Niro. Michelle Pfeiffer, who knows her way around a Mob movie herself, plays De Niro's hot-tempered wife, Maggie, and Tommy Lee Jones is the federal agent desperate for the family to lie low before the Mob catches wind of them. For De Niro, the biggest draw was getting to work with his longtime friend, French director Luc Besson, who also wrote the script. (Fun fact: The actor's favorite Besson movie is The Professional.) ''The script made me laugh,'' says De Niro. ''There's a certain irony to Luc's approach, which I liked. I knew that whatever we would do together would be fun.'' —Karen Valby 37 of 60 Insidious: Chapter 2 (opened Sept. 13) Still having nightmares from director James Wan's 2010 ghost story Insidious, starring Patrick Wilson? Or from this summer's Wan-directed ghost story The Conjuring, also starring Patrick Wilson? Then we have bad news for your subconscious. Insidious: Chapter 2 picks up after the last film's cliffhanger climax, which revealed that Wilson's family-man character had become possessed by an evil spirit. ''The fact that it's not a new family is really cool,'' says Wilson. ''We're all back!'' That ''all'' includes Lin Shaye — despite the fact that her psychic investigator was killed at the end of the first movie. Sweet dreams! —Clark Collis 38 of 60 Enough Said (opened Sept. 18) LACEY TERRELL In Enough Said, Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays a masseuse named Eve who could use a spa treatment herself. A divorced single mom, she's dreading the day her daughter leaves for college. No sooner does she meet Marianne (Catherine Keener), a divorcée who's strong and independent and fabulous, than she unknowingly falls for Marianne's much reviled ex-husband, played by James Gandolfini in his first romantic comedy (and one of his final roles before his tragic death in June at age 51). Louis-Dreyfus leaped at the chance to perform opposite the Sopranos star. As director Nicole Holofcener remembers, ''When I brought up the idea of Jim, Julia was like, 'Hell, yeah! He's sexy.''' It's no surprise that the actors approached their roles completely differently. ''James was much more cerebral about scenes and would really want to talk more about where his character was,'' says Holofcener, while Louis-Dreyfus had a more intuitive take on the humor. The director recalls one moment on set when she and Louis-Dreyfus simply couldn't control their laughter. ''We're doubled over, and Jim is standing there like, 'Oh my God. I think I signed up to be in a chick flick.''' —Grady Smith 39 of 60 Prisoners (opened Sept. 20) Warner Bros Prisoners — the story of a detective (Jake Gyllenhaal) searching for two missing young girls and the desperate, anguished father (Hugh Jackman) who decides to take the law into his own hands — gives the vigilante-thriller genre a subtler, more dramatic treatment than audiences have come to expect. ''It's about the psychological and emotional journey as well as the whodunit part,'' Gyllenhaal says. ''What's different about this story is the idea that revenge just begets more revenge and you become a prisoner of that need to seek revenge. It's still a vigilante story, but all of those other things coexist in it — which I think attracts a certain type of talent,'' including four Oscar nominees (Jackman, Gyllenhaal, Terrence Howard, and Viola Davis) and one Oscar winner (Melissa Leo). ''The privilege of working with these other actors was wonderful,'' Gyllenhaal says. French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve — who himself earned a Best Foreign Language Film nod for his 2011 drama Incendies — believes the high-watt names were attracted because ''Every part has a lot of meat on the bone, and actors are hungry to find that kind of story.'' —Josh Rottenberg 40 of 60 Thanks for Sharing (opened Sept. 20) Anne Joyce Sex addiction is no joke. But when screenwriter Stuart Blumberg (The Kids Are All Right) sat in on 12-step meetings for sex addicts to research his directorial debut, he learned to embrace the crazy. ''People would say, 'If you're doing a movie, you've got to make sure that it's funny,''' says Blumberg. ''Their stories are heartbreaking, but sometimes they make you laugh until you cry.'' In his film, a doctor (Josh Gad) hits rock bottom after trying to slip a camera up his boss' dress. Meanwhile, a five-years-clean addict (Mark Ruffalo) struggles with his inner beast when he meets the perfect woman (Gwyneth Paltrow). Their romantic chemistry would make Iron Man jealous. —Jeff Labrecque 41 of 60 Parkland (opened Sept. 20) Exclusive Releasing Parkland, which takes its name from the Dallas hospital where John F. Kennedy died 50 years ago this November, stands apart from the conspiracy-minded films about the assassination in the Oliver Stone vein. Journalist-turned-filmmaker Peter Landesman builds a drama around the ordinary people — including doctors, nurses, federal agents, and even hobbyist cameraman Abraham Zapruder (Paul Giamatti) — who stepped up in the crucial hours and days after the slaying. ''Somehow the intensity of the shooting schedule, the close quarters, and the missionized crew created a kind of crucible,'' says Landesman of his directorial debut. ''The moviemaking experience was very much like surviving that weekend.'' —Stephan Lee 42 of 60 Rush (opened Sept. 27) Rush focuses on the 1976 Formula One season and the intense rivalry between two extremely different drivers: the dour Austrian Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl) and the extroverted, pot-smoking Brit James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth). While Thor star Hemsworth lost 30 pounds for the role, Brühl had his own travails — most involved re-creating the extensive facial burns that Lauda sustained in a horrific crash two-thirds of the way through that fateful 1976 season. Howard isn't daunted by the fact that Formula One is much less popular in NASCAR-loving America than in other parts of the world. Indeed, Frost/Nixon writer Peter Morgan's script will be more suspenseful to audiences unfamiliar with the outcome of events. And regardless of how Rush performs at the box office, Howard is happy to have surprised longtime business partner Brian Grazer with one aspect of his film. ''Halfway through the movie, Brian called me,'' says Howard. ''He said, 'I never thought you would make a movie that was this sexy. These girls are rockin'.''' —Clark Collis 43 of 60 Don Jon (opened Sept. 27) Daniel McFadden The tough-talking New Jersey guy at the center of this twisted take on modern romance sleeps around a lot, but his heart truly belongs to only one person — himself. In his feature debut as a writer and director, Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as the title character, a bodybuilding, churchgoing, neat-freak lothario who can't find anything in real life that turns him on as much as the triple-X thrill of his favorite porn stars. ''I don't think he actually has great sex,'' says Gordon-Levitt. ''He has sex all the time, and just wants it. He's kind of selfish. He's not somebody who genuinely connects with a lover.'' Scarlett Johansson costars as the feisty, gum-snapping dream girl who wants to mold him into the perfect husband and (potential) father, but her expectations are skewed by the Hollywood rom-coms she adores. Meanwhile, Jon's parents (Glenne Headly and Tony Danza) and a mysterious older woman from night college (Julianne Moore) try to coax his own expectations out of the realm of fantasyland. —Anthony Breznican 44 of 60 Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 (opened Sept. 27) Sony Pictures Animation At the end of 2009's Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, hapless inventor Flint Lockwood (voiced by Bill Hader) thought he had dismantled his food-storm-producing device after it destroyed his hometown of Swallow Falls. But in this CG-animated sequel, Flint is called back in to finish the job. Instead of creating tornadoes of spaghetti and meatballs, his most famous invention is still active and spewing food-animal hybrids such as shrimpanzees, tacodiles, and cheespiders. ''The first one was Armageddon,'' explains Hader, who is joined by vocal costars like Anna Faris and Terry Crews. ''And this one is Jurassic Park.'' —Jacqueline Andriakos 45 of 60 Baggage Claim (opened Sept. 27) Tony Rivetti Jr. With her younger sister's wedding in just 30 days, singleton flight attendant Montana Moore (Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol's Paula Patton) decides that she must at least get engaged by the big day. So Montana uses her airline connections to try to respark a love connection with one of her frequent-flier ex-boyfriends, who include a congressional hopeful (Taye Diggs), a music producer (Trey Songz), and a real estate mogul (Djimon Hounsou). Writer-director David E. Talbert, who adapted the script from his own 2003 novel, says he aims to re-create the magic of Nora Ephron's classic rom-coms, where the heroine ''could be beautiful but whimsical and a little clumsy.'' —Lindsey Bahr 46 of 60 Metallica Through The Never (opened Oct. 4) Carole Segal Metallica didn't want to do yet another boring concert film. ''I don't think anybody needed another version of a band on tour getting out of a limo and folding a piece of salami on a cracker,'' says drummer Lars Ulrich. Enter director and longtime Metallica fan Nimród Antal (Predators), who dreamed up an action-heavy narrative that sends a roadie (Chronicle's Dane DeHaan) on a series of nighttime misadventures while the band shreds through its back catalog in 3-D close-ups. ''The cameras are right up your ass the whole time, and you're sweating, spitting, and bleeding on them,'' says Ulrich. ''That lends an intimacy to the show.'' —Kyle Anderson 47 of 60 Gravity (opened Oct. 4) To film the story of an astronaut (Sandra Bullock) stranded in space after losing sight of her ship and co-pilot (George Clooney) during a deadly run-in with space debris, director Alfonso Cuarón invented his own state-of-the-art system for simulating zero gravity: He shot his actors with a computer-controlled camera inside a nine-foot-tall cube of LED screens that projected shifting lights on their faces. Since 85 percent of the film's shots involved CGI and were mapped out in ''previz'' (industry slang for a computer-animated blueprint), the actors had to match their movements precisely to Cuarón's preplanned vision — all while suspended in mechanical rigs that created the illusion of weightless floating. ''It was 'You have 17 seconds to execute [this movement],''' recalls Bullock. '''Your left hand has to start here, your right hand has to end up here, and you have to move at 30 percent as though you're in zero g. And your inner emotional life has to be completely organic.' And you're like [deep breath], 'Okay.''' —Adam Markovitz 48 of 60 Runner Runner (opened Oct. 4) 20th Century Fox In 1998, the Miramax hold-'em flick Rounders helped spur interest in professional poker. Fifteen years later, the writers of that film, Brian Koppelman and David Levien, are anteing up on another thriller revolving around the game. Justin Timberlake stars as a Princeton grad student who flies to Costa Rica to investigate his online poker losses and ends up in the middle of a cat-and-mouse game with an empire-building con man (Ben Affleck). ''We always say to ourselves, 'Okay, we're not going to write another gambling picture!''' says Koppelman, who with Levien also penned Las Vegas-set stories like Ocean's Thirteen and the TV show Tilt. ''And then almost inevitably one of us comes into the office and says, 'Hey, I got this great idea!' and we're off again.'' —Keith Staskiewicz 49 of 60 Captain Phillips (opened Oct. 11) It was like something out of a movie. That's what people all around the world were saying in April 2009 when a small band of Somali raiders hijacked the Maersk Alabama cargo ship in the Indian Ocean and held its crew for ransom, triggering a deadly standoff with U.S. Navy warships. Pirates hadn't captured an American vessel since the early 1800s, and the outcome hinged on the actions and decisions of a single blue-collar Everyman, a veteran merchant mariner named Capt. Richard Phillips. One of those people who thought it sounded like a Hollywood film happened to be Tom Hanks, so?now it is one. When Hanks signed on to star, the two-time Oscar winner also helped recruit director Paul Greengrass, who'd previously made a film about a true-life hijacking with the 9/11 movie United 93. Greengrass held an open call in Minnesota and Ohio to cast the hijackers, and the four leads went to Somali immigrants who had never acted professionally before: Barkhad Abdi, Faysal Ahmed, Barkhad AbdiRahman, and Mahat M. Ali. ''They bring a humanity to it,'' Greengrass says. ''You understand how desperate they are, without for a second being under any illusions about how dangerous they are.'' —Anthony Breznican 50 of 60 Machete Kills (opened Oct. 11) Rico Torres In a sequel to 2010's cult hit Machete, Danny Trejo's titular action hero must deal with a missile pointed at Washington, D.C., and a Bond-esque villain played by Mel Gibson. The film's starry cast also includes (deep breath) Michelle Rodriguez, Sofia Vergara, Amber Heard, Charlie Sheen (credited under his given name, Carlos Estévez), Antonio Banderas, Jessica Alba, Vanessa Hudgens, Cuba Gooding Jr., The Bridge's Demián Bichir, and Lady Gaga as a hitwoman called La Chameléon. Rodriguez compares Machete Kills to The Empire Strikes Back, hinting that the film's conclusion sets up a third entry in the saga, Machete Kills Again, which, like Machete Kills, was promised at the end of the last installment. ''It really does leave you with the feeling that you want to see some completion, that there's still work to be done,'' he says. Bring on the molten carbonite! —Clark Collis 51 of 60 Romeo and Juliet (opened Oct. 11) After wrangling an Oscar nomination for her feature-film debut in 2010's True Grit, Hailee Steinfeld took on the female lead in this retelling of Shakespeare's famed romance, which was shot in Italy and adapted for the big screen by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes. The starlet had a head start in prepping to play the object of Romeo's (Douglas Booth) forbidden affection. ''I actually was reading the book in school at the time that I read the script,'' says Steinfeld, 16, who will soon begin her junior year (in homeschooling). ''It was so convenient. I was able to ace every test?and understand the part.'' —Grady Smith 52 of 60 Kill Your Darlings (opened Oct. 16) Kill Your Darlings depicts the coming of age of poet Allen Ginsberg (Daniel Radcliffe) in 1940s New York City, including his tentative exploration of his homosexuality and his first encounters with fellow Beat icons William Burroughs (Ben Foster) and Jack Kerouac (Jack Huston). But the focus is on a real-life crime usually relegated to the footnotes of the authors' biographies: the 1944 murder of David Kammerer (Michael C. Hall) by Ginsberg associate Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan). ''It's a story that not many people know but everybody should,'' says DeHaan, who describes the 24-day, no-frills, trailer-free shoot last year as ''having something very Beat poet about it.'' —Sara Vilkomerson 53 of 60 Carrie (opened Oct. 18) Michael Gibson When Sissy Spacek starred as Carrie White, the tormented high schooler who goes psycho(-kinetic) at prom, she was already pushing 30. In the upcoming remake from Boys Don't Cry director Kimberly Peirce, Carrie is played by 16-year-old Chloë Grace Moretz, an actress much closer to the character's putative age. ''Sissy was 26,'' says Peirce. ''But I believe Chloë's youth is what makes this story that much better. She often plays these precocious characters, but in reality she is childlike, which works for Carrie.'' And as we've seen in Let Me In and Kick-Ass, she knows how to play a girl you don't want to mess with. —Keith Staskiewicz 54 of 60 Escape Plan (opened Oct. 18) Alan Markfield Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone shared the screen in two Expendables flicks, but here they both take lead roles. Stallone plays a prison expert who's locked up in a high-tech facility of his own design; Schwarzenegger is a mysterious fellow inmate. The escape plan somehow involves a confrontation between the action icons (and sometime Planet Hollywood investors). ''It felt really important to have a fight,'' director Mikael Håfström says. ''We grew up with these guys. You can't make a film with Arnold and Sly and not give them that kind of moment.'' To translate so your 12-year-old self will understand: This is the movie where Rambo punches the Terminator. —Darren Franich 55 of 60 The Fifth Estate (opened Oct. 18) Frank Connor WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has reportedly dubbed this unauthorized biopic about his rise to notoriety ''a massive propaganda attack.'' (The movie's title is a play on ''the fourth estate,'' a nickname for the media.) But director Bill Condon, who says Assange refused all attempts to collaborate on the film, disagrees vehemently. ''This is not remotely an attack on him,'' he says. ''In its own strange, dark, journalistic-thriller kind of way, this is a buddy movie.'' The buddies in question are Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch, an online phenom in his own right thanks to a fan army who call themselves the Cumberbitches) and Assange's onetime partner and friend Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Daniel Brühl), whose bitter split with Assange inspired a 2011 memoir on which the film is partially based. Cumberbatch, who wore contacts, false teeth, and an array of white wigs to play Assange, was drawn to the role's complexity. ''He's an amazing, extraordinary, enigmatic figure of our modern times,'' says the actor. —Adam Markovitz 56 of 60 12 Years a Slave (opened Oct. 18) Francois Duhamel In 1841 a free black man from Saratoga Springs, N.Y., named Solomon Northup was kidnapped and sold to a sadistic slave owner in the Deep South. As Northup in Shame director Steve McQueen's wrenching new movie, Chiwetel Ejiofor (American Gangster) got a small but intense taste of what his real-life character endured. He racked up injuries while picking cotton, cutting sugarcane, and chopping timber — all in brutal 108-degree Louisiana heat. But on the weekends, the actor let loose, even with Michael Fassbender, who plays one of his tormentors. ''New Orleans is a good place to get out of character,'' says Ejiofor with a laugh. ''Just race around the city and paint the town red.'' —Stephan Lee 57 of 60 All Is Lost (opened Oct. 18) Daniel Daza When writer-director J.C. Chandor (Margin Call) pitched his ''existential action movie'' about an old man all alone aboard his sinking sailboat in the Indian Ocean, execs flinched at the brief 30-page script, which featured hardly any dialogue. Where were the flashbacks? Where was the volleyball companion? Instead, Chandor bet on his 76-year-old star, Robert Redford, to silently carry every frame. ''I needed an actor who had a very deep relationship with an audience to be able to pull that off,'' says Chandor. ''I certainly was aware that I was asking him, as a person, to be going on a similar journey that the character was.'' Shooting at sea and in giant water tanks, Redford threw himself into the stunts and endured extreme conditions. By the film's climax, everything golden about his celebrity seems to be stripped away. ''As a performer, he just gave of himself in a way that I'm not sure he ever had fully,'' says Chandor. The film, which premiered at the Cannes film festival in May, is already generating buzz that Redford could win his first acting Oscar. —Jeff Labrecque 58 of 60 The Counselor (opened Oct. 25) Kerry Brown After they worked together on last summer's sci-fi epic Prometheus, Ridley Scott sent Michael Fassbender the script for The Counselor, by acclaimed novelist Cormac McCarthy. ''I read it and immediately called Ridley and told him I was in,'' says the actor, who plays a lawyer drawn into a drug-running operation with some very shady individuals. ''He's the passenger,'' says Fassbender. ''He's our ticket into this world, and we're introduced to all the various characters through him, from his fiancée right down to the ne'er-do-wells.'' Javier Bardem plays one of those ne'er-do-wells, a member of the criminal demimonde that includes Brad Pitt and Cameron Diaz. Bardem won an Oscar playing the moptopped killing machine Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men, based on another McCarthy yarn. His character in The Counselor is a little less imposing, though he boasts an equally wacky hairdo. ''There's a tackiness to him,'' says Fassbender. ''And he's got a bit of a crazy look, but that doesn't mean he's harmless.'' —Keith Staskiewicz 59 of 60 Blue Is the Warmest Color (opened Oct. 25) IFC This sprawling, nearly three-hour look at the romantic relationship between two young Frenchwomen (Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos) was all the rage at Cannes this year, where it won the Palme d'Or amid love-it-or-hate-it chatter about its explicit sex scenes. Breaking with tradition, the prize was given to the actresses as well as to the director, which Seydoux says was only fair: ''The shoot was a nightmare. We shot almost six months, and we never knew what we were doing the next day. So it was a kind of justice that we got the Palme, in a way.'' —Adam Markovitz 60 of 60 Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (opened Oct. 25) For the latest entry in the Jackass franchise, Johnny Knoxville wears old-age makeup to play the crass 86-year-old Irving Zisman, while 9-year-old Jackson Nicoll (Fun Size) gamely follows along as his grandson. But the real stars, says Knoxville, are ''a whole cast of people who have no idea they're starring in a movie with us.'' Knoxville and Nicoll set out on a road trip across America, making pit stops to prank unsuspecting marks in Borat-like fashion. ''One day, I had five people help me bury what they thought was a dead body,'' says Knoxville. So when you see the movie, cross your fingers that you're not in it. —Ray Rahman