Drama

Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) knows little about family. Less about football. What the homeless teen knows are the streets and projects of Memphis. Well-to-do Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) knows little about his world. Yet when she and Michael meet, he's found a home. And the Tuohys have found something just as life-changing: a beloved new son and brother. This real-life story of family and of Michael's growth into a blue-chip football star will have you cheering with its mix of gridiron action and heartwarming emotion.

Based on the book by Marshall Frady, this epic bio by John Frankenheimer stars Gary Sinise as one of the century's best candidates for true Aristotelian tragic status. The Aristotelian tragic protagonist is not an entirely bad man, but he has a fatal flaw. Wallace's flaw was not (originally) racism. It was lust for power and status, a lust so all-consuming that it turned Wallace into a fellow traveler with racists, and made of him one of the most destructive and most hated American politicians of his time.

In the early-1990s, Greg Kinnear was just another amiable talk show host. After As Good As It Gets, however, Kinnear confirmed he could act. If Flash of Genius isn't as harrowing as the Bob Crane biopic Auto-Focus, Kinnear digs just as deep to play a man possessed, in this case taking on Bob Kearns, a Detroit physics professor who invented the intermittent windshield wiper. Supported by his wife (Lauren Graham) and best friend (Dermot Mulroney, making the most of an underwritten part), Kearns aims to align himself with a Motor City auto maker to manufacture his device.

Built around a brilliant idea, Derrick Borte's debut plays like The Truman Show in reverse. Whereas Jim Carrey's Truman had no idea his life provided fodder for a TV show, the upper-crust enclave that welcomes the Joneses has no idea they're a marketing unit in disguise. One day, Steve (David Duchovny, more Californication than The X-Files) and Kate (Demi Moore, whose businesslike demeanor serves the premise well) arrive with teenagers Jenn (Amber Heard) and Mick (Ben Hollingsworth) and a moving van full of luxury goods.

They all laughed at college nerd Mark Zuckerberg, whose idea for a social-networking site made him a billionaire. And they all laughed at the idea of a Facebook movie--except writer Aaron Sorkin and director David Fincher, merely two of the more extravagantly talented filmmakers around. Sorkin and Fincher's breathless picture, The Social Network, is a fast and witty creation myth about how Facebook grew from Zuckerberg's insecure geek-at-Harvard days into a phenomenon with 500 million users.

This adaptation of E.M. Forster's mysterious tale of British racism in colonial India turned out to be master director David Lean's final film. Subtle and grand at the same time, Lean's adaptation is faithful to the book, rendering its blend of the mystical and the all-too human with exquisite precision. Judy Davis plays a young British woman traveling in India with her fiancé's mother. While visiting a tourist attraction, she has a frightening moment in a cave--one that she eventually spins from an instant of mental meltdown into a tale of a physical attack that ruins several lives.

Ewan McGregor brings a dynamic screen presence to this riveting motion picture about how greed, excess and high-stakes gambling brought down one of Britain's oldest and most successful financial institutions! When he is sent to Singapore by the 200-year-old Barings Bank, futures trader Nick Leeson (McGregor) dreams of making a killing in the stock market. But even though his firm believes Nick is the most successful trader they've ever employed, he secretly begins to steal vast amounts of their own money to cover his risky financial wagering!

The most surreal aspect of this adaptation of Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe is how faithful Surrealist director Luis Bunuel is to the original book! Which is not to say it's sluggish or literary — Bunuel recreates the story with lush scenery and vivid images, as if he himself were discovering the tropical island along with the Englishman shipwrecked in 1659. Crusoe (Daniel O'Herlihy, later to appear in RoboCop) spends 28 years building a home and struggling to maintain his sanity; only a friendship formed with a former cannibal whom he dubs Friday (Jaime Fernandez) breaks his isolation.

A man is known by the company he keeps. Lawrence "Larry the Liquidator" Garfield is known for the companies he gets rid of. Danny DeVito hilariously deals, connives, wheedles and cajoles as Wall Street buccaneer Larry in this high-yield comedy directed by Norman Jewison (Moonstruck) and based on the hit off-Broadway play. Larry's never met a debt-free corporation he didn't want to devour but he may think twice about New England Wire & Cable. Its ramrod like patriarch (Gregory Peck) has been a fighter all his long life.

Habana Blues tells the story of Ruy and Tito, two young Cubans who share a similar dream: to become music stars. Their families and the same circle of friends keep them grounded and motivated. But their lives will be transformed by an international offer to record an album and perform abroad, causing dilemmas and affecting relations with their loved ones. Against a backdrop where humor and universal sentiments intertwine, Habana Blues is a beautiful metaphor about dignity, friendship and love.