Focus on Film

The Informant! Is agro-businessman Matt Damon a whistleblower, an opportunist, or an eccentric? In this off-center comedy from director Steven Soderbergh, the guy poised to blow the lid off a price-fixing scheme may be in his own ethical fix, frustrating an FBI investigation. With Scott Bakula and Melanie Lynskey. (Friday)

   - Carrie Rickey

Jennifer's Body Megan Fox is the high school hottie inhabited by a demon, munching on male classmates as if they were potato chips. Amanda Seyfried as her friend hellbent on ending the carnival of carnage. This supernatural thriller is a girl-fight directed by Girlfight helmer Karyn Kusama from a script by Juno's Diablo Cody. (Friday)

   - C.R.

Law Abiding Citizen Shot in Philly with Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx tearing around City Hall and environs, this white-knuckle psycho-thriller tracks a vengeance-bent vigilante who orchestrates a killing spree from behind bars. (Oct. 16)

   - Steven Rea

Where the Wild Things Are Maurice Sendak's beloved and tantalizingly scary children's book comes to the big screen (and bigger screens, too, on Imax) by way of Being John Malkovich director Spike Jonze and novelist/screenwriter Dave Eggers. The trailers suggest tremendous, stupendous things. Wild Things, we think we love you. (Oct. 16)

   - S.R.

Amelia Hilary Swank as aviatrix Amelia Earhart, the distaff Charles Lindbergh and first female pilot to cross the Atlantic. Mira Nair's high-flying biopic costars Richard Gere as her publishing-magnate spouse and Ewan McGregor as her lover during the run-up to Earhart's 1937 round-the-world solo flight. (Oct. 23)

   - C.R.

Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire Lee Daniels' urban spin on Cinderella centers on an obese teenage mother emotionally and sexually abused by her parents. Determined to be a different kind of person and parent than her folks, Precious (the extraordinary Gabourey Sidibe) develops her inner resources with the help of a supportive teacher (Paula Patton). Based, yes, on the novel by Sapphire. (Nov. 13)

   - C.R.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon Kristen Stewart returns as moody high schooler Bella Swan in the second Twilight installment, adapted from the bestselling Stephenie Meyer book. Robert Pattinson is pallid Edward, the vampire hunky boy, and all sorts of raging hormonal angst is happening - along with a pack of werewolves, too. Last chance to see Rachelle Lefevre as the villainous Victoria - she's being replaced by Bryce Dallas Howard in Twilight 3. (Nov. 20)

   - S.R.

Nine Renowned director Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis) shoots his ninth film as he juggles wife (Marion Cotillard), mistress (Penélope Cruz), and mother (Sophia Loren), muses and abusers. Creatively blocked but sexually inspired, Guido's artistic and real lives collide. Fergie, Nicole Kidman, and Kate Hudson costar in Rob Marshall's adaptation of the Broadway musical based on Federico Fellini's 81/2. (Nov. 25)

   - C.R.

Invictus Morgan Freeman is Nelson Mandela, South African political prisoner-become-president, in Clint Eastwood's film chronicling how the anti-apartheid figure seized sports as a means of uniting his racially divided nation. Set against the backdrop of the 1995 Rugby World Cup, the film costars Matt Damon as rugby star Francois Pienaar. (Dec. 11)

   - C.R.

The Princess and the Frog Disney's 49th animated feature marks a return to traditional 2-D, non-CG cartooning, bringing the homo sapien-meets-amphibian fairy tale to the French Quarter of New Orleans, circa the 1920s, and featuring a heroine - and other key characters - of African American heritage. With songs and score by Randy Newman, and the voice talents of Keith David, Jenifer Lewis, Terrence Howard, Oprah Winfrey, and Anika Noni Rose in the title role. (Well, actually she's a waitress, but The Waitress and the Frog doesn't have quite the same charm.) (Dec. 11)

   - S.R.

Avatar Is James Cameron's super 3-D event going to change the film business forever, and change the way audiences look at movies, or are the hype and anticipation for this long-in-the-making alien-world adventure too much to bear? Don't underestimate the man who made Titanic. It looks trippy. (Dec. 18)

   - S.R.

It's Complicated Nancy Meyers' double-variable comedy stars Meryl Streep as an amicably divorced restaurateur dating architect Steve Martin. When her ex, Alec Baldwin, by now remarried to younger woman Lake Bell, rekindles their amour, the algebra of x and y factors overlaps with the geometry of the love triangle. (Dec. 25)

   - C.R.
The Lovely Bones Peter Jackson shifts from Middle Earth to Montgomery County, Pa., with this drama based on Alice Sebold's novel about a young girl who is murdered - and who watches from Heaven to see how her mom and dad cope. Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz are the bereaved parents, and Atonement's Oscar-nominated Saoirse Ronan is the girl. She's also keeping a watchful eye from above on her killer. (Dec. 25)

   - S.R.

Sherlock Holmes Robert Downey Jr. bulks up, and Brits up, to play Arthur Conan Doyle's legendary consulting detective in this Sherlock-on-steroids reimagining from director Guy Ritchie. With Jude Law as Dr. Watson, Rachel McAdams as Irene Adler, and lots of rumors about who, if anyone, is Moriarty. (Dec. 25)

   - S.R.