Hitchcock

Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Scarlett Johansson
Director: Sacha Gervasi
The Scoop: Documentary director Gervasi ("Anvil: The Story of Anvil") picked a pretty daunting subject for his first effort at directing fiction: Legendary director and Hollywood icon Alfred Hitchcock. Hey, no pressure. Hopkins stars as Hitchcock, while Mirren plays his wife in a romance set during the filming of "Psycho." Should be interesting.
Rated PG-13, limited | Watch the trailer 

Rust and Bone

Starring: Marion Cotillard, Matthias Schoenaerts, Amand Verdure
Director: Jacques Audiard
The Scoop: "Rust and Bone" (or "De rouille et d'os" as it's called in France) stars Cotillard as a whale trainer in a "Sea World"-like amusement park who suffers a horrible whale-related injury that leaves her without legs. Schoenarts, meanwhile, is the bare-knuckle boxer who forms an unlikely relationship with her. A controversial and acclaimed festival favorite.
Rated R, 122 min., limited | Watch the trailer 

The Central Park Five

Starring: Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Kharey Wise
Director: Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, David McMahon
The Scoop: Acclaimed documentarian Burns teams up with his daughter and son-in-law for an in-depth look at one of New York City's darkest hours, the 1989 assault of a jogger in Central Park. Five young minority boys were accused and convicted of the crime, spending years in prison before a serial rapist confessed to being the actual perp. "The Central Park Five" looks at how and why this miscarriage of justice took place.
Unrated, 119 min., limited | Watch the trailer 

Rise of the Guardians

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Alec Baldwin, Isla Fisher, Chris Pine, Jude Law
Director: Peter Ramsey
The Scoop: Featuring the vocal talents of Jackman, Baldwin and Fisher among others, "Rise of the Guardians" is an animated feature that re-imagines fairy tale characters as global superheroes. So if you ever wondered what "The Avengers" would look like if it had Santa instead of Hulk, now you'll know.
Rated PG, 97 min. | Watch the trailer 

Life of Pi

Starring: Suraj Sharma, Tobey Maguire, Irrfan, Tabu
Director: Ang Lee
The Scoop: Based on the bestselling 2001 novel by author Yann Martel, "Life of Pi" stars newcomer Sharma as a kid named Pi whose family decides to move their zoo to a new continent. Along the way, though, their ship sinks and Pi finds himself adrift in a raft with a menagerie of wild animals. Oscar winner Lee ("Brokeback Mountain") directs.
Rated PG, 125 min. | Watch the trailer 

Red Dawn

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Adrianne Palicki, Josh Hutcherson, Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Director: Dan Bradley
The Scoop: This remake of the 1984 Cold War thriller replaces the old communist menace of the USSR with the new communist menace of Red China. Pretty much everything else remains the same: Hemsworth leads a group of young folk who set up their own resistance band in the occupied heartland of America. Morgan plays the downed Air Force pilot who helps them fight their way to freedom.
Rated PG-13, 93 min. | Watch the trailer 

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner
Director: Bill Condon
The Scoop: Five years of fan frenzy all boils down to this: The final installment of Stephenie Meyer's beloved (and equally mocked) romantic vampire saga. Of course, by this time you're either in or out, so there's not much point in going into details about the story. If you liked the earlier films, this is basically the event of the year; if not, chances are you wouldn't see the movie for a million bucks. For good or ill, though, this is the end of an era.
Rated PG-13, 116 min. | Watch the trailer 

Silver Linings Playbook

Starring: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro
Director: David O. Russell
The Scoop: Winner of the top prize at this year's Toronto International Film Festival, "Silver Linings Playbook" features Cooper and "Hunger Games" breakout star Lawrence as two troubled individuals who form an unlikely relationship. De Niro delivers one of his least phoned-in performances in years in this awards season favorite.
Rated R, 122 min. | Watch the trailer 

Anna Karenina

Starring: Keira Knightley, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jude Law
Director: Joe Wright
The Scoop: One of the most acclaimed and buzzed about films on the festival circuit this year, Wright's adaptation of the classic Leo Tolstoy novel "Anna Karenina" is a departure from the norm, with nearly the entire film taking place in a single location. Knightley has earned praise for her take on the iconic titular character and could be in line for her second Oscar nomination.
Rated R, 130 min., limited | Watch the trailer 

Lincoln

Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Sally Field
Director: Steven Spielberg
The Scoop: Take a second look at those names above and you'll see why "Lincoln" is one of the most hotly anticipated dramas in years. And it's not just the fact that Spielberg is working with some of the greatest actors alive; he's also taking on arguably the most iconic and revered figure in American history, Abraham Lincoln. A must see.
Rated PG-13, 150 min. | Watch the trailer 

Nature Calls

Starring: Patton Oswalt, Rob Riggle, Johnny Knoxville
Director: Todd Rohal
The Scoop: Oswalt, Riggle and Knoxville all have something in common (besides the fact that they're all in this film together): They're all known for pushing the comedy envelope. So chances are that "Nature Calls," which tells the story of two feuding brothers (Oswalt and Riggle) who lead a disastrous sleepover for their kids, will contain at least a handful of jokes designed to offend everyone alive. We wouldn't want it any other way.
Rated R, 80 min., limited | Watch the trailer 

Skyfall

Starring: Daniel Craig, Ralph Fiennes, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench
Director: Sam Mendes
The Scoop: Craig finally returns for his third go-round as British secret agent James Bond after a long delay caused by studio financial woes. Well, whatever; it's just good to get 007 back. This time around, the stakes get more personal, as ghosts from the past return to haunt Bond's mentor M (Dench). Oscar winning director Mendes is behind the camera as well. Should be awesome.
Rated PG-13, 143 min. | Watch the trailer 

Wreck-It Ralph

Starring: John C. Reilly, Jane Lynch, Jack McBrayer
Director: Rich Moore
The Scoop: The premise behind this winning animated feature is simple but cool. Wreck-It Ralph (voiced by Reilly) is an 8-bit video game bad guy who gets tired of going through the same levels over and over again, year after year. So he abandons his game in search of a new, more fulfilling home – a search that takes him through dozens of classic video game universes. A must-see for gamers.
Rated PG, 108 min. | Watch the trailer 

Flight

Starring: Denzel Washington, John Goodman, Don Cheadle, Melissa Leo
Director: Robert Zemeckis
The Scoop: Zemeckis has spent the last few years doodling around with CGI animation (see: "Beowulf," "The Polar Express") but now the "Cast Away" and "Back to the Future" director is back in live action for a drama very loosely (and obviously) based on "Miracle on the Hudson" pilot Chesley Sullenberger. Washington plays a pilot who safely crash lands a plane only to be caught up in an increasingly hostile media frenzy. Welcome back, Mr. Zemeckis.
Rated R, 138 min. | Watch the trailer 

Vamps

Starring: Alicia Silverstone, Krysten Ritter, Dan Stevens
Director: Amy Heckerling
The Scoop: Director Heckerling may not have done a whole lot recently, but, back in the day, she was a bona fine alt-comedy superstar thanks to classics like "Clueless" and "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." Now she's back to take on the whole vampire craze with a comedy about, you know, vampires. It should be interesting to see what Heckerling can do with the genre.
Rated PG-13, 92 min., limited | Watch the trailer 

A Late Quartet

Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Christopher Walken
Director: Yaron Zilberman
The Scoop: An all-star cast (seriously, just look at that: Hoffman, Keener and Walken – yowza) highlights this intense drama detailing the complex web of relationships between four members of a string quartet. When the leader of the group (Walken) abruptly announces he is going to retire after their next performance, everything hits the fan. If you enjoy good acting, this is a dream.
Rated R, 105 min., limited | Watch the trailer 

This Must Be the Place

Starring: Sean Penn, Frances McDormand, Judd Hirsch
Director: Paolo Sorrentino
The Scoop: One of the most offbeat films of the year features one of the most offbeat performances of Penn's career. Here he plays a washed up, has-been former goth rock superstar who embarks on a quest to track down the Nazi guard who tortured his dad during the Holocaust. Oscar winner McDormand co-stars (though not as the Nazi guard; that would be weird even for this film).
118 min., limited | Watch the trailer 

The Man With the Iron Fists

Starring: Russell Crowe, RZA, Jamie Chung, Lucy Liu
Director: RZA
The Scoop: Wu-Tang Clan member RZA returns to the 36 chambers of death for his first directorial effort. Produced by frequent RZA collaborator Quentin Tarantino, "The Man with the Iron Fists" is a violent kung-fu fantasia featuring Crowe as one of a large group of killers whose battle threatens to overwhelm a small village that happens to be under RZA's protection.
Rated R, 96 min. | Watch the trailer 

The Details

Starring: Tobey Maguire, Elizabeth Banks, Laura Linney
Director: Jacob Aaron Estes
The Scoop: Indie director Estes ("Mean Creek") has assembled a terrific ensemble cast (Maguire, Banks and Linney are also joined by Ray Liotta, Dennis Haysbert and Kerri Washington, among others) for this black as coal comedy about how the smallest thing can sometimes upend even the most balanced life. One of this year's festival darlings.
Rated R, 91 min., limited | Watch the trailer 

The Bay

Starring: Kristen Connolly, Jane McNeill, Kether Donohue
Director: Barry Levinson
The Scoop: Levinson won a Best Director Oscar for "Rain Man." So it's a little unlikely that he'd be doing, say, a low budget, found footage horror flick. But that's exactly what he's put together with "The Bay," which tells the gruesome tale of what happens to a small town when residents get infected by a weird virus that eats them from the inside out. Yuck.
Rated R, 84 min., limited | Watch the trailer 

Jack and Diane

Starring: Juno Temple, Dane DeHaan, Riley Keough
Director: Bradley Rust Gray
The Scoop: Okay, so everyone knows that "Jack and Diane" are two kids doing the best they can in the heartland, etc. In this case, though, that heartland is actually New York City and Jack and Diane are both girls, which complicates their whirlwind romance in unexpected ways once their friends and family get involved.
Rated R, 110 min., limited | Watch the trailer 

Cloud Atlas

Starring: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant
Directors: Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer
The Scoop: At the top of the list of books people thought couldn't possibly ever be adapted into movies is David Mitchell's "Cloud Atlas," which has six different sets of characters in six time periods, all intertwined via… stuff. The Wachowskis have done their best to use their "Matrix" tricks to make this watchable and understandable; having Hanks and Berry as their stars certainly helps too.
Rated R, 164 min. | Watch the trailer 

Chasing Mavericks

Starring: Gerard Butler, Jonny Weston, Leven Rambin
Directors: Curtis Hanson, Michael Apted
The Scoop: Newcomer Weston stars in this biography of American surfing legend Jay Moriarty, who made his mark on the surfing world at Mavericks, a particularly crazy piece of ocean off the California coast. Butler plays the older surfing guru who mentors Moriarty in his search for the ultimate wave.
Rated PG, 116 min. | Watch the trailer