The Informant!

What was Mark Whitacre thinking? A rising star at agri-industry giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Whitacre suddenly turns whistleblower. Even as he exposes his company's multinational price-fixing conspiracy to the FBI, Whitacre envisions himself being hailed as a hero of the common man and handed a promotion. But before all that can happen the FBI needs evidence, so Whitacre eagerly agrees to wear a wire and carry a hidden tape recorder in his briefcase, imagining himself as a kind of de facto secret agent. Unfortunately for the FBI, their lead witness hasn't been quite so forthcoming about helping himself to the corporate coffers. Whitacre's ever-changing account frustrates the agents and threatens the case against ADM as it becomes almost impossible to decipher what is real and what is the product of Whitacre's rambling imagination. The film is based on the true story of the highest-ranking corporate whistleblowers in U.S. history.

Director: Steven Soderbergh. Stars: Matt Damon, Joel McHale, Scott Bakula, Mike O'Malley, Andrew Daly, Adam Paul, Melanie Lynskey, Tom Wilson, Rick Overton, Tom Papa, Candy Clark. 2009, 108 mins., comedy-drama.

Everybody's Fine

This remake of Giuseppe Tornatore's "Stanno Tutti Bene" follows a widower (Robert De Niro) who embarks on an impromptu road trip to reconnect with each of his grown children only to discover that their lives are far from picture perfect.

Director: Kirk Jones. Stars: Robert De Niro, Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell. 2009, 99 mins., comedy.

The Box

What if someone gave you a box containing a button that, if pushed, would bring you a million dollars ... but simultaneously take the life of someone you don't know? Would you do it? And what would be the consequences? The year is 1976. Norma Lewis is a teacher at a private high school and her husband, Arthur, is an engineer working at NASA. They are, by all accounts, an average couple living a normal life in the suburbs with their young son ... until a mysterious man with a horribly disfigured face appears on their doorstep and presents Norma with a life-altering proposition: the box. With only 24 hours to make their choice, Norma and Arthur face an impossible moral dilemma. What they don't realize is that no matter what they decide, terrifying consequences will have already been set in motion. They soon discover that the ramifications of this decision are beyond their control and extend far beyond their own fortune and fate. Based on the short story by Richard Matheson (author of "I Am Legend").

Director: Richard Kelly. Stars: Cameron Diaz, Frank Langella, James Marsden, James Rebhorn. 2009, 115 mins., horror.

Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant

Tale of a boy who unknowingly breaks a 200-year-old truce between two warring factions of vampires. Fourteen-year-old Darren (Chris Massoglia) was like most kids in his suburban neighborhood. He hung out with his best friend, got decent grades and usually stayed out of trouble. But when he and his buddy stumble upon a traveling freak show, things begin to change inside Darren. That's the exact moment when a vampire named Larten Crepsley (John C. Reilly) turns him into something, well, bloodthirsty. Newly undead, he joins the "Cirque Du Freak," a touring sideshow filled with monstrous creatures, from a snakeboy and a wolfman to a bearded lady (Salma Hayek) and a gigantic barker (Ken Watanabe). As Darren flexes his newfound powers in this dark world, he becomes a pawn between the vampires and their deadlier counterparts and must struggle to keep their brewing war from devouring what's left of his humanity.

Director: Paul Weitz. Stars: John C. Reilly, Ken Watanabe, Chris Massoglia, Josh Hutcherson, Patrick Fugit, Ray Stevenson, Michael Cerveris, Frankie Faison, Jane Krakowski, Orlando Jones, Kristen Schaal, Salma Hayek, Willem Dafoe. 2009, 109 mins., horror-comedy.

Sorority Row

When five sorority girls inadvertently cause the murder of one of their sisters in a prank gone wrong, they agree to keep the matter to themselves and never speak of it again, so they can get on with their lives. After graduation, however, a mysterious killer goes after the five of them and anyone who knows their secret.

Director: Stewart Hendler. Stars: Briana Evigan, Rumer Willis, Audrina Patridge, Carrie Fisher, Julian Morris, Jamie Chung, Leah Pipes, Margo Harshman, Caroline D'Amore. 2009, 101 mins., horror.

Motherhood

Eliza Welch (Uma Thurman) is a former fiction writer-turned-mom-blogger with her own site, "The Bjorn Identity." Putting her deeper creative ambitions on hold to raise her two children, Eliza lives and works in two rent-stabilized apartments in a walk-up tenement building smack in the middle of an otherwise upscale Greenwich Village. Eliza's good-natured but absent-minded husband (Anthony Edwards) seems tuned out of his wife's conflicts, not to mention basic domestic reality, while her best friend Sheila (Minnie Driver) understands this - and Eliza - all too well. The story takes place in a single day that pushes to the tipping point Eliza's fundamental fear that she's lost herself. Starting at dawn, her to-do list is daunting: prepare for and throw her daughter's sixth birthday party, mind her toddler son, battle for a parking space during an epic alternate-side parking showdown, navigate playground politics with overbearing moms, and mend a rift after posting her best friend's confession on her blog. On top of it all, Eliza decides to enter a contest run by an upscale parenting magazine. All she has to do is write 500 words answering the deceptively simple question, "What Does Motherhood Mean to Me?" It's in the process of trying to put these thoughts into words that she rediscovers her own voice and realizes what is truly valuable in her life.

Director: Katherine Dieckmann. Stars: Uma Thurman, Minnie Driver, Anthony Edwards. 2009, 90 mins., comedy.