Sixteen-year-old Jenny learns the ways of the world in the coming-of-age drama “An Education.“ Carey Mulligan is radiant as a suburban teenager in 1961 London who is curious and clever beyond her years but still rather innocent and impressionable. Although she’s a diligent student and dutiful daughter on track to study at Oxford, she sits alone in her bedroom at night longing to be adult enough to live in Paris on her own, basking in the culture.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon,“ also known as “Twilight: The Squeakquel,“ is actually pretty good—a tick better than the first “Twilight,“ which wasn’t bad either. The first “Twilight,“ a lower-budget and scruffier affair directed by Catherine Hardwicke, may have been lame in the visual magic department, but its stars and their smoldering separate-beds bedroom eyes did a valiantly angst-y job in launching a major franchise. The second film in the series is bigger, better in the effects and more vibrant visually, which is crucial—the heroine, Bella, is an Olympic-level mope, and if “New Moon” matched this character’s mood with the visual palette of the first film, we’d all be dead.

Some actors are so much fun you’ll even watch them in a film you didn’t care about. Michael Sheen is one of those performers. You probably know him as Tony Blair in “The Queen,“ David Frost in “Frost/Nixon” (or a werewolf in the “Underworld” movies). In “The Damned United” he once again plays a real-life character: Brit soccer manager Brian Clough, who in 1974 rose to the top of his profession and managed to crash and burn in a matter of weeks.

Cult classics, such as Ed Wood’s films and “Showgirls,“ are often defined by their flaws as much as their merits. “Boondock Saints,“ the 1999 film that achieved cult status on DVD and now has spawned a sequel, certainly had plenty of flaws. It was a ridiculously over-the-top action film about a pair of Irish-American twins who set out with guns and some reckless and boozy bravado to rid Boston of criminals and Mafia.

2012 Movie review   Cast: John Cusack, Chiwitel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Woody Harrelson, Danny Glover, Oliver Platt At: Carmike, Commonwealth,  Movieland, Short Pump, Southpark, Virginia Center, Westchester,  West Tower FYI: Running time: 2:35. Rated PG (mild sensuality, a scene of violence, and brief incidental language and smoking).

Cameron Diaz and James Marsden have a terrible moral dilemma in Richard Kelly’s “The Box”: Press a button on a mysterious container, and they’ll get $1 million and someone they don’t know will die. What button, on whose box, did Kelly push to get the money to make this awful, preposterous thriller? If Hollywood were a three-strikes-you’re-out kind of place, Kelly would be flirting with permanent banishment. His first film, cult hit “Donnie Darko,“ was an intriguing foul ball, muddled and pretentious but showing signs of a strong talent in search of his voice.

You’ll know what to expect from “Motherhood” even before the opening credits.  A camera pans over a topsy-turvy apartment, two sleeping children and a snoring husband, then settles on Eliza Welch’s to-do list, which includes this entry: “Blog?“  We can add Eliza, a Manhattan mom played by a harried and wild-haired Uma Thurman, to the fictional Carrie Bradshaws and all-too-real Julie Powells of the world, trying to turn their lives into sassy prose (and perhaps a movie deal).

At the turn of the 20th century, French women of style were gilded peacocks festooned with jewels, gaudy things cinched so tightly at the waist that they could not breathe, teetering on claw feet.  Then along came Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel (1883-1971), who favored hats without feathers, dresses without corsets and shoes without heels. Her mobile clothes made women mobile.

It’s hard to put a finger on exactly what a Coen brothers’ movie is. That’s part of the great allure of them.  As writers and directors, brothers Joel and Ethan Coen don’t just keep pumping out the same movie over and over, as so many filmmakers do.  From the comic antics of “Raising Arizona” to the noir of “The Man Who Wasn’t There,“ the goofballs of “O Brother, Where Art Thou?“ to the outlaws of “No Country for Old Men,“ they’re all strikingly different. They surprise us.

It’s getting downright batty trying to keep all these vampires straight. You have your traditional vampires (“Nosferatu”), your blond slayer foils (“Buffy: The Vampire Slayer”), your sexy vamps (“True Blood”), your Euro children vampires (“Let the Right One In”) and your melancholy teenage variety (“Twilight”). The latest entry to this crowded field is “Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant.“ The source material this time is a series of young adult books known as “Cirque du Freak” or “The Saga of Darren Shan,“ written by Darren O’Shaughnessy, who writes under his protagonist’s name, Darren Shan.

The animated “Astro Boy” is a shiny hodgepodge of “Pinocchio,“ “WALL-E,“ “Oliver Twist,“ “Gladiator” and “Superman,“ with some obvious visual touches taken from “The Iron Giant.“ As its own entity, though, it’s pretty forgettable. Director David Bowers (“Flushed Away”), who co-wrote the script with Timothy Hyde Harris (“Kindergarten Cop,“ “Space Jam”), gets some help from a lively voice cast that includes Freddie Highmore, Kristen Bell, Bill Nighy and Nathan Lane, and the Art Deco look of the film’s architecture has a classic appeal.

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

Where the Wild Things Are,“ the book, is just 339 words long. But in turning it into “Where the Wild Things Are,“ the movie, director Spike Jonze has expanded the basic story with a breathtaking visual scheme and stirring emotional impact.  It’s a gorgeous film: This may sound contradictory, but it’s intricate and rough-hewn yet dreamlike and earthy. What keeps it from reaching complete excellence is the thinness of the script, which Jonze co-wrote with Dave Eggers.

The true-life drama “The Boys Are Back” delicately and deftly finds a balance that’s hard to strike: It depicts death, and the way a family rebuilds and redefines itself afterward, without being excessively sentimental.  Director Scott Hicks’ film, with its dreamlike, sun-splashed landscapes of southern Australia, is visually arresting (the work of cinematographer Greig Fraser, who recently shot Jane Campion’s luminous “Bright Star”).

A surprise winner of this year’s foreign-language Oscar, beating out front-runners “Waltz With Bashir” and “The Class,“ the Japanese dramedy “Departures” has its moments but is ultimately overlong and too melodramatic. Director Yojiro Takita and writer Kundo Koyama begin with an intriguing premise, though: After the symphony orchestra he plays for disbands, cellist Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki) leaves Tokyo and returns to his hometown with his sunny, supportive wife, Mika (Ryoko Hirosue).