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).

You’d be justified in thinking you’ve visited “Zombieland” before. After all, there has been no shortage of zombies at the movies in recent years, just as there has been no shortage of vampires. And within that genre, a crop of zombie comedies has arisen, from “Shaun of the Dead” to “Zombie Strippers” to “Dead Snow.“ Like “Shaun” before it, though, “Zombieland” mostly finds that tricky balance of the laugh-out-loud funny and the make-you-jump scary, of deadpan laughs and intense energy. It’s a total blast, even if the story is a bit thin, and it does run out of steam toward the end, but thankfully our trip to “Zombieland” is appropriately quick.

Drew Barrymore has forged a persona as an actress and producer with movies that exude a playful sense of girl power, so it only makes sense that “Whip It,“ her first feature as a director, would share that same sort of vibe. What is surprising, though, is Barrymore’s ability to find just the right tone all the time, which would be a difficult feat for any first-time filmmaker to achieve—even one who’s spent her life on movie sets.

Surrogates” is itself a surrogate, a kind of stand-in for many of the sci-fi movies of the recent past: In it, you’ll recognize the ideas of “Blade Runner,“ “Minority Report” and even “WALL-E.“ The Bruce Willis action flick opens with two murders—the first in years in a quasi-present day Boston. Technology has advanced enough so that nearly everyone has a surrogate—or “surry” for short. While reclining at home and plugged into a machine, people control a robotic version of themselves that safely maneuvers through the world with all of its slings and arrows.

JENNIFER’S BODY Cast: Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Adam Brody,
At: Carmike, Commonwealth, Movieland, Short Pump, Southpark, Westchester, West Tower
FYI: Running time: 1:40. Rated R (sexuality, bloody violence).

Jennifer’s Body,“ the second screenplay from Diablo Cody after her Oscar-winning debut smash, “Juno,“ is so chock-full of her quirky trademarks, it almost plays like a parody of something she’d write. The self-consciously clever dialogue, the gratuitous pop-culture references, the made-up phrases intended to convey a specific high-school ethos—they’re all there. Even though fembot Megan Fox is an excellent fit to spit out these witty quips, it’s all so familiar. It makes you wonder whether Cody has any other weapons in her arsenal.