Heroes and Villains, Swords and Soldiers
Dave Kehr
From “Beowulf” to “The Golden Compass,” the holiday release schedule is filled with fantasy.
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All dates are subject to change.

NOVEMBER

Opened

"AMERICAN GANGSTER" This troubled production went through the directors Brian De Palma, Antoine Fuqua and Terry George before landing on the desk of the unflappable Ridley Scott. Denzel Washington plays a Harlem drug dealer, Frank Lucas, known for his conservative business practices, and Russell Crowe is Richie Roberts, the detective who brought him down.

"BEE MOVIE" Jerry Seinfeld steps back into the rushing waters of show business with his first major project since the end of his television series — a computer animation from DreamWorks in which he lends his voice to an ambitious young bee who decides to sue the human race for eating honey. Other voices: Renée Zellweger, Matthew Broderick, John Goodman, Chris Rock. Directed by Steve Hickner and Simon J. Smith.

"A BROKEN SOLE" Human dramas from the transformative day of Sept. 11, 2001, adapted from a play by Susan Charlotte and directed by Antony Marsellis. With Danny Aiello and Judith Light.

"CONFESSIONS OF A SUPERHERO" Matthew Ogen's documentary examines the lives of four people who eke out a living impersonating superheroes for the benefit of Hollywood Boulevard tourists.

"DARFUR NOW"Six individuals from around the world do what they can to combat the tragedy in Sudan, in a documentary narrated by Don Cheadle and directed by Ted Braun.

"FAT GIRLS" Ash Christian wrote, directed and stars in a comedy about a closeted high school senior who thinks of himself as a "fat girl" because of his low sense of self-worth. With Ashley Fink, Robin De Jesus and Jonathan Caouette (the director of "Tarnation").

"JOE STRUMMER: THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN" Mr. Strummer, who died in 2002, wouldn't seem to have that much of a future, though apparently his influence as the frontman of the Clash lives on. Julien Temple directs this documentary tribute.

"LOVE AND HONOR"Yoji Yamada, the Japanese director behind 48 episodes of the "Tora-San" series, completes the loose trilogy of samurai films he began with "The Twilight Samurai" (2002) and "The Hidden Blade" (2004). In this one a samurai (Takuya Kimura) is blinded when he tastes poisoned food meant for his master; his wife (Rei Dan) intervenes to save his income and position, but he discovers she may have been unfaithful.

"MARTIAN CHILD" John Cusack, having a tough season as a parent, finds himself faced with an adopted son who firmly believes that he's from Mars. With Joan Cusack, Amanda Peet and Oliver Platt; Menno Meyjes ("Max") directs.

"SHARKWATER" The filmmaker Rob Stewart documents his longtime struggle to save the sharks of the world.

Wednesday

"GLASS LIPS" From the Polish-born filmmaker Lech Majewski, an avant-garde effort spun from 33 video pieces created for a gallery show titled "Blood of a Poet." Together they tell the story of a young writer (Patryk Czajka) confined to a mental institution, where he is haunted by dreams and hallucinations about his father (Grzegorz Przybyl).

"NOTE BY NOTE" The epic journey of a Steinway piano, from Queens to Carnegie Hall, as recorded in a documentary by Ben Niles.

Thursday

"MY NAME IS ALBERT AYLER" A profile of the saxophonist who was a pioneer of free jazz and who was found dead in the East River only eight years after recording his influential first album. Directed by Kasper Collin.

Friday

"COCALERO" The Brazilian documentarian Alejandro Landes traces the rise of Evo Morales, the leader of the "cocalero" movement, comprised of coca-growing farmers who have resisted American attempts to eradicate their crops, who became president of Bolivia in 2006.

"CHOKING MAN" A look at the lives of new immigrants, around 2007, as an Ecuadorean dishwasher (Octavio Gómez Berríos) struggles to befriend a Chinese waitress (Eugenia Yuan) who works in the same restaurant he does, managed by Mandy Patinkin. Steve Barron, the former music-video maker best known for the feature "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," directs.

"FRED CLAUS" The director of "Wedding Crashers," David Dobkin, reteams with Vince Vaughn, who plays the bitter older brother of Santa Claus (Paul Giamatti) in this Christmas comedy. With Miranda Richardson.

"HOLLY" An American dealer in dubious artifacts (Ron Livingston) befriends a Vietnamese girl (Thuy Nguyen), whose parents have sold her to a Cambodian brothel. When she's taken away by a sex trafficker, he goes in search of her. Guy Moshe directs.

"NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN" From the chillingly professional Coen brothers, Ethan and Joel, comes an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's thriller about a hunter (Josh Brolin) who finds $2 million in cash hidden near the Texas-Mexico border. With Javier Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones and Woody Harrelson.

"LIONS FOR LAMBS" The first release of Tom Cruise's United Artists will be this drama directed by Robert Redford, in which he stars along with Meryl Streep and Mr. Cruise. Derek Luke and Michael Peña are college students who, inspired by their charismatic professor (Mr. Redford) to make a difference with their lives, sign up for military duty in Afghanistan. Back in Washington, an ambitious senator (Mr. Cruise) tries to sell a new war strategy, which will have bearing on the soldiers' fates, to a television journalist (Ms. Streep).

"P2" From the team behind the recent remake of "The Hills Have Eyes," Alexandre Aja and Franck Khalfoun, the suspenseful tale of a female executive (Rachel Nichols) trapped in a parking garage by an embittered security guard (Wes Bentley).

"SAAWARIYA" Sanjay Leela Bhansali, the Bollywood filmmaker behind the hit "Devdas," directs a romantic epic about a pair of strangers and the four nights of love they experience after a chance encounter in a small town. With Ranbir Kapoor, Salman Khan, Sonam Kapoor and Rani Mukherjee.

"STEAL A PENCIL FOR ME" Michèle Ohayon's documentary tells of a romantic triangle that begins in Amsterdam in 1943 and comes to a harrowing conclusion in a Nazi death camp.

"WAR/DANCE" Sundance seemingly never tires of tales of disadvantaged children learning the joys of music, and here's another one: orphans from a Ugandan refugee camp practice for a national competition as the directors Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine record the proceedings.

Nov. 14

"I FOR INDIA" Sandhya Suri's documentary draws on Super 8 footage filmed by her father, an Indian who emigrated to England in 1965, to portray one family's experience in cultural transition.

"SOUTHLAND TALES" Much admired by some at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, much derided by others, Richard Kelly's surreal vision of a politically repressive, environmentally endangered Los Angeles of the future (actually July 4, 2008) calls on quite a few hip performers, including Dwayne (the Rock) Johnson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Seann William Scott, Justin Timberlake, Mandy Moore, Cheri Oteri, Kevin Smith and Amy Poehler.

Nov. 16

"BEOWULF" Ray Winstone is a digitally pumped-up warrior sent to battle the hideous monster (with the voice of Crispin Glover) that has been terrorizing the countryside. The director, Robert Zemeckis, looks to be taking the "performance capture" technology of "The Polar Express" in a somewhat different direction. With the spectral essences of Angelina Jolie, Anthony Hopkins, Robin Wright Penn, Alison Lohman, John Malkovich and Brendan Gleeson.

"HALF MOON" A Kurdish musician and his sons make the difficult journey between Iranian and Iraqi Kurdistan to perform in a concert celebrating the downfall of Saddam Hussein. Bahman Ghobadi, of "A Time for Drunken Horses," directs.

"HOW TO COOK YOUR LIFE" The veteran German director Doris Dorrie ("Men ... ") delivers a documentary about Edward Espe Brown, a Zen Buddhist and cookbook author ("The Tassajara Recipe Book"). Sounds like this one has all the answers.

"IT IS FINE! EVERYTHING IS FINE" Steven C. Stewart, who has cerebral palsy, wrote this semi-autobiographical screenplay about a disabled man who longs for sex with beautiful women — whom he subsequently kills in his fantasies. Crispin Glover directs.

"LIFE OF REILLY" Charles Nelson Reilly, the theater director who died in May and whose willingness to adopt an outsized gay identity made him a regular on game shows of the 1970s, recounts his difficult life in a one-man show directed by Barry Poltermann and Frank Anderson.

"LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA" That old Oscar chaser Mike Newell ("Four Weddings and a Funeral") sets out in pursuit once more, with a romance adapted from Gabriel García Márquez's novel. With Javier Bardem and Giovanna Mezzogiorno as the star-crossed lovers, along with Benjamin Bratt, Hector Elizondo, John Leguizamo, Liev Schreiber and Catalina Sandino Moreno. The script is by the hard-working Ronald Harwood ("The Pianist").

"MARGOT AT THE WEDDING" Nicole Kidman, as an insecure and destructive short-story writer, is determined to break up the wedding of her sister (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to a slacker (Jack Black). Her son (Zane Pais) looks on in horror. Noah Baumbach (who is married to Ms. Leigh) directs.

"MR. MAGORIUM'S WONDER EMPORIUM"Natalie Portman inherits a magical toy store from the lovably eccentric, 243-year-old Mr. Magorium (Dustin Hoffman) in Zach Helm's family adventure.

"PARK"An independent picture from Los Angeles, featuring the independent's favorite structure: crisscrossing lives and intertwining fates, this time of Angelenos lured to step outside their automobiles. Here the crisscrossing happens in a city park. With Billy Baldwin, Ricki Lake, Cheri Oteri and Anne Dudek. Written and directed by Kurt Voelker.

"REDACTED" Five Americans rape and murder a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and kill three of her family members to cover up the crime. Directed by Brian De Palma. With Ty Jones and Daniel Stewart Sherman.

Nov. 21

"AUGUST RUSH" Freddie Highmore is the title character, a child conceived in a night of love between an Irish guitar player and an American cellist. He grows into a musical prodigy under the wing of the kindly Wizard, played by Robin Williams, and sets out to find his parents. With Keri Russell and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

"CHRISTMAS IN WONDERLAND" Or more precisely, in the West Edmonton Mall, where an unhappy family transplanted from Los Angeles finds things looking up when two of the kids discover a satchel full of money — counterfeit, alas. With Chris Kattan, Patrick Swayze, Carmen Electra, Preston Lacy and Cameron Bright; directed by James Orr.

"ENCHANTED" What happens when a fairy-tale princess (Amy Adams) is banished to contemporary New York by an evil queen (Susan Sarandon)? She falls in love with a lawyer (Patrick Dempsey). With James Marsden and Timothy Spall; the erstwhile Disney animator Kevin Lima directs.

"HITMAN"From the beloved classic video game. Timothy Olyphant is the rogue Agent 47, on the run across Eastern Europe as he tries to outwit both Interpol and Russian military intelligence. Xavier Gens directs.

"I'M NOT THERE" At each stage of his life, Bob Dylan is played by a different actor (Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw) — a highly original device that dates back at least to Sacha Guitry's 1937 "Pearls of the Crown." Todd Haynes directed; with Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, David Cross and Charlotte Gainsbourg.

"THE MIST" Frank Darabont's first feature since "The Majestic" (2001) sounds a little less inspirational than his "Shawshank Redemption" and "Green Mile," though it is also based on a Stephen King novella. Thomas Jane plays the leader of an embattled group of small-town citizens fighting for their lives against mysterious creatures that have arrived in a mysterious storm.

"THIS CHRISTMAS" Preston A. Whitmore II ("Crossover") recreates memories of a Whitmore family Christmas. Laz Alonso, Delroy Lindo, Idris Elba, Regina King and Mekhi Phifer star.

"YIDDISH THEATER: A LOVE STORY" The impresario Zypora Spaisman struggles to keep her Yiddish-language theater alive for one more Hanukkah in a documentary directed by Dan Katzir and featuring the Yiddish theater actors Shifra Lerer, Felix Fibich and Seymour Rechzeit.

Nov. 23

"MIDNIGHT EAGLE" From the Japanese filmmaker Izuru Narushima, the tale of a photojournalist (Takao Osawa) who sees a United States stealth bomber crash into a mountaintop and goes in search of its payload: an atomic warhead.

"NINA'S HEAVENLY DELIGHTS" The lesbian daughter of a Scottish-Indian family comes home to Glasgow to help put the family restaurant back on its feet while romancing an old schoolmate and practicing her Bollywood moves. Pratibha Parmar directs.

"BADLAND" Returning from Iraq, a soldier struggles with the difficult transition to everyday life. With Jamie Draven and Vinessa Shaw; Francesco Lucente writes and directs.

"THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY" Julian Schnabel directed this adaptation of Jean-Dominique Bauby's autobiographical novel about his experiences when, at the age of 43, a stroke left him almost completely paralyzed. The impish French actor Mathieu Amalric plays Bauby; with Emmanuelle Seigner, Marie-Josée Croze and, in one of his last roles, Jean-Pierre Cassel.

"FLAWLESS" Sounds like a good old-fashioned heist picture, with a janitor (Michael Caine) teaming up with a midlevel executive (Demi Moore) for a raid on their mutual employer, the London Diamond Corporation. Directed by Michael Radford ("Nineteen Eighty-Four," "Il Postino").

"OSWALD'S GHOST" Robert Stone's documentary looks at the consequences of the Kennedy assassination in terms of the growing paranoia of American politics. Among the interviewed: Norman Mailer, Gary Hart, Tom Hayden, Mark Lane and Edward Jay Epstein.

"PROTAGONIST" Inspired by the tragedies of Euripides, the filmmaker Jessica Yu follows four individuals through all-consuming quests: a German ex-terrorist, an evangelist who has turned from his gay past, a bank robber and a student of the martial arts.

"TEETH" A high school girl who campaigns for chastity discovers she possesses a vagina dentate. From, as if you couldn't tell, the Sundance Film Festival. Mitchell Lichtenstein directs; with Jess Weixler (winner of a 2007 Sundance special jury prize) and John Hensley.

"THOMAS KINKADE'S THE CHRISTMAS COTTAGE" The first of three films coming from Lionsgate to be based on the (cough) very popular paintings of Thomas Kinkade. This one emanates from a Tudor cottage surrounded by disturbingly pink snow and features Jared Padalecki as the artist himself. With Peter O'Toole and Marcia Gay Harden; directed by Michael Campus (evidently the same Michael Campus who directed the 1973 blaxploitation classic "The Mack").