Welcome back to Movieline Attractions, your regular guide to everything new, noteworthy and all over the map at the movies. This week promises something for everyone, though you won't find the real gems at the multiplex; read on for a fail-safe tip sheet to digging up some of the shiniest rewards fall is best-known for.
WHAT'S NEW: Universal needs a hit -- or at least a not-embarrassing opening -- and it may yet get it with Couples Retreat, in which the kid from A Christmas Story directs the guys from Swingers in a comedy about four married couples in search of a spark in the tropics. Tracking was sluggish for a while, but through some, ahem, creative marketing and late saturation, the studio may crack $26 million on a weekend when the closest competition is a week old, R-rated and features zombies.
Believe it or not, the next biggest release after that is From Mexico With Love, a long-shelved indie about a young boxer who battles through poverty, anger and a particularly unsavory rancher to build a life for himself in America. (It's directed by a stunt coordinator who helped stage fights in Raging Bull, for what that's worth.) Chris Rock's middling documentary Good Hair is just below that, trailing the comic on his quest to understand the culture and industry of African-American hairstyles.
And then, on three screens between New York and Los Angeles, you'll find An Education. Everything you've heard about this coming-of-age drama following a 16-year-old girl (Carey Mulligan), her 30-something paramour (Peter Sarsgaard) and their romance in swinging-'60s London is pretty much true; Mulligan is a revelation, and both Nick Hornby's adaptation and Lone Scherfig's direction achieve the kind of alchemical harmony that awards hype is made of. The polite backlash is already seeming to build on this one, but that won't keep it from the weekend's likely top per-screen average. Assuming Mulligan doesn't go dropping a bunch of Mickey Rourke-esque gay slurs on the way to Oscar night, this is probably your Best Actress favorite.
Also opening: The over-stylized, megaviolent prison drama Bronson (also featuring a great lead performance by Tom Hardy); Michelle Monaghan's own awards-bait indie Trucker; the motocross drama Free Style; the revival of the anarchic British girl's school romp St. Trinian's; the Eddie Izzard documentary (!) Believe (in L.A. only); and in NYC only, the nonlinear indie romance Peter and Vandy and the air-drumming comedy Adventures of Power.
THE BIG LOSER: Does anyone really want to see Whip It's numbers come Sunday afternoon? Even if it only dropped a very modest 35 percent to around $3 million, that would still give it a wincingly bad $1,750-per-screen average. Pity.
THE UNDERDOG: While much of the art-house focus this weekend is on its An Education, distributor Sony Classics has sneaked in a second release that provides a beautifully made, super-entertaining counterpoint to that film's soft, Euromantic '60s edge. Adapted from David Peace's novel, The Damned United chronicles the rise and fall of British soccer coach Brian Clough (Michael Sheen) -- and oh, what a fall he had. Standing at the pinnacle of English sporting achievement after inheriting the champion Leeds United from their legendary coach Don Revie (Colm Meaney), Clough bragged, berated and ego-muscled his way out of the prestigious post in 44 days flat. But that's nothing compared to the years of gutty work Clough did on his way to the top, a narrative that writer Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon) and director Tom Hooper (John Adams) hopscotch around with vigor, humor and a dazzling amount of tension for a story whose ending you already know. Led by Sheen's brash anti-hero, the ensemble (also including Jim Broadbent and a heartbreaking Timothy Spall) is first-rate. And don't worry if you don't like soccer; The Damned United deglamorizes the sport to a point where even its characters seem unable to stomach it after a while. It's just an all-around brilliant piece of work by craftsmen at the top of their own games. Here's praying they have much longer residencies there than Clough had at his own.
FOR SHUT-INS: New DVD releases this week include the underachieving Jack Black/Michael Cera comedy Year One, the worse-achieving romcom My Life in Ruins, the ultimate underdog rock doc Anvil! The Story of Anvil, restored reissues of Ghostbusters 1 and 2, an uncannily timed reissue of Roman Polanski's classic Chinatown, and the complete series collection of Ally McBeal.