October’s movies offer an array of treats, including Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut and an investigation into the industry of African American hair care led by Chris Rock. And, for the biggest shot of controversy, watch out for Lone Scherfig’s “An Education,” opening Oct. 9. Read more>>

Why do we go to the movies? To be entertained and informed. Movies can capture America’s ethical or moral values of the moment, revealing who we are as individuals and as a society. Read more

AWFJ highlights films made by and about women: Read more

Cooties alert for the Oscars! Plus: female chauvinist pigs and creepy old guys drooling over young women (and somehow forgetting to drool over young men). Read more

Sci-fi is one of my favorite genres and this thriller has an intriguing premise. Read more

In The Burning Plain, Oscar-winning screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga makes his narrative feature directorial debut with a scenario of his own creation. The script — like Babel and Amores Perros before it — presents a complex universe of interwoven storielines. The auteur talks about the process of creating his fragmented world and the core-value characters who inhabit it, and how directing opens new horizons for him. Read more

When Oscar-nominated screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga (“Babel,” “21 Grams,” “Amores Perros”) set out to make his directorial debut, he turned to the A-list actress he thought could best carry his film’s story about guilt, forgiveness, and searing love: Charlize Theron. The Oscar-winning actress jumped full-force into the role of Sylvia, a beautiful but distant woman hiding from her past who, years later, still suffers from an unknown trauma that leads her down a path of self-destructive behavior ranging from self-harm to sexual addiction. Read more

Growing up in Britain in the 1970s, Michael Sheen was a soccer-playing kid with dreams of becoming a professional footballer. Eventually he traded his cleats for the camera, earning kudos as Tony Blair in The Queen and amassing fans as the vampire Aro in this fall’s Twilight sequel New Moon. But in “The Damned United,” the Welsh actor returns to his first love to portray famed English football coach Brian Clough, a controversial figure in British sports history with whom Sheen was already quite familiar. Sheen recalls his childhood impressions of Clough and reveals the insecurities he discovered in the coaching legend during the course of filming. Read more

Tom Hooper made his first short when he was thirteen. It was twenty five pounds worth of film stock spent chasing a runaway dog. The next year he found his social conscience - or so he says, half joking – tackling World War II (his grandfather was killed as a bomb navigator) and buskers, and by the time he was eighteen he was directing televised short films and winning awards. Read more

You don’t need to know who Brian Clough was nor follow professional soccer to realize what a rich and complex, powerhouse performance Michael Sheen (“The Queen,” “Frost/Nixon”) delivers as the arrogant, abrasive soccer genius who inherits the championship team of Leeds United in 1974, when its long-time manager, Don Revie (Colm Meaney), departs to lead England’s national team. Within 44 days, Clough self-destructively abuses his power, alienating not only his veteran players but also management and fans, winning only one game out of six before he’s deservedly sacked. Read more