Michelle Williams delivers an Oscar-worthy performance playing screen siren Marilyn Monroe. The vehicle is director Simon Curtis' thoughtful adaptation of Colin Clark's diaries. At the age of 23 Clark worked as third assistant director to Laurence Olivier for his 1956 romantic comedy The Prince and the Showgirl.
  

Errol Morris makes a welcome return to the kind of quirky subject matter that marked his early documentaries. Closer in tone to his lighthearted 1997 film Fast, Cheap and Out of Control than his recent politically driven films (The Fog of War and Standard Operating Procedure), Tabloid explores the life trajectory of former Miss Wyoming Joyce McKinney.    

Pedro Almodóvar proves himself an apt technician at sustaining suspense in the thriller genre. Antonio Banderas returns to work with Almodóvar for the first time in over 20 years, since his memorable performance Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!. The years have been kind to Banderas, who brings his A game to a deliciously diabolical role.   

Fast paced and fluffy, Tower Heist is a spectacle-laden comedy with widespread appeal. Even Alan Alda's Bernie Madoff-styled antagonist gets a soft treatment so as not to offend the "1 percent" of potential audience members his evil character represents.  

Inevitable comparisons with J.J. Abrams’ similarly themed Super 8 favors writer/director Joe Cornish’s seemingly effortless ability to extract laughs and shocks from an alien invasion in urban London. Much of the movie’s success derives from the crackle of comedy that rolls off the Cockney-accented teen antihero thugs who dare to take on an army of pitch-black alien creatures attacking their estate housing tower.  

Spun off from the finally-adjourned Shrek franchise, Puss in Boots is a well-crafted DreamWorks animated movie that succeeds in spite of the aid of its extraneous 3-D treatment. Screenwriter Tom Wheeler deftly blends together nursery rhyme elements toward a comical fantasy that includes an enjoyable dose of cute animal realism.   

  While it doesn't live up to the quirky physical comedy the incomparable Rowan Atkinson is capable of, this follow-up to his 2003 spy spoof functions well enough as a PG-rated comedy for kids.  

Contagion’s PG-13 rating predicts the film’s less-than-horrific nature following a promising opening sequence. Director Steven Soderbergh inflects his beautifully photographed compositions with a slick Techno Pop score yet can’t compensate for a script splintered into too many subplots.   

With a pinch of 'Trainspotting' irreverence and a dose of 'Pulp Fiction' social satire, debut director John Michael McDonagh cobbles together this lilting black comedy set in the Gaelic region of County Galway. Grade: B.  

Producer/co-writer Guillermo del Toro performs the neat trick of adapting the original 1973 television horror shocker Don't Be Afraid of the Dark into a tastefully suspenseful work of kid-friendly art, kid-friendly art. Grade: B.