Sci-Fi
Rod Lott
When I first saw Holy Motors, it was in a way that would make director Leos Carax cry, “Mon dieu!”: on a small window on my computer screen. That’s hardly the proper showcase for a film that set Cannes all abuzz, especially for courting year-end votes from critics’ groups.

Drama
Rod Lott
It’s curious that the Internet Movie Database (among other sources) has classified The Loneliest Planet as a “thriller,” since the film forgoes not just all that genre’s trappings, but narrative altogether.

Horror
Rod Lott
Hey, kids! Remember the hysteria surrounding Y2K? Ahhh, so quaint ...

Thriller
Rod Lott
And just like that, director Frédéric Jardin leaps onto my ongoing radar for his work on Sleepless Night, a powerhouse French-language thriller. The crime film begins with action and rarely lets up during its 98-minute sprint.

Drama
Rod Lott
In a short career largely dominated with genre films — from Final Destination 3 to this past summer’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter — Mary Elizabeth Winstead always has exuded a certain something. But nothing that ever suggested the level of performance she delivers in Smashed.

Thriller
Rod Lott
No matter what you see or hear, don't move a muscle. That’s the advice one very bad man gives to the titular Sushi Girl. Particularly squeamish viewers won’t be able to adhere to such counsel, as this minor crime gem revels in the revolting.

Horror
Rod Lott
The Frankenstein Theory is like no other Frankenstein film you've seen: rendered in found footage.

Wait, wait! Don’t run off! This one’s better than the average entry, even if it’s not so revolutionary to change the minds of those who despise the delivery system. The picture’s snowy setting is reason enough to justify a viewing on DVD (a woefully bare-bones one) if you missed it on the big screen — and you likely did, since it played in only about 15 theaters nationwide earlier this month.

Thriller
Rod Lott
I like In Their Skin under its international title, Replicas. Even if that makes Jeremy Power Regimbal’s directorial debut sound too sci-fi, it’s more interesting and apt.

Sci-Fi
Rod Lott
Britain’s on high alert after a plane falls from the sky from unknown causes. Terrorist attack, perhaps? At a 24-hour storage facility — hence the film’s title, Storage 24 — the ensuing crash has locked down its security system, effectively trapping people inside. Oh, and one gnarly alien.

Music
Joshua Boydston
The Boom Bang with The Copperheads and Shitty/Awesome
8 p.m. Friday
Opolis
113 N. Crawford, Norman
opolis.org
820-0951
$7