Now available on DVD

An Education

Alvin & The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
Dir. Betty Thomas. 2009. PG. 88mins. Jason Lee, Zachary Levi, voices of Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler, Jesse McCartney.
Think of this as a public-service warning: If you have kids, they are likely to insist on this. Buy it for them if you feel you must, but have an escape plan for the moment when they invite you to watch it with them.

The Baader Meinhof Complex
Dir. Uli Edel. 2008. R. 2hrs 30mins. In German with subtitles. Martina Gedeck, Moritz Bleibtreu, Johanna Wokalek.
The Red Army Faction, a radical German terrorist group of the 1960s and early ’70s, gets its very own historical drama. Edel’s main thesis seems to be that the terrorists were young and foolish and hot.

An Education
Dir. Lone Scherfig. 2009. PG-13. 100mins. Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Dominic Cooper, Emma Thompson, Rosamund Pike, Alfred Molina, Olivia Williams.
In a story that could be pretty darn skeevy (teen girl gets into a romantic relationship with 30-ish man), Mulligan delivers a mix of naivete and intelligence that makes it heartbreaking to watch her stumble through the gates of adulthood.

Sherlock Holmes
Dir. Guy Ritchie. 2009. R. 134mins. Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, Mark Strong, Eddie Marsan.
The idea of Ritchie taking on Doyle’s master detective sounds cringe-worthy, but if you can get past your bias, this is a pretty entertaining reinterpretation of the character.

• More Film articles