Only during awards season would audiences be expected to go to the multiplex, buy expensive tickets, and watch September 11, 2001, get re-created, even if artfully and obliquely with fluttering papers and pigeons. The occasion is a high-toned adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s 2005 novel—a harrowing read that is also somewhat sentimental. Our guess is that the movie will skew toward the latter: Hanks plays a doting dad lost in the terrorist attacks, while Oscar-approved Bullock does post-podium duty as the weeping widow who assists their nine-year-old son on a quest of rebirth.

Heather Donahue has come a long way since she starred in The Blair Witch Project—and that’s something she wants readers of her memoir, Growgirl, to know. The 500-page volume details her exit from Hollywood and her extended foray into the medicalmarijuana-production business in Northern California. In addition to learning about “hippie chicken,” we get an education in how exactly one goes about legally growing pot, how the prescription process works, indoor vs. outdoor, and more. Donahue is determined to be as independent as possible, yet she must rely on her ex and “the community” for tips on protocol, scrips, and more to make sure “the girls” (the term for the female plants she’s housing) flourish. While her filmmaking days make random appearances, there is nothing Hollywood about this book. Donahue’s prose reads like someone either stoned or extremely mellow and loose with language has written it—and at times it could’ve used a bit of trimming, like her plants. Still, her run-ins with men, the law, and her own neuroses laid bare against a flowery tapestry of stoners and weed farmers make for entertaining reading.

Haywire
Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas, Ewan McGregor, Gina Carano

Here we have yet another spy thriller about a femme agent gone rogue, as well as yet another movie directed by “retiring” Oscar-winner Steven Soderbergh. But it contains one element that separates it from the pack of generic thrillers: newcomer Carano, the spectacularly sexy mixed-martial artist who deserves a robust Hollywood career. It’s one thing to watch Angelina Jolie “kick ass” in an action movie, but when Carano, a real-life MMA star, throws down, your eyes don’t roll so much as go wide. She could probably take Matt Damon, if not Jason Bourne.

If you think your relationship is annoying, try George Gurley’s. He’s in love with his girlfriend, Hilly—who puts up with the New York Observer reporter’s all-night drunken outings—but he doesn’t want to marry her. This frustrates Hilly, so the two start couples therapy with a Dr. Selman, who gently mocks them at times, but gradually becomes a lifeline for their uneven relationship. An unflinching, intimate portrait from Gallery Books.

Colombiana
This underappreciated action flick stars the delicious Zoë Saldana as Cataleya, a sexy assassin seeking revenge on the mobster who murdered her parents. And of course the only thing better than watching a catsuitclad Saldana pick off bad guys is watching her do it in high-definition clarity. The bonus featurettes on the Blu-ray disc include “Cataleya’s Journey,” “Assassins,” “Training a Killer,” and “Take the Ride.”

THE BIG PINK
Future This
4AD
Rating: 3 out of 3 stars

The swaggering Brit-pop bands of the late twentieth century were never as good as they said they were. How could they be? With all their talk of the Beatles and Second Comings, Oasis and the Stone Roses had egos that flew higher than the Union Jack. Yet in rock ’n’ roll, unlike in customer service, a little attitude can go a long way. That’s a lesson English duo the Big Pink takes to heart on Future This: “I don’t want to hit the ground … like Superman!” Rob bie Furze yelps on “Hit the Ground.” Even better is the buzzy bluster of “Stay Gold,” which sounds marginally like a shoe-gaze band being fed through a jetliner en gine. In Ibiza. Sometimes arrogance trumps ability.

The Hangover Part II
Prerelease we pegged this sequel as one of the year’s most anticipated movies, and the half-billion-dollar opening weekend proved our point. This time around, Stu (Ed Helms) is the one walking down the aisle—and his modest bachelor brunch somehow gives way to a Bangkok shit-show involving a stolen monkey, a kathoey prostitute, and a very familiar face tattoo. Among the bonus features are a gag reel, a monkey featurette, and a tour of Bangkok with Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong). Stock up and give a copy to everyone in your wolf pack.