In the midst of Fall, it can be quite difficult to find a good movie to see — studios have already released most of their Fall movies, and holiday/awards season movies don’t come out for another month at least. You can still catch some good ones before you run home for winter break, though, and they are:

Up in the Air – George Clooney stars in this existential movie about a disaffected corporate reaper with no human connections. It’s only going to be in limited release in LA and New York, so you should take advantage of the city (yeah, how many times have you heard that one) and go see it. If anything, it will make you feel better about your social life once you realize you have more friends than the main character.

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus – Terry Gilliam’s latest directorial project looks like it was made on an extended acid trip. In other words, it looks amazing. It’s the last movie Heath Ledger was working on when he died, and has a star-laden cast, so it’s going to get a lot of attention solely for those reasons. But I’ve heard from people who saw the movie in advance that the story is really great, too. (Unfortunately, the film’s press division has placed an embargo on all advance reviews, so you can’t actually read about how awesome it is until after it comes out.)

The Messenger and Brothers – I’ve lumped these two together because it seems that depressing war-related dramas are in vogue right now, and these films have similar premises. Both of them are about the aftermath of war, and how military families are affected by a soldier’s death. The Messenger focuses on the soldiers who have the uncomfortable job of delivering the news of a death to a soldier’s next of kin, and the emotional toll the job can take. It looks to me like the better of the two. Brothers is a tad melodramatic (the soldier who dies at the beginning of the movie is later found alive, and returns to his family only to destroy the tentative balance they’ve worked out in his absence), but it does have a more recognizable cast (Natalie Portman!) and thus better advertising. The Messenger, by contrast, is a fairly low-budget film that won several festival awards and has relied mostly on buzz from critics to keep it afloat thus far.

Fantastic Mr. Fox – I know, I know: what am I doing putting a kid’s movie in an article meant for college students? But the trailer just feels so quirky and charming, and the story is based off a Roald Dahl book. Who didn’t like Roald Dahl as a kid? If director Wes Anderson did things right, I think it will be one of those movies that kids and adults (and half-grown-up college students) can appreciate, especially since the main premise of the story is that Mr. Fox turns 7, has a mid-life crisis and decides he wants a bigger house.

Good Hair – This comedic documentary has actually been in theaters for a month now, but we’ve never written about it here and I think it deserves more press than it’s getting. Probably the first genuinely funny thing Chris Rock has done in the past decade, Good Hair is an examination of the perception of hair in the African-American community. A must-see for anyone studying race or gender theory.

Daybreakers – The vampire saturation in mainstream media has reached the point at which I no longer care about anything vampire-related. This is a sad thing, because I’m a huge fan of vampires in general. Daybreakers, in contrast with your Vampire Diaries, True Bloods and New Moons, actually looks like it’s going to be a really terrifying apocalyptic thriller/action movie. I am looking forward to it immensely.