The Baader Meinhof Complex Uli Edel’s drama about Germany’s urban guerrilla outfit, the Red Army Faction, is swift, brutal, lurid, usually overheated, and occasionally comical. But it is also a serious, well-acted, and unromantic reckoning with the rise and demise of a terrorist gang whose radicalism reached beyond the quartet of young men and women who set it in motion. (150 min., R) (Wesley Morris)
I Can Do Bad All By Myself The best Tyler Perry movie to date -- his most confident mixture of uplifting black middle-class melodrama and low-down comedy. It’s put over by a terrific Taraji P. Henson as a selfish neighborhood girl learning to love and by musical guest shots by Marvin Winans, Mary J. Blige, and Gladys Knight. (113 min., PG-13) (Ty Burr)
My One and Only Renée Zellweger is back where she belongs: the American past. She plays a 1950s wife who drags her teenaged sons husband-hunting across America. By the preposterously tidy ending, it’s revealed that the elder son, George (Logan Lerman), isn’t just any George but a famous, notoriously tan one. Suddenly, the movie’s conceited tone makes sense, like finding out that Kevin Spacey was Keyzer Soze all along. (107 min., PG-13) (Wesley Morris)
9 Shane Acker’s vividly downbeat work of animation brings us a story of a world on its last leg, only this one, imaginatively enough, is populated only by machines and a collection of nine living puppets. It’s thrilling how much care Acker has put into realizing his vision. You want to reach out and touch this movie as much as watch it. And, no, it’s not in 3-D. (79 min., PG-13) (Wesley Morris)
The September Issue One of the most revealing movies you’ll see about work. R.J. Cutler’s documentary is set at the Manhattan offices of American Vogue. Cutler treats it all seriously, but not too seriously. The people who work at Vogue work hard. They’re serious, really thinking about fashion, how it evolves, and where it belongs in a woman’s life. The best stuff involves the editor, Anna Wintour, and her creative differences with creative director Grace Coddington, who’s the movie star. (90 min., PG-13) (Wesley Morris)
Sorority Row In yet another needless slasher-film remake, five graduating sorority sisters try to cover up a friend’s accidental murder. Carrie Fisher, of all people, plays the housemother, shotgun in hand. (101 min., R) (Jonathan Perry)
Whiteout A ham-handed Antarctic murder mystery that starts out average and heads south from there, falling apart under the pressures of graceless camerawork, leaps of illogic, and TV-movie production values. Kate Beckinsale plays a US marshal investigating multiple homicides way down under. (96 min., R) (Ty Burr)
A Wink and a Smile A documentary about Seattle’s postmodern burlesque scene, and what it can offer women seeking sexual and emotional empowerment. Some of the stage acts are deliriously out there, but director Deirdre Timmons’s earnestness almost sucks the fun out of the proceedings. (91 min., unrated) (Ty Burr)
An archive of movie reviews can be found at www.boston.com/movies. Theaters are subject to change. 
