my week at the movies: ‘Lars and the Real Girl’ (finally), ‘Rendition,’ ’30 Days of Night,’ ‘Jimmy Carter Man from Plains’

Slow week for me. I finally caught up with Lars and the Real Girl [opens limited October 12] today after technical difficulties scuttled a screening a couple of weeks ago. Turns out it’s a wonderful and deeply emotional little movie, all the yuckiness about Real Dolls aside. Ryan Gosling is amazing, and without question one of the best young actors working today. Watch for my review soon.

I’ll check out Rendition [opens wide October 19] tomorrow. This hot-button current-events flick -- an Egyptian-American disappears from an international flight, and is suspected of having been whisked off for the now ordinary regimen of torture and no access to lawyers -- is from Tsotsi director Gavin Hood, and it has a spectacular cast -- Reese Withersoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep, Alan Arkin, Peter Sarsgaard, J.K. Simmons, so I hope this is good.