Any fan of playwright/screenwrtier/filmmaker Neil LaBute‘s honest depictions of cringe-inducing narcissism will be pleased by Some Girl(s). LaBute’s last few films – The Wickerman, Death at a Funeral, and Lakeview Terrace – have shown him going outside his comfort zone with varying results. Some Girl(s), which LaBute scripted (but didn’t direct) from his play of the same name, marks the theatrical return of the LaBute we love. His greatest works often resemble a car crash in motion with the driver smiling through every ding, bone crush, and bump while the victims are left with serious pain. The driver here is simply credited as “Man” and played by Adam Brody. The victims are a few of Man’s ex-girlfriends, all of whom feature distinct personalities and past issues with him. There is the older woman (Emily Watson) he had an affair with, a young girl (Zoe Kazan) he took advantage of, the High School girlfriend (Jennifer Morrison), the tattooed Chicago girl (Mia Maestro) who made him feel cool and the final girl is played by Kristen Bell. He’s doing all this to right any wrongs before marrying his newest girl.

There’s nothing quite like applying humor to a horrific slice of history to give new blood to some well-tread territory – thus a “pitch black comedy” set during WWI that centers on romantic affairs between sworn enemies. The Playlist reports that director Jon Amiel‘s film, The Poisoners, has lined up a really wonderful cast to give some laughs (and love) to the WWI-set story. Coming from script by television writer Paul Billing, the film follows “a group of women left behind in an English farming community during WWI who then become romantically intertwined with several German prisoners of war.” So, like, reverse In the Land of Bloody and Honey? The film’s cast now includes Emily Watson, Anna Friel, and Lena Headey as just some of those British ladies who fall in love with their apparent enemies. They will be joined by German actors Ken Duken, Hanno Koffler, and Alexander Scheer so, at the very least, this one is going for some cultural authenticity. While that’s a great cast, I’m most excited about seeing more work from the ever-charming Friel.

Just on the heels of the announcement that Kristen Bell had signed on to be the first of Adam Brody’s many ex-girlfriends in Some Girls, THR has a report that a whole bevy of additional actresses have come out of the woodwork to fill out the ranks of Brody’s former flames. You see, Some Girls is an adaptation of a Neil LaBute play about a young writer who is looking to take stock of his past romantic entanglements and gain closure with each of his exes before he moves forward in his life and marries his current fiancée. Bell is said to be playing a character named Bobbi, a whip-smart little lady who Brody’s character walked away from without so much as a word. And with this new casting announcement, it’s looking like the Jennifer Getzinger-directed film version of this story will be including four other girls that have a bone to pick with the reflective protagonist as well. The biggest name of the bunch is Emily Watson, who will be playing a married woman named Lindsay who Brody’s character had an affair with. Watson has had a whole bunch of great roles before this, but she’s probably best known for her Oscar nominated performances in Breaking the Waves and Hilary and Jackie. To say that she adds some pedigree to this production would be something of an understatement.

War Horse is a sprawling war epic that’s so old-fashioned it belongs in a museum. Not only has director Steven Spielberg painstakingly recreated the look and feel of a classical picture of this scope, imbued with a heavy dose of mid-century British formalism, he’s essentially made a carbon copy of a David Lean movie. Such a nostalgic enterprise would be welcome if it told a story worth telling, with the strong, determined characters and bold cinematic brushstrokes of a Lean picture. Spielberg’s film does nothing of the sort — it’s a stodgy, ridiculous movie with a horse that simultaneously serves as an allegory for the bond that unites all mankind and a symbol of profound, idealized purity.

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr pulls out his screening schedule, which looks like a gambling addict’s racing form. He bounces from huge, mainstream releases to minor indie award contenders. Facing motion-capture CGI, tattooed bisexual investigators, cross-dressing waiters, silent film actors, and a lead star who is literally hung like a horse, Kevin tries to make sense of the seemingly countless releases this holiday week. Exhaustion from this process makes it impossible to buy a zoo or face the 3D end of the world, but his movie stocking is full, nonetheless.

In Oranges and Sunshine, Emily Watson brings her Oscar-nominee-worthy acting to a leading role that sees her investigating a decades-old crime perpetrated en masse by a religious order. That crime? The conning and subsequent deportation of thousands of children to work camps in Australia. What’s most harrowing about the story is that it’s true. Watson plays Margaret Humphreys, the social worker who uncovered the scandal, shined a light on it, and worked to reunite now-adult children with their families. She’s joined by Hugo Weaving and David Wenham, and the trailer looks absolutely gripping: