True, that long-delayed “Spider-Man” musical may never make it to Broadway and the hyped-to-the-heavens “Watchmen” was something of a box office underachiever. But otherwise, superhero extravaganzas have a fairly impressive track record when it comes to making money.

The calendar may say November to you and I, but to film publicists, studio executives, moviemakers and actors it might as well say “Oscar Season, Part One.” Already, the drums are starting to beat, the buzz is beginning to rise and the names of various Academy Award contenders are being mentioned.

“Conviction” is the story of a man behind bars and a woman in a prison of her own creation. They’re siblings. Based on a true story — that was still unfolding while the movie was in production, interestingly enough — Pamela Gray’s screenplay is a bittersweet examination of how the ties that bind can also tie us down.

“Bert is a more physically demanding role than Fiyero,” Dromard said. “So I’ve been going back to the gym and getting my stamina back up. I never stop sweating, which is great ' but my costume keeps getting bigger and bigger because I keep losing weight.

Public schools are under scrutiny in ’Superman’In 2006, Davis Guggenheim directed the Oscar-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” which warned about global warming. Now, Guggenheim has turned his attention to something chilling: the sorry state of America’s public school system.

Belinda Carlisle once assured us heaven is a place on earth. Director Clint Eastwood's "Hereafter" makes it clear that limbo is a place inside a movie theater. It’s a meditation on mortality that doesn’t overindulge in shocks or sentimentality, but when it comes to ponderousness, well, the sky’s the limit.

“Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?” former President George W. Bush memorably mused a decade ago. That’s exactly what director Davis Guggenheim (“An Inconvenient Truth,” “It Might Get Loud”) asks in “Waiting for Superman,” a film that ultimately raises more questions than it answers. That’s not a bad thing at all. Even if you object to Guggenheim’s findings or what he leaves in or leaves out, “Waiting” is a great conversation-starter about a topic we should all be discussing. In the wake of the much-ridiculed, much-vilified “No Child Left Behind” program, Guggenheim sees a system in which plenty of children are not only left behind, they’re left in the dust.

It’s an impressive assortment of features, documentaries, shorts and Michigan-made productions assembled by ELFF exceutive director Susan Woods. If it seems like it’s been a long time between festivals, it has: Now in its 13th year, ELFF has moved from March to October to avoid having to compete with the traditional March Madness hoopla.

If education is power, Laura Allen must be a woman to reckon with.The actress graduated from Wellesley College in 1996, then returned to the campus to play a co-ed in Julia Roberts’ 2003 drama “Mona Lisa Smile.” Five years later, Allen went back to school one more time: In “Cherry,” shot in Kalamazoo two years ago and now opening around the country, she plays Linda, a mom in her early 30s, making an uneasy adjustment to academia.

(Friday, Oct. 15) Kathy, Tommy and Ruth grew up within the confines of Hailsham, a secluded private academy in the English countryside. They weren't typical British schoolchildren, however.