•ARARAT Director-writer Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter), who is of Armenian heritage, attempts to chronicle the early-20th-century genocide of Armenians by the Turks through overlapping stories set in today's Toronto and a film within a film. Heartfelt, but as confusing as it sounds. (R)

•8 MILE Eminem holds his own playing a hip-hop Horatio Alger in a familiar tale about an artistically gifted young man hoping to rise above his crummy surroundings, here a Detroit trailer park. (R)

•FAR FROM HEAVEN Julianne Moore is magnificent as a woman whose marriage is crumbling in director-writer Todd Haynes's artful reexamination of glamorous '50s weepies. Dennis Quaid and Dennis Haysbert costar. (PG-13)

•REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES A smart Latina teen learns about life in a feel-good comedy that deserves to be the next My Big Fat Greek Wedding. (PG-13)

•THE SANTA CLAUSE 2 Tim Allen dons red again in a family comedy. Yule regret it. (G)