When Stephen Hawking was 21 years old, he was given two years to live. Today, he is 73. Hawking’s story isn’t amazing simply because he beat the odds in his battle with ALS (better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease), it is remarkable because he continued to work, becoming one of the most renowned theoretical physicists in the world. Nominated for best picture at the upcoming Academy Awards, “The Theory of Everything” considers many of the major events in Hawking’s life.

Laika, the studio that brought us “ParaNorman” and “Coraline,” continues its outstanding theatrical work with “The Boxtrolls,” an animated feature based on the Alan Snow novel “Here Be Monsters!” The stop-motion project, which is nominated for best animated movie at the Academy Awards, is set in the fictionalized town of Cheesebridge during the Victorian era.

Few directors match David Fincher in terms of filmmaking prowess. He is known as a perfectionist, and his work ethic results in exciting films that drip with atmosphere and often take viewers by surprise. From that standpoint, “Gone Girl” is a quintessential Fincher project. Based on the bestselling 2012 novel by Gillian Flynn, the movie focuses on Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck), an average guy who is thrown into the spotlight when his semi-famous wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike), goes missing. 

Pierce Brosnan was excellent in his brief stint as James Bond, a fact director Roger Donaldson (“Thirteen Days,” “The World’s Fastest Indian”) likely considered when bringing the English actor back to the spy genre. In “The November Man,” based on the Bill Granger novel “There Are No Spies,” Brosnan plays Peter Devereaux, a retired CIA agent lured back to action by his former boss, John Hanley (Bill Smitrovich).

Time travel movies are tricky, but director Doug Liman has delivered a science-fiction gem with “Edge of Tomorrow,” a fast-paced, action-heavy affair that plays like a mash up of “Groundhog Day” and “War of the Worlds.”  The picture is set in a near future where frightening, tentacular creatures have launched an all-out assault on Earth. Just when it looks like the alien beings are invincible, Sgt. Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt) leads humanity to an impressive victory using a heavily armed exoskeleton.  

Adapting a book to the screen is a dicey affair, and the task is particularly daunting with a bestseller like John Green’s 2012 novel, “The Fault in Our Stars.” Fortunately for fans, director Josh Boone skillfully dodges the pitfalls that have caused so many literary works to fail in theaters. Boone’s “Fault in Our Stars” is, like the book, a tearjerker, but it is also thoughtful, sweet and often funny. 

As Peter swims through personal problems, his city faces a series of new threats, the most serious being an attack by Electro (Jamie Foxx), a supervillain capable of absorbing electricity and using it as a weapon. “Spider-Man 2” deliver’s Electro’s backstory while laying the groundwork for the appearance of two more Spidey villans: the Green Goblin (Dane DeHaan) and the Rhino (Paul Giamatti). 

It seems in many ways that Paul Bowles led a charmed life.  The new sounds of jazz had been forbidden in an inordinately strict household—though his mother’s reading of Edgar Allen Poe became an inspiration for his later stories.  A closeted homosexual and a fatalist at heart, he had tossed a coin:  heads he would take his own life, tails he would head for the City of Light.  His early musical talents caught the ear of composer Aaron Copland, his traveling companion for his first trip to Tangier.  But it was in Paris that Gertrude Stein discovered her “Freddie.”  

This film has it all: intrigue, jealousy, European aristocracy, murder.  It’s also set in a seemingly idyllic utopia, a tiny piece-of-rock island off the coast of Ecuador that lends its Darwinian fame as the stage for this commendable documentary.  That would be the island of Floreana, a 67 square-mile desolate land in the southern region of the Galapagos archipelago, where Friedrich Ritter and his mistress Dore Strauch decide to relocate to escape modern civilization and build their own Eden. 

Movie lovers can count on writer-director Spike Jonze to tackle fascinating projects that live outside the mainstream, but his films often meander. These competing tendencies make him one of the most exciting – and frustrating – filmmakers working today, and he displays both his gifts and limitations in “Her.” The movie is, in many ways, a work of creative genius, delivering insights on topics ranging from romantic relationships to the failures of modern technology.