The theme of the season for Hollywood seems to be a return to family, if the crop of films slated for release between now and Christmas are any indication. “Often when Hollywood pursues a trend, it’s to the detriment of filmgoers. It’s glut, rut or both. So such an energetic return to hearth and home, moms and pops, might suggest a bottom line-inspired recoil from the world’s rough challenges. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time cinema used the American family as a barricade erected to protect our fantasies of security and fidelity. But many of the films in this bumper crop don’t signal retreat, but a willful engagement. And not a limited one – but an opening-wide one.”