The ’80s never gets old, especially when served with crude laughs and a gnarly sound track. For a school project, vixen Danielle (a foulmouthed floozy with daddy issues) gets paired with gay Clarke (an outcast who’s never puckered up) to parent a Pampered five-pound bag of flour named Joan Crawford. They saddle up with Joan for a cross-country mission to spruce up Danielle’s family tree.
It’s like: The Brady Bunch Movie getting an Easy A.
Take: Sweet tarts.
Premieres: Today
Find showtimes online at fandango.com.

The Year of the Gosling marches on with George Clooney’s election drama about an amicable governor (Clooney) running for president while harboring a secret and, more interesting, his right-hand man (you know who) who knows the truth. It’s not complicated, just an easy-to-watch game of chess. And it’s got our vote.
It’s like: Primary Colors meets The Firm.
Take: Your running mate.
Premieres: Today
Find showtimes online at fandango.com.

In Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar’s symphony of weird, Antonio Banderas sheds fur and boots for a lab-coated mad surgeon experiencing DIY gone awry. Dealing with the loss of his wife, Dr. Robert builds another from carefully harvested skin grafts and an unwilling participant. That’s really all you need to know; this game of Operation is best with a clean slate.
It’s like: Dogtooth meets Weird Science.
Take: Organ donors.
Premieres: October 14
Find showtimes online at fandango.com.

There she is. Miss Stuck in a Pickled Pepper. After witnessing a Mexican massacre, pageant contestant Laura is forced to trade the sash for stacks of cash. A mule under the threat of death, she’s dragged into organized crime, reaches Stockholm without leaving Tijuana, and gets crowned — but not because of her commitment to world peace. A hit at film festivals, Gerardo Naranjo’s lifelike thriller is terrifying, so don’t get caught doing the ugly cry.
It’s like: Maria Full of Grace meets Miss Congeniality.
Take: The senoritas. And hot tamales.
Premieres: October 14
Find showtimes online at fandango.com.

Prepare yourself for Alma Har’el’s peek into the lives of three endearing guys living in the forgotten, teeth-optional town. Out in the desert with dogs with no names, the subjects of Tribeca’s Best Doc winner tell their stories to the tune of Beirut and Bob Dylan. Warning: Benny, a bipolar little boy with a sweet voice and knack for storytelling, draws a tear.
It’s like: Living the American dream on the Island of Misfit Toys.
Take: Note of the artful dodgings of the cinematography by Har’el.
Premieres: October 14
Find showtimes online at fandango.com.

Now that temps are cooling, allow Aki Kaurismäki’s film festival pleaser to warm your heart. In le feel-good movie from Finland (and the country’s shot at an Oscar come February), shoe shiner Marcel Marx finds a friend in an African refugee boy. Keeping the boy safe, Marx and his kindhearted pals exude humor and good nature that gives the every-man-for-himself ideology the boot.
It’s like: The Illusionist meets The Visitor.
Take: Dear old Dad.
Premieres: October 21
Find showtimes online at fandango.com.

Oh, we know how to get there: through Constance Marks’s tell-all that’s giggling its way through the festival circuit. What began as an obsession with Disney World and Captain Kangaroo turned into a magical talent for transforming lumps of fabric and foam into friends. The man behind the huggable monster, Kevin Clash, reveals what’s up his sleeve, and it couldn’t be sweeter.
It’s like: Taking up residence on Sesame Street.
Take: A puppet master.
Premieres: October 21
Find showtimes online at fandango.com.

Newbie director Sean Durkin gave Sundance-goers the willies with his haunting debut starring the other sister, Elizabeth Olsen. Taking home the festival’s Best Director title, his portrayal of a girl who escapes a cult but is never really free borrows from real-life events and reinvents the horror genre. And it’s time we were under John Hawkes’s spell again.
It’s like: Winter’s Bone meets Helter Skelter.
Take: Your followers.
Premieres: October 21
Find showtimes online at fandango.com.

There’s no shame in sobbing like a pubescent teenager during Drake Doremus’s Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner. Cuckoo for each other, American Jacob and British Anna get split up after she overstays her visa’s welcome. Ripped from the pages of the director’s own story, this lovers’ tale is driven by Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones, a pair whose insane chemistry sparked when Doremus dropped the script and just let the camera roll.
It’s: A Lot like Love.
Wear: Waterproof mascara.
Premieres: October 28
Find showtimes online at fandango.com.