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Yes, we can, said U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, as he check-listed the challenges facing his country. Well, yes, we can, too. In the movie world, there's another name for the Great Depression; it was the beginning of Hollywood's Golden Era, when two-thirds of the population went to movies every week, compared to fewer than 10 per cent nowadays.

The movies are still a Depression-era bargain compared to tickets to sports events, concerts and almost anything else that involves leaving the house. Call us cockeyed optimists. Call us Molly Bloom. As the world teeters between hope and trepidation, escape to the pictures is almost a patriotic duty.

So, yes, we can watch The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, with Brad Pitt going from old age to babyhood (a state with which he is intimately familiar). Yes, we can watch Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman wax passionate in Baz Luhrmann's Australia, or even Jim Carrey in Yes Man (not the Obama story). In the words of those great Depression songwriters, “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive” and “Let's face the music and dance.”

The list of films is not complete, and dates may change.

General Catastrophes There's nothing like an impending Armageddon to sharpen the senses, heighten intensity and generally make real life seem more manageable.

Twilight (Nov. 21) Like Christmas, vampires are big on red and white, and leave you feeling drained. Twilight is a pre-sold phenomena: The soundtrack album is No. 1 on the U.S. charts, Stephenie Meyer's book was a bestseller and the film has been pumping up support on the Internet and at comic conventions. Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen) directs this romance-suspense-thriller in which teenager Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) falls in love with vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), but though he wants to suck her blood, he resists and tries to protect her from a rival group of vampires.

Reason for hope: More than a decade after Titanic, teenaged girls need a new reason to swoon.

The Day the Earth Stood Still (Dec. 12) “Klaatu barada nikto” goes one of the most famous phrases in science fiction. In this remake of the 1951 sci-fi classic, Keanu Reeves stars as the intergalactic alien who comes in peace. Jennifer Connelly and Kathy Bates co-star, along with a CGI-created robot, Gort, who can destroy the Earth.

Reason for hope: The why-can't-we-all-just-get-along message and stuff blowing up.

Social Conflict Ballast (Nov. 21) Director Lance Hammer seems to be channelling Belgian's Dardenne brothers in this minimalist drama about a family in the Mississippi delta, shattered by a suicide. The film won the directing and cinematography awards at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

Reason for hope: A chance to look at the new spare wave of American independent cinema.

Growing Op (Nov. 21) Cape Breton native Michael Melski wrote this comedy-drama about a kid who rebels against his home-schooling, dope-growing background and finds conventional suburbia even worse.

Reasons for hope: Homegrown-comedy contact high.

Doubt (Dec. 12, Toronto; Dec. 19, Vancouver and Montreal; Dec. 25, wide) Based on the stage play, this Catholic drama set in 1964 features Meryl Streep as a hard-line mother superior, Philip Seymour Hoffman as a reform-minded priest accused of abusing a boy and Amy Adams as a tattle-tale young nun.

Reason for hope: Director-playwright John Patrick Shanley (Joe Versus the Volcano, Five Corners, Moonstruck) returns to directing for the screen after 18 years.

While She Was Out (Dec. 12) Kim Basinger stars as an abused housewife who gets into an altercation with punks over a parking space. Lukas Haas co-stars as the lead punk.

Reason for hope: Can we ever get enough movies about nice people who are forced into violence by no-good punks?

Grand Torino (limited release Dec. 17) Clint Eastwood directs and stars in this film about an ornery old coot who kicks the crap out of a young Asian kid who's trying to steal his vintage car and then joins the kid in a fight against meaner Asian-Americans.

Reason for hope and trepidation: Clint's been hailed as a modern American master as a director; when he's in front of the camera, that's another story.

War What is it good for? Silly question. Dramas of doomed romance and heroic sacrifice, of course.

Australia (Nov. 26) This long a-brewing epic from director Baz Luhrmann is about a cattle driver (Hugh Jackman) who arrives in Darwin, Australia, to witness the Japanese bombing of the city and teams up with an English aristocrat (Nicole Kidman) in search of her straying husband.

Reasons for hope: Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge) is always good for visual pop, and Kidman hasn't been too overexposed this year.

Valkyrie (Dec. 26) Tom Cruise stars as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, who led an ill-fated conspiracy to assassinate Hitler in 1944. Kenneth Branagh co-stars as co-conspirator Henning von Tresckow. Directed by Bryan Singer, whose films include X-Men and Apt Pupil.

Reason for hope: At worst, the camp value of little Tom in a Nazi uniform.

The Reader (Dec. 12) Ralph Fiennes and Kate Winslet star in a story about a teenaged boy who becomes involved with an older woman, who is later put on trial as a Nazi war criminal.

Reasons for hope: The cast and director Stephen Daldry (The Hours) and screenwriter David Hare.

Politics Thanks to the polarizing effects of President George W. Bush, political films have been popular for the past few years. We'll miss it, maybe.

Frost/Nixon (Dec. 5) In 1977, talk-show host David Frost bought an interview with disgraced ex-president Richard Nixon, with revelatory results. From the prize-winning play and now a movie with Michael Sheen as Frost and Frank Langella as Nixon.

Reasons for hope: Excellent cast, and a torn-from-the-transcript story with strong resonances about the abuses of executive power.

Milk (Nov. 26) Gus Van Sant directs and Sean Penn stars in this drama about San Francisco gay-rights activist Harvey Milk, assassinated in the 1970s.

Reasons for hope: A director and star capable of great things and a timely subject. Also, two top actors in Josh Brolin and Emile Hirsch.

Holiday Dogs Among the lesser crises facing the new American president is what kind of family dog to buy. Two new movies offer some ideas.

Bolt (Nov. 21) Disney's latest animated feature sounds like The Littlest Hobo with a postmodern twist in this animated film about a German shepherd (voiced by John Travolta) who has spent his life on a movie set and really believes he has super-powers, which makes it no fun when he's out in the real world. Miley Cyrus provides the voice of his owner, Penny.

Marley & Me (Dec. 25) Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson in an adaptation of John Grogan's book about his trouble-causing dog.

Reason for hope for both movies: Few dog movies are utterly without merit.

Family movies Christmas is the season for domestic joy and strife, mostly about what kind of movie to see: Un Conte de Noël (A Christmas Tale) (Nov. 28) French director Arnaud Desplechin's deeply strange family drama features Mathieu Amalric (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) as the black sheep of an extended family, whose members suffer from repressed grief over the death of the first-born child years ago. Catherine Deneuve plays the cold matriarch who invites everyone home for Christmas: She needs a bone-marrow transplant if she is to survive cancer, and the son who has been banished from the family is the most likely donor.

Reason for hope: Arguably France's most interesting contemporary filmmaker in a story that rides the razor edge of tragedy and comedy.

Four Christmases (Nov. 26) What's Christmas without a kooky domestic comedy? Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon are a couple who have to visit each of their divorced parents at Christmas.

Reason for hope: An extra frisson of interest comes from the reports that the stars couldn't stand each other.

Nothing Like the Holidays (Dec. 12) The traditional family Christmas comedy comes with a Hispanic twist. The cast includes John Leguizamo, Debra Messing, Freddy Rodriguez, Alfred Molina and Elizabeth Pena.

Reason for hope: the reliably disturbing Luis Guzman as dad.

Bedtime Stories (Dec. 25) Adam Sandler tells bedtime stories to his niece and nephew that come true the next day.

Reason for hope: At least the stories will be PG-rated.

Music Musicals have made a strong showing at the Oscars, and so far, there's only one strong contender.

Cadillac Records (Dec. 5) This is the story of Leonard Chess and Chess Records, the Chicago record label that put urban blues on the map in the 1950s. Adrien Brody plays Leonard Chess and Beyoncé Knowles takes on the great Etta James.

Reasons for hope: Great music and a performance by Jeffrey Wright as Muddy Waters.

Action Christmas movies only in the sense that this may be the time of year you feel an overwhelming urge to punch someone.

Transporter 3 (Nov. 26) Jason Statham returns, this time escorting a Ukrainian official's daughter.

Punisher: War Zone (Dec. 5) The Marvel Comics hero Frank Castle (Ray Stevenson) faces his deadly foe Jigsaw.

The Spirit (Dec. 25) The latest from graphic novelist Frank Miller (300, Sin City) features a reanimated crime fighter (Gabriel Macht) battling a villain (Samuel L. Jackson). Scarlett Johansson co-stars as a character named, no kidding, Silken Floss.

Reason for hope: It will be at least a year until they release the sequels.

Inspiration Seven Pounds (Dec. 19) “It makes you feel, it makes you think,” said Oprah, who dedicated an entire show to this film. Will Smith stars as a suicidal IRS agent who has to do good deeds for seven people, including Rosario Dawson, a young woman with a heart condition with whom he falls in love. Woody Harrelson co-stars as a blind pianist.

Reason for hope: Oprah also endorsed Barack Obama.

Yes Man (Dec. 19) In this comedy, Jim Carrey is a habitual naysayer who decides to say yes to everything for an entire year.

Reason for hope: Zooey Deschanel co-stars.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Dec. 25) Brad Pitt stars in this film, based on a story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, that tells the tale of a man who is born in his 80s and gets younger with time. Cate Blanchett plays the woman he loves.

Reason for hope: Director David Fincher, who worked with Pitt in Seven, is in the driver's seat, and with a $150-million budget, there‘s got to be something going on.

The Wrestler (Toronto, Dec. 26; Montreal and Vancouver, Jan. 9; wide Jan. 23) Director Darren Aranofsky directs this story of an over-the-hill wrestler (Mickey Rourke) who puts his life at risk to keep doing the only thing he knows how to do. With Evan Rachel Wood and Marisa Tomei.

Reason for hope: A hit at the Venice and Toronto film festivals, this is a major comeback performance for Rourke, in a role that mirrors his life.