It’s the weekend before Thanksgiving, so as you’re preparing for the feast and practicing your competitive-eating game face, don’t forget that you need breaks for good behavior. Plus, if you eat a giant tub of popcorn, you might manage to stretch your belly as if you were consuming popping peanuts, which will allow you to hold more food than the portions you were planning on holding in your cheeks like a hamster. This week, get some humanity with “The Blind Side,” learn that we’re all aliens to someone in “Planet 51,” get your teen wolf heartthrob quota met with “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” and learn about Latin love with “Broken Embraces.”

It’s a pretty epic day for movie releases. Perhaps it’s for our post-Veterans Day, pre-Thanksgiving blowout celebration? So sticker-roll the cat hair off your sweater, buy a tub of popcorn, and get lost in the upcoming apocalypse of “2012,” experience the hardest job in the world with “The Messenger,” remember that anything can and often will happen with “Uncertainty,” burrow with some furries in “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” or get ship-wrecked with “Pirate Radio.”

Thank goodness it’s Friday, because this daylight savings thing has totally killed any motivation to leave the house after 5pm. This will have to change, though, because new movies open this weekend and there are some good ones. If you’re in the mood to be an emotional mess, go see “Precious.” If you have ever wondered if you could take another person’s life in your hands, “The Box” is the movie for you. If you’re not a fan of goats but enjoy handsome men, “Men Staring at Goats” should work. And if you need a hand getting in the holiday spirit, go see “A Christmas Carol.” Your viewing choice is of course up to your discretion, but go see “Precious.” Oprah says so, too.