Summit Entertainment

Former British Prime Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan, left) enlists a nameless writer (Ewan McGregor) to write his memoirs in The Ghost Writer.

A GPS device figures prominently into one of many plots found in The Ghost Writer, a thriller from director Roman Polanski. And that’s convenient, because the gadget will also come in handy to keep track of the film’s many twists and turns. The Ghost Writer is based on Robert Harris’ script, adapted from his historical novel. Harris takes fairly current events and weaves a convoluted conspiracy theory, giving the film both an immediacy and a familiarity.

Paladin

Nate Parker, center, plays community activist Ben Chavis in Blood Don’t Sign My Name, in theaters now.

Nate Parker thinks the true story behind his latest film provides a valuable lesson for a contemporary generation. But it’s not necessarily a history lesson. Blood Don’t Sign My Name is based on the story of a small North Carolina town in 1970 where an innocent black Vietnam veteran was murdered in a dark alley by a prejudiced white businessman, who later was acquitted by an all-white jury. That caused plenty of civil unrest in the local church and among the black community at the time, and eventually a call for change.

Paramount Pictures

Mark Ruffalo, left, and Leonardo DiCaprio co-star in the thriller Shutter Island, Martin Scorsese’s creepy adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s novel.

Wiseguys and goodfellas give way to hallucinations, nightmares and evil doctors in Shutter Island, Martin Scorsese’s creepy new mystery. Based on a novel by Dennis Lehane (Mystic River), with a screenplay from Laeta Kalogridis, this multisided thriller plays its secrets so cleverly that a viewer could easily get lost in its complex misdirection. Even when it becomes apparent that not all is what it seems, several other surprises lie ahead.

Courtesy photo

Dust & Illusions, which screens locally during Thin Line Film Fest, examines the history of Burning Man, an annual festival in the Nevada desert.

Thin Line Film Fest has harvested the kind of films other documentary festivals have taken decades to attract. This weekend, Texas’ only documentary film festival will screen Academy Award nominees and one special jury prize-winner from Sundance Film Festival.

20th Century Fox

Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman) stands triumphant with the trident belonging to his father, the Greek god Poseidon, in Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief.

Contemporary teenagers might seem firmly detached from the world of Greek mythology, but the young cast members in Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief hope to bridge that gap. The film, directed by Chris Columbus, is based on the first book in a fantasy series by Rick Riordan that throws its modern high school characters into the mythological realm through Percy, a misfit who learns he is really the demigod son of Poseidon, god of the sea.