Songcatcher showcases a gentler but no less determined feminism. The time is 1907, and Lily Penleric (Janet McTeer), a doctor of musicology, flees male-dominated academia for Appalachia, where her sister (Jane Adams) runs a school. Lily's cool manner is thawed by the mountain people, including Aidan Quinn as a widowed musician and a superb Pat Carroll as his grandma. But it's the music spun from English and Scottish folk ballads that holds Lily. Writer-director Maggie Greenwald glories in these sounds, notably those of singer Emmy Rossum, 13, in her acting debut. McTeer and the transporting music hold you in thrall.

“Time to Pretend”

Listening to MGMT’s breakthrough song, one might interpret it as being about the excesses of rock stardom, but it’s actually about the duo’s pet praying mantis. Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden told Rolling Stone they got the idea from the insect's jerky movements. The mantis died, but the two bandmates kept the egg sack and allowed the hundreds of eggs to hatch. “We tried to name them all, but they died after a day,” said Goldwasser, with VanWyngarden chiming in, “But the praying mantis dance inspired us.”