Brad Pitt

In theaters, two major films continue the season’s flood of true-life stories, while two others explore the dynamics of troubled families.

Our Movies For Grownups choices this week include just one new film and not a favorite, at that.  Still, some would say you could have worse company than Brad Pitt, Cormac McCarthy and Ridley Scott.

The Counselor is a mess of a  movie. That's surprising, given the talent in this modern noir -  Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Michael Fassbender and  Brad Pitt - and a screenplay (his first) by Cormac McCarthy, the esteemed author who has won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. As a screenwriter, the 80-year-old turns out to be a great novelist.

            Every year my extended family and I have a nationwide Academy Awards Pick 'em. We sit through the ceremony, dutifully checking off actual winners versus our predictions, and then we honor the most accurate prognosticator with congratulatory e-mails.

I live in a city where it's still O.K. to look dowdy, especially if you're a man. In fact, you can go places in Washington with a good head of grey hair and the Brooks Brothers sport jacket you wore in high school. Sometimes, if you also have a boyish glint in your eye, you can even get the top job in town (see: Clinton, William Jefferson).