The Smoke Signal

By Sarah Li Films With the cooling seasons comes a cascade of new films. The Social Network, dramatizing the turbulent history of Facebook’s founding fathers, hits theaters next Friday amidst a flurry of online chatter. Red (Oct. 15), a film about a retired black-ops agent threatened by an assassin, manages to squeeze itself in just before the annual onslaught of Halloween-inspired thrillers:Paranormal Activity 2 (Oct. 22) and Saw 3D (Oct. 29). The final months bring a number of highly anticipated hits with the first segment of the final Harry Potter installment (Nov. 9) and Tron: Legacy (Dec. 17). Family films, includingMegamind (Nov. 5) and Tangled…

By Jamie Lin Movies It was a sad summer for movies, but a few superstars shone above the rest. Animated family fun reigned supreme with Toy Story 3, appealing to those who grew up with the first two as well as the new generation of kids. Despicable Me, another animated kid-friendly flick, also proved as formidable as its supervillain characters. While big-budget films like The Last Airbender and The A-Team disappointed critically and financially, Inception was the must-see movie of the summer. Besides keeping its number one spot for three weeks, it has the best international gross of 2010…