Big screen

Opening Friday

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (R): Here’s a side of the 16th president of the United States you won’t find in the Steven Spielberg biopic due at Christmas: During the Civil War, Lincoln (Benjamin Walker) splits his time thwarting the Confederate Army and chasing down the undead bloodsuckers who have invaded our borders.

Brave (PG): Pixar Animation Studios is hoping you’ll forgive them for the abomination that was Cars 2 with this fantasy about a princess (Kelly Macdonald) who wields a mean bow and arrow, defies family tradition and becomes a warrior.

Lola Versus (R): Greta Gerwig ( Damsels in Distress) is a young woman nearing 30 forced to rethink her life after her fiancé dumps her mere weeks before her wedding.

Moonrise Kingdom (PG-13): Wes Anderson, the movies’ reigning master of whimsy ( The Royal Tennenbaums, The Fantastic Mr. Fox), directs this story about a boy and girl who fall in love and run away in 1960s New England. The all-star posse searching for them includes Bruce Willis, Tilda Swinton, Edward Norton, Harvey Keitel, Bill Murray and Frances McDormand.

Safety Not Guaranteed (R): Three magazine journalists (including Parks & Recreation’s Aubrey Plaza) are assigned to track down and interview a man who placed a classified ad looking for someone to travel back in time along with him.

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (R): What if Melancholia had been a romantic comedy? Steve Carell plays a man whose wife freaks out and leaves him after scientists announce a meteor is heading straight for Earth. Keira Knightley is the neighbor who helps him fill the void until the end arrives.

Your Sister’s Sister (R): Writer-director Lynn Shelton ( Humpday) returns with another mumblecore comedy about the romantic triangle between a woman (Emily Blunt), her sister (Rosemarie DeWitt) and the guy (Mark Duplass) they both get involved with..

Rene Rodriguez

Small screen

Forensic Firsts (9 p.m. Sunday, Smithsonian Channel) Shockingly, it turns out that all those fancy tests you see on the CSI shows weren’t invented by Horatio Caine or Catherine Willows. Smithsonian’s new series uses recent cases as a hook for mini-histories of various forensic techniques — starting with DNA testing, which has been around only about a quarter of a century.

One Nation, Under Dog (9 p.m. Monday, HBO) An offbeat documentary about America’s 78 million dogs and their owners. It even includes a segment about people who clone their dogs, or, as my cat Melissa calls them, “war criminals.”

School Spirits (10 p.m. Wednesday, Syfy) Now that the economy is booming and war has been ended, it’s time we turn our attention to more pressing problems: namely, the shocking number of American colleges that are haunted. This series starts with the ghosts plaguing a sorority at the University of Michigan, doubtless the aftermath of some covered-up tragedy like a taffeta prom dress.

Inside Nature’s Giants (10 p.m. Wednesday, WPBT-PBS 2) Not quite as alarming as it sounds: Nobody gotten eat by a 40-foot-long squid. But a creature with blue blood, three hearts and teeth on its tentacles is pretty unsettling even when viewed from the outside.

tallhotblonde (8 p.m. Saturday, Lifetime) Cyberstalkers! Jealous wives! Wrathful exes! Fun for the whole family! Courteney Cox directs and also has a role. No spoilers, but Monica she ain’t.

Glenn Garvin

Let Miami Herald TV critic Glenn Garvin program your TiVo! Just click on his best bets for the week at www.tivo.com/guruguide.