Friday’s openings: From Hot tubs to ‘Timbuktu’

The best films from 2014 continue to trickle into area theaters, along with some regular Hollywood fare. So if you look among Friday's movie openings, you're likely to find a few gems among the dross.

Friday's openings are as follows:

"McFarland, USA": A coach (Kevin Costner) in a small California town transforms his cross country team into champions. Cue the "Rocky" theme.

"The DUFF": After discovering she has been labeled a group's "DUFF" (dumb, ugly, fat friend), a high school senior tries to figure out the source of the designation. Hmmmm, maybe it's time to rescreen "Heathers." 

"Hot Tub Time Machine 2": The three buddies return to do a sequel to the most title-says-it-all hit of 2010. I imagine the pitch meeting for this one didn't take long.

"Interstellar" (IMAX): On 3 p.m. Saturday, AMC River Park Square will give fans another chance to see Christopher Nolan's sci-fi hit on the theater's BIG screen. Holy space travel, Batman.

And at the Magic Lantern:

"The Tale of the Princess Kaguya": Those who missed the SpIFF screening of this Oscar-nominated animated feature will have another, and likely final, chance to see it on something bigger than your home TV screen. Based on a Japanese folk tale, it does include some animated martial arts.

"Timbuktu": A village in northern Mali is shaken when a group of jihadist extremists take control and attempt to enforce their own fundamentalist version of Sharia law. Mauritania's Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film.