Friday’s openings: Oscar don’t eat no ‘Cake’

As the weeks progress into the new year, fewer and fewer of the best films of 2014 will open. We may not get some of the best foreign-language films for months, and even then only if the Magic Lantern manages to pick them up. Meanwhile, the dregs of last year, along with the first few films of 2015, continue to open.

Depending on schedule changes, Friday's mainstream openings are as follows:

"The Boy Next Door": A newly divorced single mother (Jennifer Lopez) has a brief affair with the title character and — shocker — comes to regret it. J-Lo needs a new agent. "Enough" with the threatened-women plots, already.

"Cake": Jennifer Aniston plays a woman dealing with chronic pain whose situation worsens when a member of her support group commits suicide. Some observers had predicted Aniston would earn an Oscar nomination, but her friends let her down.

"Mortdecai": Johnny Depp plays the character, created by writer Kyril Bonfiglioli, who is a blend of art dealer and roguish solver of mysteries. Anybody notice that, in the trailers, Depp is impersonating Inspector Clouseau?

"The Principle": This documentary puts forth the theory that four centuries of science are wrong, that the Earth may be far more important to the solar system — not to mention the universe — than previously thought. Cue Galileo eye roll.

"Strange Magic": Based on a George Lucas story, this animated feature pits goblins, elves, fairies and imps in a battle over a powerful potion. It all happened a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

And at the Magic Lantern:

"Little Accidents": A boy's disappearance causes problems in a coal community already rocked by a mining disaster. Hmmm, I thought the coal miner had a daughter.