NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — If we’re going to get what they call a villain origin story for Darth Vader, even the Wicked Witch of the West, why not Donald Sutherland’s evil President Snow? That’s what “Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” is. The eagerly anticipated prequel finds an 18-year-old Snow mentoring and falling for a tribute played by Rachel Zegler as the tenth Hunger Games approaches. Jason Schwartzman’s young Stanley Tucci is reason alone to see it. I’m hoping he cooks.

“Trolls Band Together” got the band back together. Justin Timberlake earned an Oscar nomination for his song for the first film, so let’s see how NSYNC does with their song for this third installment. JT’s Branch and Anna Kendrick’s Poppy are now a couple, and she discovers he was once part of a boy band called Brozone. It rhymes with Fatone.

My pick, of course, is “Thanksgiving,” a slasher flick directed by Eli Roth and set in Massachusetts. The killer, known as John Carver, comes to Plymouth to carve. Family fun!

I’m Vinnie Penn, and I’m in your movie seat.