'Star Wars' to 'La La Land': The movies to watch this fall

Gone are the comic-book blockbusters, replaced for fall by Big Dramas About Big Issues: Snowden, about NSA surveillance; Deepwater Horizon, on the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster; Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, about an Iraq war hero.

There's Serious History, too, including Denial, about Holocaust deniers; Mel Gibson's WWII epic, Hacksaw Ridge; and the Nat Turner biopic The Birth of a Nation. Add a bit of horror, with Blair Witch and Rings, and a brooding time will be had by all.

But Hollywood wouldn't be Hollywood without the tinsel, so there are cowboys in this year's fall mix, as well - in a reboot of The Magnificent Seven - plus the aliens of Arrival, the animated beasties of Trolls and Storks, the hoofers of the old-fashioned musical La La Land, and Benedict Cumberbatch as superhero Dr. Strange.

Snowden (opened Friday). Curious what Edward Snowden would look like through Oliver Stone's prism? Stone (JFK, Nixon) returns to political filmmaking with this saga about the NSA contractor (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who exposed the extent of America's global surveillance programs. Stone met repeatedly with his real-life subject, now under asylum in Russia, for insight into mind-set and motives.

Bridget Jones's Baby (opened Friday). Renée Zellweger returns as the belovedly angsty British diarist, now facing the prospect of motherhood. Colin Firth and Patrick Dempsey costar.

Blair Witch (opened Friday). Adam Wingard (You're Next, The Guest) directs the much-anticipated follow-up to the picture that founded the found-footage genre. A bunch of good-looking young folks go looking in the woods for the ones who went missing last time.

Storks (Sept. 23). This 3D computer-animated family pic is about a world where storks no longer deliver babies, but instead work for a global shipping firm. That is, until someone restarts the Baby Making Machine. Voices by Andy Samberg, Katie Crown, Kelsey Grammer, Keegan-Michael Key, and Jordan Peele.

The Magnificent Seven (Sept. 23). If anyone has the chops to remake the John Sturges 1960 western, it would be action-movie wizard Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, The Equalizer). A two-bit town hires seven gunslingers to protect the citizenry from a greedy industrialist and the deadly march of capitalist progress. Firepower provided by Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, among others.

Queen of Katwe (Sept. 23). Lupita Nyong'o and David Oyelowo star in Disney's inspirational story of a poor Ugandan chess prodigy who goes on to win international accolades. The Oscar buzz has begun.

Deepwater Horizon (Sept. 30). Tinseltown lavished a big budget and high-octane talent - director Peter Berg, stars Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell, John Malkovich, Gina Rodriguez, Kate Hudson - on this dramatization of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico explosion and oil spill. I await this one with trepidation: Will the film sentimentalize a grave political and economic disaster by reducing it to an action film or a tear-jerker about the men and women imperilled by the blast?

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Sept. 30). Author Ransom Riggs' dark fantasy adventure is brought to the screen by that most peculiarly talented artist, Tim Burton. With Ava Green, Asa Butterfield, Chris O'Dowd, Allison Janney, and Rupert Everett.

The Birth of a Nation (Oct. 7). Nate Parker wrote, produced, directed, and stars in this powerful biopic about Nat Turner, the venerated 19th-century African American preacher and revolutionary. With Armie Hammer, Aunjanue Ellis, and Gabrielle Union. Early Oscar buzz has been replaced by a controversial debate over Parker's acquittal in a 1999 rape trial.

The Girl on the Train (Oct. 7). Mystery thriller based on the Paula Hawkins novel about a young divorcée (Emily Blunt) who witnesses a shocking event during her morning commute and embroils herself in the aftermath. The cast includes Rebecca Ferguson, Haley Bennett, Justin Theroux, Luke Evans, Édgar Ramírez, Allison Janney, and Lisa Kudrow.

Denial (Oct. 14). Rachel Weisz stars in this true story as British historian Deborah Lipstadt, who had to prove in court that the Holocaust really took place to win a libel suit filed against her by denier David Irving (Timothy Spall).

Kevin Hart: What Now? (Oct. 14) The Philadelphia comic returns to his stand-up roots with this concert film, shot in his hometown during a show before 50,000 fans at the Linc.

The Accountant (Oct. 14). Gavin O'Connor (Pride and Glory, Warrior) directs Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, and J.K. Simmons in a thriller about a forensic accountant who helps crime-boss clients make sense of their crooked books.

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (Oct. 21). The first time Tom Cruise played the mysterious Lee Child antihero, Reacher took down a Russian mobster - but filmgoers never found out much about the former military police officer's dark past. This second film takes care of that.

American Pastoral (Oct. 28). A super-cool actor (Ewan McGregor) making his directorial debut with a Philip Roth story? It's enough to send an artsy geek into paroxysms of ecstasy (to use an artsy geek turn of phrase). McGregor also stars in his adaptation of Roth's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, about a man whose life is turned upside down by his daughter's radical politics. With Jennifer Connelly, Dakota Fanning, and Peter Riegert.

Rings (Oct. 28). Look who's back - that creepy ghost-demon chick with long hair who lives in a well and jumps out and kills you when you watch a cursed film. Call it a sequel or a remake or an unmake. It doesn't much matter to the creepy gal.

Inferno (Oct. 28). One of literature's cooler nerd heroes, the The Da Vinci Code's Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, was ably brought to the screen in 2006 by director Ron Howard and star Tom Hanks. They return with an adaptation of another Langdon story that finds the prof beset with amnesia (oh, no) and facing an even more dangerous global conspiracy.

Trolls (Nov. 4). DreamWorks' 3D computer-animated musical comedy, based on the oddly popular series of toy dolls. With trolls voiced by almost too many A-listers to count, including Justin Timberlake, Anna Kendrick, Zooey Deschanel, John Cleese, Jeffrey Tambor, and Gwen Stefani.

Hacksaw Ridge (Nov. 4). Can one be a conscientious objector and a war hero? Yes, if you're U.S. Army medic Desmond T. Doss, who refused to bear arms in WWII but who was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Harry S. Truman for saving the lives of 75 fellow Americans as a battlefield medic. Director Mel Gibson brings his story to the screen.

Dr. Strange (Nov. 4). Beloved by Cumberbabes across the land and across the pond, British heartthrob Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock, The Imitation Game) has been on the tip of superstardom for a couple of years. His lead role in this comic book film, the 14th entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, should take him over the top. With Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams, Tilda Swinton.

Arrival (Nov. 11). The sci-fi nerd in me can't get enough of these alien-arrival yarns about super-smart college profs who assemble to figure out what the space people want. Helmed by red-hot Canadian director Denis Villeneuve (Sicario, Prisoners), this take on Ted Chiang's award-winning short story stars Amy Adams as a linguist, Jeremy Renner as a math guy, Forest Whitaker as a U.S. Army dude, and Michael Stuhlbarg as a shadowy CIA operative.

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (Nov. 11). Director Ang Lee asks what it is that makes someone a war hero in this tale of a soldier (Joe Alwyn) who returns from Iraq to a big welcome home and an invitation to be honored at a Thanksgiving Day football game. With Kristen Stewart, Vin Diesel, Garrett Hedlund, Chris Tucker.

Loving (Nov. 11). One of the best American directors of his generation, Jeff Nichols (Mud, Take Shelter), dramatizes the true story of the courtship of a white man and a black woman who contested laws against interracial marriage. Their case took them to the Supreme Court in 1967. With Ruth Negga, Joel Edgerton, and Will Dalton.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Nov. 18). Adaptation of J.K. Rowling's post-Harry Potter tale is set in America. Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, and Colin Farrell star.

Moana (Nov. 23). Disney's computer-animated 3D musical adventure concerns a girl (voiced by Auli'i Cravalho) who teams with a demigod (Dwayne Johnson) to find a fabled island.

Rules Don't Apply (Nov. 23). Hollywood fixture Warren Beatty directs and stars in this romantic dramedy set in 1950s Hollywood. The huge ensemble cast of A-listers includes Alec Baldwin, Matthew Broderick, Candice Bergen, Dabney Coleman, Oliver Platt, Martin Sheen, and Annette Bening.

La La Land (Dec. 16). Romantic musical dramedy stars Emma Stone as a young ingenue and Ryan Gosling as an artsy jazz musician who love each other but struggle to survive on the mean streets of Hollywood, where dreams are cheap. With John Legend, Rosemarie DeWitt.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Dec. 16). Can the Rebellion steal the blueprints for the mighty Death Star the Empire plans to build? Gareth Edwards (The Raid) directs Riz Ahmed, Felicity Jones, and Mads Mikkelsen in a series spin-off. Call me a dinosaur - I tuned out after the first three films.