The silly season is over. Now it’s time for some serious fun—and that means FALL MOVIES with Oscar in mind. Here’s what I can’t wait to see! (Check out the link to my article on Page 68 of EXHALE Magazine!)

Ben & Joyce (photo credit Matthew Healey)

ARGO is directed by and stars Boston’s own Ben Affleck! (I recently chatted with Ben before a live audience at a special screening of the film in Boston.) In ARGO Ben co-stars with “Breaking Bad’s” Bryan Cranston and Alan Arkin in a political action thriller about the unbelievable-but-true behind the scenes story within a story of the 1979 Iran Hostage crisis. (10/12) (HAVE SEEN IT– will review as soon as it officially opens!)

CLOUD ATLAS is a mystery, sci-fi, metaphysical, romantic adventure about how one little act can have limitless, unforeseen consequences across time and space. Halle Berry and Tom Hanks take us there. I’m in. (10/26)

 FLIGHT stars the eternally charismatic Denzel Washington as a pilot who becomes a hero and saves 98 lives by somehow landing an un-landable plane. But what he did the night before– could change everything. Isn’t it the truth. (11/2)

 LINCOLN Daniel Day Lewis plays Abraham Lincoln. OMG. But wait—there’s more: Spielberg directs, and John Williams told me himself he’s just putting the finishing touches on the score. Doris Kearns Goodwin’s TEAM OF RIVALS made me mad for Lincoln, and I’ve been crazy about Daniel Day Lewis since I saw him at the OSCARS in a long frock coat the year he won for MY LEFT FOOT. My left brain has already calculated the route to the theater. My right brain imagines another OSCAR. (11/9)

 SKYFALL He’s the hottest James Bond since Sean Connery: Danny (I love to call him that ) Craig stars in the 23rd installment of the longest running franchise in film history. This time Judy Dench’s M deals with her haunted past while 007 jumps out of planes, trains, cars, and boudoirs trying to save the world again. The trailer made me hyperventilate. (11/9)FALL MOVIE PREVIEW

 TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN, PART 2 Those frisky vampires are back for the last installment of the blood and sex saga of teen vampires and werewolves in love and war. Though Kristen Stewart and Rob Pattinson’s real-life relationship has bitten the dust, I can’t wait to see how she looks as one of the glamorous undead. (11/16)

ANNA KARENINA Somewhere out there is a train with her name on it. But this time onboard are the stunning Keira Knightley and Jude Law in this tale of a doomed heroine whose affair with a callow young officer is her undoing. Aaron Johnson (SAVAGES) plays the irresistible Count Vronsky. Tolstoy’s perfect novel has been adapted by the brilliant Tom Stoppard, with period details so scrumptious , I wanted to eat the trailer.  (11/16)

 HYDE PARK ON HUDSON Bill Murray as FDR. Are you kidding? Well, we know he can act: LOST IN TRANSLATION (Oscar nomination), CADDY SHACK  (WBZ anchorman Jack Williams’ favorite film). So why not Bill Murray as our 32nd president hosting the King and Queen of England at his upstate New York manse as Britain hovers on the brink of World War II?  It’s so crazy, it just might work. Co-starring the divine Laura Linney, and opening on a date that will live in infamy.  (12/7)

 LES MISERABLES If you know anything about me, you know that I LOVE “LES MIS,” Victor Hugo’s sweeping saga of war, romance, poverty, patriotism, and one man’s obsession with another, immortalized on the musical stage. Well, it’s about to hit the big screen with two hunky Australians taking the lead: Hugh Jackman as the thief Jean Valjean and Russell Crowe as Inspector Javert who relentlessly hunts him down. Co-starring the outrageously versatile Anne Hathaway who, along with Jackman, can really sing! My head is spinning already. (12/14)

 JACK REACHER No onscreen mission is impossible for Tom Cruise who this time stars as a homicide investigator and one-man arsenal against a mysterious sniper. The man loves to work. (12/21)

 And just in time for Christmas morning:

DJANGO UNCHAINED A “shoot ‘em up“ civil war era tale about a slave turned bounty hunter out to rescue his wife from a brutal plantation owner. The rambunctious Quentin Tarantino directs the rootin’ tootin’ cast also including Oscar winners Jamie Foxx and Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson, Don Johnson, and Kerry Washington. (12/25)