

Ruth Negga (left) and Joel Edgerton (right) star as Mildred and Richard Loving in the upcoming film “Loving.” (Ben Rothstein/Focus Features)

After a summer of junk food, the chief pleasure of the fall movie season is the return of a healthy diet.

Granted, the past several months have been graced by the occasional piquant palate cleanser: Thoroughly winning films such as “Captain Fantastic” and “Hell or High Water” arrived as bracing alternatives to the big, sloppy bad-for-you-ness of “Suicide Squad” and “X-Men: Apocalypse.” But it’s when the weather turns chilly that we rebalance and exercise some portion control — not just with the film equivalent of spinach, mind you, but with the minimum recommended doses of laughter and tears, escapism and emotion, pure fun and more serious provocations.

Because awards season is already underway (oh, “Spotlight,” it seems like yesterday . . .), some buzzed-about films are being tagged as Oscar contenders, including Kenneth Lonergan’s magnificent “Manchester by the Sea,” in which Casey Affleck delivers an astonishingly moving performance as a man returning to the scene of the most grievous event of his life. “Loving,” Jeff Nichols’s stirring portrait of the couple whose Supreme Court case struck down laws forbidding interracial marriage, features an equally impressive turn from Ruth Negga, who imbues Mildred Loving with quiet, implacable grace.



(L to R:) Armie Hammer as Samuel Turner, Nate Parker as Nat Turner and Jayson Warner Smith as Earl Fowler in “The Birth of a Nation.” (Fox Searchlight Pictures/Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Academy Award nominee Amy Adams stars as Susan Morrow in Tom Ford’s romantic thriller “Nocturnal Animals.” (Merrick Morton/Focus Features)

There will be plenty of other sober-minded dramas on offer throughout the season, including Oliver Stone’s highly anticipated “Snowden,” about the National Security Agency whistleblower; “The Girl on the Train,” Tate Taylor’s adaptation of the best-selling novel; “Moonlight,” a coming-of-age story set amid drugs and violence in 1980s Miami, directed by Barry Jenkins; and “Nocturnal Animals,” a marital thriller by the designer-slash-director Tom Ford. “The Birth of a Nation,” a dramatization of Nat Turner’s 1831 slave rebellion written and directed by its star, Nate Parker, may not be part of the awards conversation because of Parker’s involvement in and subsequent handling of a sexual assault case 17 years ago. Although many viewers have announced their intention to boycott the film, others are eager to see a long-awaited story brought to the screen.

From the director of "Whiplash," this movie-musical stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, who fall in love while trying to make it in Los Angeles. In this trailer, Ryan Gosling sings the melancholy "City of Stars." ( / Lionsgate)

Fall has always been a time of historical heft and solemnity at the movies, but this year, viewers will have plenty to choose from in a variety of genres, including a couple of family films (“A Monster Calls,” “Moana”), a sci-fi thriller (“Arrival”), a “Star Wars” installment (“Rogue One”) and — praise be — a musical. “La La Land,” by “Whiplash” director Damien Chazelle, stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling in a song-and-dance throwback that received mostly rapturous reviews when it made its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. As straight-faced as the run-up to the Oscars can be, it’s always healthy to kick up your heels a little.