Just When You Least Expect It

“Punch-Drunk Love” is called a “romantic comedy,” but from writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson (“Magnolia” and “Boogie Nights”), expect something different.

It’s about an angry guy who cries inexplicably, buys cases of chocolate pudding to earn frequent flier miles, and busts glass when he blows his stack. His newfound love, played by Emily Watson, fuels a raging fire within him. Will he go mano a mano with the bad guy, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman? And which crazed hombre will be the last man standing?

The craziest part of it all, though, is that the angry-guy hero is played by ... Adam Sandler. It’s a scary side of the funny man audiences have never seen, and it’s as astounding as watching Jackie Gleason in “The Hustler” or Jerry Lewis in “The King of Comedy.”

It’s the time of year in the movie business when the unexpected becomes the norm and the term “adult audience” isn’t an oxymoron. Summer is over, and the endless sequels, blockbusters, comedies and flashy action flicks aimed at teens have been washed away with the rolling surf. When kids go back to school, studios get, well, more studious--and more adventurous.

Sure, there are some big pictures, like the days-of-British-empire epic “The Four Feathers”; the artsy “Frida”; the “Silence of the Lambs” prequel, “Red Dragon”; the “Charade” remake “The Truth About Charlie.” And there’s lighthearted fare too, including “Sweet Home Alabama,” a romantic comedy starring Reese Witherspoon; a Jackie Chan family-friendly action comedy, “The Tuxedo”; the Eddie Murphy-Owen Wilson comedy “I Spy”; and the kids film “Jonah--A Veggietales Movie.”

But overall, fall is the time studios use to get that offbeat, thought-provoking or absolutely uncategorizable movie into the theaters, and give it time to develop Oscar legs or at least some highly profitable word-of-mouth buzz.

Tom Sherak of Revolution Studios, which is releasing “Punch-Drunk Love” on Oct. 11, says the season is an ideal time for the film. “You wouldn’t put this in summer because in summer it’s one movie eating up another and this movie needs to breathe. This is ‘Get the movie open and let the public catch on.’ ”

There’s an animated film in the fall as well, but true to the season, it’s not the kind American audiences are used to. “Miyazaki’s Spirited Away,” an epic-sized tale by revered Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki is being released Sept. 20 in a new English-language version by Disney. In the fall, even the cartoons have artistic pretensions.

Here are some of the other fall highlights:

Darker Tales

“Punch-Drunk Love” joins the ranks of fall films that touch on edgier topics and deeper themes. It’s not unusual for the season. Past autumn releases have included “Training Day” (2001) and “American Beauty” (1999)--and remember, both of them ended up winning some major Oscars.

Moviegoers seem to warm up to challenging subjects as the weather cools off. This year there’s “The Rules of Attraction” (Oct. 11), an adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis novel about privileged kids in an Ivy League college who fill their empty souls with sex and drugs, and “The Grey Zone” (Oct. 11), director Tim Blake Nelson’s Holocaust drama.

Also in the not-a-lot-of-laughs category is “Das Experiment,” a German drama in which a group of men submit to a psychological study, playing the roles of inmates and guards in a prison. In the beginning they meet, chat and become friendly. But once the experiment starts, they quickly turn against each other.

“The biggest issue presented here is that your next-door neighbor who you view as a nice, friendly guy can turn out to be a beast, and I think it’s more true than not,” said Meyer Gottlieb, president of Samuel Goldwyn Pictures, which is releasing the film Sept. 20.

“Auto Focus” (Oct. 18), a different stripe of biopic on the life of Bob Crane, star of “Hogan’s Heroes,” is also a walk on the wild side. Greg Kinnear plays Crane, a hard-working suburban dad who seems straight out of a ‘60s sitcom until he meets John Carpenter (not the movie director), played by Willem Dafoe. The two share their sexual addiction and love of video photography. Is it a biopic or one of the darkest buddy films ever made?

Director Paul Schrader, who jokingly referred to it as “Oscar and Felix make a porn movie,” said the chemistry between laid-back Kinnear and edgy Dafoe, drives the film. “Greg is quintessentially West Coast and Willem is quintessentially East Coast--even though they’re both Midwesterners. They hit it off great and they became and remain friends.”

Carpenter is the enabler who leads Crane into a world of self-gratification and self-absorption, hence the title.

“I think that his sin, if he had one, was not sex but selfishness,” Schrader said. “Because he was good-looking and funny and a TV celebrity, he could behave the way he wanted and people always forgave him.”

Films for Women

To be sure, there are plenty of fall films designed to appeal to females. “The Banger Sisters” (Sept. 20) stars Goldie Hawn and Susan Sarandon as a bartender and a mother, respectively, recounting their wild days as rock groupies.

And there’s “White Oleander” (Oct. 11), which stars some of today’s most popular actresses in strong roles. Michelle Pfeiffer plays Ingrid, an artist who is the independent and opinionated mother of 15-year-old Astrid (Alison Lohman). After Ingrid is sent to prison for killing her boyfriend, her daughter goes to live with two foster moms, played by Robin Wright Penn and Renee Zellweger.

Based on the bestselling novel by Janet Fitch, it’s about a girl who drops “straight through the bottom of the system” and has to find a way to escape her domineering and destructive mother’s influence, said director Peter Kosminsky. “It’s a serious subject, but it’s a universal theme that faces every single one of us.”

“Tuck Everlasting” (Oct. 11) also tackles the coming-of-age theme, but with a softer approach. Set in the early 20th century and based on a popular young adult book by Natalie Babbitt, it tells the story of another teen, Winnie Foster (Alexis Bledel of “Gilmore Girls”), with a domineering mother (Amy Irving). While wandering in the woods near her home, she meets Jesse Tuck (Jonathan Jackson) and his unusual family. The movie’s teens-in-love story has deeper elements as well, raising philosophical questions about the nature of immortality.

The film also stars Sissy Spacek and William Hurt as Jesse’s parents, and Ben Kingsley as the threatening Man in the Yellow Suit. In a touching scene, Hurt explains to Winnie that immortality sounds wonderful but has to be entered into carefully. The theme gives the film an intriguing twist, said co-producer Marc Abraham.

“It has this fantastic theme at the core: what’s the meaning of a life well-lived, and if you had the choice to live forever, what do you do?”

Deep Emotions

Deep questions and deep emotions resonate in fall. It’s a good time to release “Moonlight Mile” (Sept. 27), starring Dustin Hoffman and Susan Sarandon, a film that had languished at a few other studios before landing at Disney, noted Dick Cook, chairman of Walt Disney Studios.

The story begins after the untimely death of a young woman and shows her fiance and parents dealing with their grief. It’s based on the real-life experience of writer-director Brad Silberling, whose girlfriend was killed by a stalker.

“It’s difficult to put this one into a genre of film,” said Cook. But fall is a good time for it, he said. “Because in fall, a film can really build and garner the great word-of-mouth and be in the marketplace for a period of time, not just one week or one weekend.”

Niche Markets

Fall is also a great time for smaller films to find an audience. Call it “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” syndrome, but several films that appeal to special audiences will roll out, hoping to hit it big in their target market and expand.

Some, like “Greek Wedding,” will aim first at an ethnic market, then expand to wider audiences. “Skins” (Oct. 11) is a follow-up to Chris Eyre’s “Smoke Signals” and, like that film, deals with Native American life. “Real Women Have Curves” (Oct. 18) tracks a young Latina trying to strike a balance between her dream of going to college and staying to help her family. Two films are aimed primarily at African American audiences: “Brown Sugar” (Oct. 11), a romantic comedy, stars Taye Diggs, Mos Def and Queen Latifah, and “Barbershop” (Friday) is an ensemble comedy about that unique institution in the black community, and stars Ice Cube and Cedric the Entertainer.

A handful of fall films celebrate or star musicians: Madonna returns, directed by husband Guy Ritchie in a remake of “Swept Away” (Oct. 11); Marilyn Manson appears in the Michael Moore documentary “Bowling for Columbine” (Oct. 4); and Philip Glass has penned the score for “Naqoyqatsi” (Oct. 18).

Controversy

The fall also allows films that are “talkers” a chance to play as long as the buzz continues to build. Moviegoers are anticipating “Biggie and Tupac” (Sept. 27), a documentary by Nick Broomfield who fascinated Nirvana fans with “Kurt & Courtney.” He drops another bomb by alleging that the LAPD played a role in the murder of Notorious B.I.G. (a.k.a. Biggie Smalls).

“The lead detective in the case resigned from the LAPD and basically he was prevented from following certain lines of inquiry investigating (former LAPD officers) Rafael Perez and David Mack, who is now in prison for bank robbery,” Broomfield said. “It would be fantastic to make some contribution to moving the story on, [Biggie Smalls’] mother wants to find out what happened and have some kind of justice done.”

“Bloody Sunday” (Oct. 11) dives into an even larger battle: the Catholic-Protestant conflict in Northern Ireland. It chronicles a peace march in Belfast in 1972 when 27 civilians were shot by the British army. It has already stirred debate--and excellent reviews--in Ireland and Britain, where it opened earlier.

Biopics

Besides “Auto Focus,” the fall’s other major biopic is “Frida” (Oct. 25), which stars Salma Hayek in a part close to her heart, that of famed Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Directed by Julie Taymor, best known for her Broadway staging of “The Lion King,” it co-stars Alfred Molina as Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, Edward Norton as Nelson Rockefeller and Geoffrey Rush as Leon Trotsky.

Hayek credits Taymor with unveiling a stunning vision of Mexico from the pyramids to colonial cities, and including the faces of children and old people, folk art and images of masterworks by both artists.

“That was one of my motives for making the film,” said Hayek, who was awaiting the Italian premiere of “Frida” at the Venice Film Festival. “I knew it was going to shake off the cliches about my country. It shows the sophistication and the beauty and simplicity of Mexico.”

It took Hayek years to bring the story to the screen. She called in favors from friends, took on the role of producer, shepherded the project from cable to the big screen because she knew it needed a bigger budget. She said she “stalked” Molina for three years until he caved in and said yes to the role of Rivera.

So is fall a good time to release “Frida”?

“I could think about it and give you a very smart answer, but the heartfelt answer is, as far as I’m concerned, the right time is today,” Hayek said. “I’ve been waiting for this movie forever, so this is the perfect time. Finally, after seven years.”

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Anne Valdespino is a Times staff writer.