After a long summer of aliens, apes and Voldemort in the cinema, it's time to lay off the CGI and lay on the romance. This Fall's crop of comedies and dramas offers advice on common student conundrums: how to pick up ladies if you don't have Ryan Gosling's abs, coping when Hemingway-esque drinking habits, determining if there are any benefits to friends with benefits and why we should all give gingers, like Emma Stone, our love. At least this is what your American editor learned after seeing all of these films on their U.S. release dates.

How to Party Like Zelda Fitzgerald:

To get you back into your reading, see Woody Allen's latest and recent best, Midnight in Paris (7 Oct.). It's all about nostalgia, as Owen Wilson (giving a refreshingly Wilson-y take on typical Woody whiner) literally walks into 1920s ex-pat Paris to get advice from Gertrude Stein, debate with Salvador Dali and fall in love with Marion Cotillard’s equally whimsy-prone flapper. This trope could be grating and corny, but all of the caricatures are spot on, particularly Corey Stoll’s truth-obsessed Hemingway, making it utterly charming. The film is also nostalgically classic Allen, paying homage to city-as-muse, Manhattan. Ironically, Allen has returned to his roots as a sharp observational, if somewhat erudite, comedian by leaving NYC (cinematically, not in reality). It’s good to have our favourite neurotic back.

The Power of the New Haircut:

Crazy, Stupid, Love (23 Sept) is a misleading title. This sharp ensemble comedy would have been better titled Smart, Sexy Love. The affable Steve Carrel plays the dopey divorcee trying to win his ex (the always good Julianne Moore) and mojo back. He enlists a super sauve Ryan Gosling, local ladies man, to help him get the cliched haircut that makes every woman throw herself at him. Gosling, and his “photoshopped abs,” as Emma Stone jokes, make this film with his smarm and charm. The film also packs in a twee teenage romance and the ubiquitous Kevin Bacon. Sometimes the film is too clever for its own good, openly mocking the ridiculous grand gestures that usually bombard the romcom genre, but the performances are so simply good (or in Gosling’s case, wonderfully over the top) that it becomes something undeniably tender.

Anything Natalie Can Do, Mila Can Do Better:

Friends With Benefits (out now) is Hollywood’s second foray into this euphemistic genre of sex first, feelings later, but unlike the contrived No Strings Attached, this one works. This is mostly due to the chemistry of the two leads, a ballbusting but vulnerable Mila Kunis and the surprisingly witty Justin Timberlake. Together, the two bring sexy back, which is good for a film with rather frank sex scenes. The film aims for crass, but ends up with cute because it’s still secretly the same romcom Kunis’ character mocks but emulates. Yet it’s sincere, the perfect first date film for your new school year crush.

All Hail Emma Stone:

Did we mention that Emma Stone either stars or makes cameos in three of these films? The Help (28 Oct) offers a frizzy blonde Stone as Skeeter Phelan in one of her best roles yet. Set in an early 1960s Mississippi full of racial tensions as thick as the syrupy accents, The Help is definitely a drama. Based on Kathryn Stockett’s controversial yet best-selling novel of the same name, it follows prototype feminist Skeeter as she writes a book from the perspective of the Black help. You can’t discuss this film without bringing up political correctness, but what saves the film is the acting. Stone is both sympathetic and spunky, but the best performances go to the strong Viola Davis and sassy Octavis Spencer as two of the maids. Expect to see Oscar nominations and one of the more thoughtful films of the autumn.