From the deck: Goodbye Transformers and Superbad. Hello dark night of the soul. Throw down your video controller, trade your popcorn for a foreign-sounding coffee, and settle in for some serious talk cinema.

Some I'm looking forward to:

Eastern Promises, from David Cronenberg, follows his double Oscar-nominated A History of Violence. Once again, Viggo Mortensen stars as an ambiguous man of mayhem - this time, a Russian mobster working in London. He crosses paths with a midwife (Naomi Watts) who has discovered an incriminating diary.

I'm Not There. Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven) directs this unorthodox biopic of Bob Dylan, who is played by seven different actors, including Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger and Christian Bale.

No Country for Old Men. After its debut at Cannes this spring, this film has been generally rated the Coen brothers' best since Fargo, both meditative and startlingly violent. No Country stars Tommy Lee Jones as a Texas sheriff who witnesses a new kind of killer, played by Javier Bardem.