It is, by far, the worst month to be a movie lover. And over the past three or four years, the only thing that has kept my sun shining has been that mid-month e-mail from the programmers over at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, announcing the forthcoming autumn lineup at the Union Theatre.

To say it is a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel would be an understatement. Summer cinema is repetitive, derivative and dull. And the Union Theatre couldn't be any more different. This is the state's most daring and vital film institution, and it brings to its screen dozens of films every year that would never be available to you or me otherwise.

It is my Mecca.

Pouring over the fall 2010 lineup, I was every bit as impressed as I was last spring by what the organizers harangued for Milwaukeeans. In fact, as I scanned such titles as "The Army of Crime," "Sanjuro" and "The Killer Inside Me," I once again started to have faith in the diversity, complexity and longevity of brilliant moviemaking.

The entire season begins in just eight days, with Spike Jonze's grossly misunderstood, highly underrated meditation on "Where the Wild Things Are" (showing Aug. 27 to Aug. 29). And that's just the start of a season lined with vibrant, vital fare. I've pored over the first six weeks and singled out five definite highlights. So mark your calendars now and get ready for the return of real Milwaukee cinema (see the full schedule at uniontheatre.uwm.edu):

Aug. 30 and Aug. 31: Guillermo Del Toro's trippy anti-superhero superhero film "Hellboy," which offers up a super-powerful demon baby as the world's unlikely savior.

Sept. 10 through Sept. 12: "Lourdes," Jessica Hausner's inspiring and haunting meditation on the act of devotion. A wheelchair-bound woman travels to Lourdes, the iconic pilgrimage destination in the Pyrenees Mountains, on a quest to be healed and walk again.

Sept. 15: A special advance screening of "Howl," starring James Franco as a young Allen Ginsberg, off on several of the adventures that marked the young poet's early works.

Sept. 17 through Sept. 19: "The Oath," director Laura Poitras' second chapter of a trilogy focused on turbulent post-9/11 lives. "The Oath" puts the focus on the military tribunal system, watching as Osama bin Laden's former bodyguard and his brother-in-law - a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay - are the first to face the newly reconfigured tribunal hearing.

Sept. 22: "Sweet Crude" is a haunting documentary, telling the story of Nigeria's Niger Delta as a case study of an energy-driven, divisive era. Right under the feet of a desperate, poverty-stricken population lies expansive oil reserves - pools of black crude that make some in the nation wealthy even as the environment is destroyed by those sustaining themselves off the land. Wealth and poverty, living side by side, defined by the world's addiction to oil. It's a film not to be missed.

E-mail: snyderreviews@hotmail.com