Some people mark the start of fall with football or pumpkin everything. For me it’s the first evening I notice it’s dark by seven and think, well, I guess I’m watching a movie.

I watch movies all year, but in summer it’s halfhearted – too much daylight, too much guilt about being indoors. Once the evenings cool off, the guilt goes away and I get serious. And fall always sends me back to the classics.

I’ve been on a run lately. I started with “Citizen Kane,” which I hadn’t seen since becoming a newspaper owner. It plays differently now. I relate more now to the quote about his paper losing tons of money and he’ll keep it running until it goes bankrupt, not terribly far off from my own delusional ramblings regarding the paper. I can report that I have no plans to build a Xanadu despite old gothic architecture having a certain alure.

Then “Rear Window,” which may be the most purely enjoyable movie ever made: Jimmy Stewart, a broken leg, a pair of binoculars and neighbors who should have closed their blinds. From there it was “12 Angry Men,” because they just released it on Criterion, which takes place almost entirely in one hot room and is more gripping than many action movies. Then “Double Indemnity,” “The Apartment” and “Sunset Boulevard,” a Billy Wilder streak I didn’t plan but don’t regret. I also saw a few showings of Kubrick movies at Harkins in flag and 2001 is so much better on the big screen.

I also finally watched “Thelma & Louise”. It has a local connection, too. Spoiler: the ending is the two of them escaping, in one way or another, from the Navajo County Sheriff’s Office while on the run to Mexico. Look at the doors of the patrol cars next time.

Then comes October. I love horror and every year I watch a scary movie I’ve never seen whether horror, thriller or anything unsettling, for every day of the month. And every year, somewhere around the second week, I loathe it. A movie a day is much harder than it sounds. It starts to feel like homework. But I almost always love it once it’s over. Thirty-one movies in a row teaches you what good filmmaking looks like and I come out appreciating the genre more than I did going in.

So whatever you do that gets you into the fall spirit, go do it, even the parts that feel like chores. Those tend to be the parts you’re glad you did.