With the arrival of fall comes the release of “serious” movies that will be in the mix for Oscar nominations. Since I’m in the Santa Barbara Film Festival’s “cinema society” group, I’m lucky enough to go to lots of great screenings at this time of year. Today’s film was “The Boys Are Back,” a drama set in Australia about a sportswriter (he covers tennis, not baseball) who’s forced to raise his two sons alone after his wife dies. The movie could easily have been sappy, but Clive Owen is outstanding in the lead role. He came up from LA for a reception after the screening and I spent a few minutes talking to him (and staring at him).

He was also very nice and tolerated all my dumb questions. Like: “How did you make yourself cry in that scene?” “What are you working on next?” “Do you hate having to stand here and answer questions like this?” I wish I’d had the She-Fan Cam with me. But here’s the trailer for the movie.

The second half of my doubleheader wasn’t bad either: the Yankees’ 10-1 beat-up on the Mariners. After last night’s heartbreaker, it was an excellent bounce back, thanks to tremendous offense by just about everybody in the lineup but especially:

 * Tex (a double shy of the cycle, but two homers will do)

* Cano (three doubles and a single)

* Matsui (a monster shot to put the Yanks up 2-0).

But the star of the game was CC. The guy is a marvel of consistency and dependability. 

Not only did he deliver another quality start (seven innings, one unearned run), but he seemed unfazed by Gutierrez’s wicked comebacker to his chest.

I’m telling you, it hurt me more than it hurt him.

But then he has way more padding than I do.

Sunday will be another movie/baseball doubleheader, so I need to rest up. But first? A huge cheer for the Yankees, whose magic number is down to nine.