Fall movie performances to watch

The fall moviegoing season offers a bevy of hotly anticipated performances — some from famous faces, others from less familiar ones.

Here is one worth being excited about: Chiwetel Ejiofor, the British actor’s lead performance in 12 Years a Slave as a free black man with a family in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., sold into slavery in Louisiana, is a hugely powerful portrait of undefeated dignity.