What’s your snack IQ?

It’s the season when intelligent fare returns to theaters after a summer replete with both blockbusters and busts, and urbane filmgoers can choose from numerous Oscar-worthy contenders to complement their varied temperaments and sophisticated palates.

The more-serious films appeal to the brain, of course, but also to the ego. And if you’ve selected a movie to impress friends or a date, it’s important to keep up appearances when you get to the concession stand. Pick the wrong item and it just might undermine the message you’re subtly trying to send, says food and film expert Beverly West, author of “Culinarytherapy: The Girl’s Guide to Food for Every Mood,” and coauthor of the “Cinematherapy” series, which pairs films with moods.

To impress a date with your grasp of love and relationships, consider “Closer” -- starring Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman and Clive Owen in a love rectangle. And, says West, the right food can reinforce the theme.

“If you’re going to wrap yourself around the horns of a romantic intrigue like ‘Closer,’ complicate things a little further with a soft, salty pretzel,” she advises in an e-mail. The pretzel, of course, being “a culinary metaphor for how easy it can be to loose the ties that bind ... “

Sometimes sweet treats don’t pair well with sobering films such as “The Woodsman.” There’s something unseemly about eating Sour Patch Kids during a film that chronicles a released pedophile’s attempts to reenter society.

But if candies such as Gummi Worms are more your style, they’re perfect for the season’s comedies: “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason,” “Meet the Fockers” and even “Fat Albert.” And don’t worry -- summer will be back before you know it.