August is finally over and you know what that means: Summer is almost over! But before we can put away our swimsuits and break out our best fall sweaters, we have to survive September. There are a bunch of exciting new releases hitting theaters this month, including Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and Megalopolis , as well as new movies to stream.
If you’re looking for the best movies to stream at home this September, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve combed through this month’s latest films to bring you the very best of the best that you can stream. We’ve got an Oscar-winning animated drama, an irreverent neo-noir mystery, a brilliant adaptation of a classic Jane Austen novel, and so much more.
These are the movies to watch this month that are new to streaming services.
Editor’s Pick: The Boy and the Heron
Where to watch: Maximum
Genre: Fantasy drama
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Form: Soma Santoki, Masaki Suda, Aimyon
Hayao Miyazaki’s latest Oscar-winning animated feature is perhaps his most personal and deeply moving work to date. Inspired by Miyazaki’s own childhood in post-World War II Japan, The boy and the heron follows the story of Mahito, a young boy grieving the death of his mother. Mahito moves to the countryside with his recently remarried father and stepmother and is depressed about the cruelties in the world.
After encountering a mysterious shape-shifting heron, Mahito journeys to the land of the dead in hopes of meeting his mother and learning an important lesson: how to live after loss? Brilliantly animated and achingly beautiful, The boy and the heron is a phenomenal meditation on mortality, grief, and artistic aspiration, made all the more moving given the film’s parallels to Miyazaki’s own life and legacy. I wouldn’t recommend it as the first Hayao Miyazaki film you should watch — maybe start with Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke — but it’s still a must-see film. —Toussaint Egan
Genre: Comedy
Director: Jeff Fowler
Form: Ben Schwartz, James Marsden, Jim Carrey
Let’s get this straight right off the bat: yes, there are a few fart jokes and references to flossing in it Sonic the hedgehog. But there’s a lot of heart in the film, and Sonic himself is absolutely adorable, especially considering he’s supposed to be a precocious (but deeply lonely) preteen. I want to give him a hug! Also, every live-action actor delivers their performances, from Jim Carrey’s delightfully deranged Dr. Robotnik to James Marsden’s regular cop, making the interactions with the cartoonish Sonic all the better. —Petrana Radulovic
Die Hard with a vengeance
Genre: Action thriller
Director: John McTiernan
Form: Bruce Willis, Jeremy Irons, Samuel L. Jackson
By far the best of the Die Hard sequels, and in some circles a contender for best film in the entire series, Die Hard with a vengeance brings John McClane back to his hometown of New York, where he confronts a deadly terrorist who has planted bombs all over the city.
The film’s greatest strength is that it doesn’t try to match the highlights of the original, but instead is mostly a cat-and-mouse game with the terrorist, played fantastically by Jeremy Irons. He gives McClane and his partner Zeus Carver, Samuel L. Jackson fresh off of Pulp Fiction, clues to find the bombs, but distracts them from his real plot.
Die Hard with a vengeance brings back the original film’s director John McTiernan, who shoots the action brilliantly, replacing the cramped spaces of Nakatomi Plaza with the tight streets of New York City as Jackson and Willis dash from one borough to the next, always feeling one step behind. It all makes for a great new setting for one of the best characters in action, and one of the best thrillers of the 90s. —Austen Goslin
Genre: Neo-noir comedy
Director: Paul Thomas Andersen
Form: Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson
There are few things better on film than watching a detective glide through life and sneak through a case, and few films have ever captured it so well Inherent vice.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s film adaptation of the Thomas Pynchon novel follows Doc Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix), a private investigator in the 1970s who stumbles upon a vast conspiracy involving a secret society and perhaps all of Los Angeles. The mystery takes half a dozen baffling twists and, like most noir stories, ends up confusing enough that you and the characters can only follow about half of it. But that’s not what matters here.
What makes Inherent vice What’s truly brilliant is the atmosphere. Phoenix’s pothead detective is one of the best slapstick characters of the 2010s, and Josh Brolin’s straight-lace detective has two or three of the funniest dry-humored lectures ever committed to film. Anderson films his ’70s LA with enormous love and care, filling every one of his office buildings and seedy alleys with great character actors like Martin Short, Benicio del Toro, Jena Malone, Owen Wilson, and more. Even if you can’t keep the film’s plot straight, or figure out all the major players, Inherent vice is the kind of film that you can completely lose yourself in and by the time the credits start rolling, you’ll be wishing you could stay and soak up its atmosphere and charm for a few more hours. —AG
Genre: Period romcom
Director: Autumn the Wild
Form: Anya Taylor-Joy, Johnny Flynn, Josh O’Connor
The world doesn’t have the same space it used to for Jane Austen adaptations, and that’s a damn shame. Thankfully, this excellent 2020 adaptation of Emma fills at least a small part of that void.
Unlike films like No idea that put a modern spin on Austen’s work, this version, directed by Autumn de Wilde, comes close to it in the original time period. The result is a downright gorgeous film, with gorgeous costumes and plenty of venomous words delivered with a smile.
It all rests on the shoulders of a terrific lead performance by Anya Taylor-Joy, who pulls off the incredible balancing act of making Emma mean, cruel, petty and utterly kind and charming. Joy is also helped, of course, by a ridiculously talented supporting cast including Josh O’Connor, Johnny Flynn, Callum Turner, Mia Goth and Bill Nighy. —AG