After you’ve explored our massive, 70-film fall movie preview, it’s time to drill deeper into what September offers. Along with the kickoff of fall festivals, this month brings a number of notable gems, including remarkable debut features, a varied slate of documentaries, and at least one master auteur’s long-awaited U.S. release.
15. Never After Dark (Dave Boyle, Sept. 25)
Clearly inspired by a director that appears towards the top of this list (including casting his frequent collaborator Mutsuo Yoshioka), Dave Boyle’s creepy chiller Never After Dark is a stylish yet thoughtful pre-October treat. Following a traveling psychic who uncovers dark secrets at a remote house, Boyle’s Japanese production may take its time to deliver the goods, but when the blood spills, it is done in quite memorable fashion.
14. The Oldest Person in the World (Sam Green, Sept. 10)
32 Sounds director Sam Green’s latest film is perhaps the most universal of the year, as we all contend with aging (if we’re lucky). Kent M. Wilhelm said in his Sundance review, “Why do we care who the oldest person in the world is? It doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. It feels like they’re always around the same age. But if there’s an article about it, I’m going to speak for us all and say we’re clicking on it. First of all: we gotta see what they look like. Second: we want to know if they got to this age by living a healthy, active lifestyle or if they’re one of these cases where they smoke like Don Draper and eat a bloody steak everyday. Will they reinforce our bad habits or be a cause for change in our daily lives? It all boils down to a morbid curiosity. It’s part of pondering our own mortality. What director Sam Green offers with The Oldest Person in the World is a decade of him doing the same.”
13. Black Zombie (Maya Annik Bedward; Sept. 11)
Exploring the Haitian folktale origins of the zombie and how they morphed into some of horror’s most iconic figures, Maya Annik Bedward’s documentary Black Zombie takes an unsettling look at the ways their original cultural history has shifted for mass consumption. Jared Mobarak said in his review, “More than reclaiming the zombie motif from the knee-jerk response that Night of the Living Dead inhibited, Maya Annik Bedward’s Black Zombie is a reclamation of Vodou from the colonial fear-mongering that used it to demonize Black people the world over. Because it’s 2026 and Haitians are still cautious to admit their connection to the religion. There’s still an outsider belief that Haiti’s recent hardships are a result of its ancestors making a pact with the Devil.”
12. The Scout (Paula González-Nasser, Sept. 25)
Premiering at last year’s Tribeca Festival to much acclaim, Paula González-Nasser’s debut The Scout follows a day in the life of an NYC location scout. Michael Frank said in his Tribeca review, “González-Nasser invites an openness from these characters, each given one scene with Sofia, to banter with her, make her uncomfortable, or some combination of the two. And the young location scout just takes it all in stride, as though she’s been in these situations countless times, as each apartment is a part of her job she doesn’t love, but also doesn’t mind. She might even relish it on one or two occasions, the opportunity to sit on someone’s couch and hear their story or to find a new hack to delete her mountain of parking tickets.”
11. Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! (Josef Kubota Wladyka, Sept. 25)
One of the breakouts of the Sundance Film Festival this year, where it picked up the U.S. Dramatic Directing award, Josef Kubota Wladyka’s stylish and moving Ha-chan, Shake Your Booty! is coming this fall. Blake Simons said in his review, “In dance, you have to lead with confidence. Your partner looks to you for guidance, and they require you to look back at them responsively, to move instinctually without faltering. There’s need for surefootedness, consistency, and impeccable timing. Luckily for us, Josef Kubota Wladyka’s fun and deceptively frothy third feature Ha-chan, Shake Your Booty! has all of these qualities in spades.”
10. Resident Evil (Zach Cregger, Sept. 18)
Following Barbarian and last year’s Oscar-winning Weapons, Zach Cregger is back sooner than expected, this time jumping into franchise territory. His next feature stays in the horror genre with a new take on Resident Evil, a series launched by Paul W. S. Anderson and given a reboot by Johannes Roberts five years ago; Cregger here stakes out his own territory with Austin Abrams, Zach Cherry, Kali Reis, and Paul Walter Hauser starring. It’ll be fun to see Cregger have some lean, mean fun with a sub-90-minute runtime.
9. The Weight (Padraic McKinley, Sept. 18)
A highlight to emerge from this year’s Sundance Film Festival was Padraic McKinley’s The Weight, a period thriller that brings together Ethan Hawke, Russell Crowe, Julia Jones, Austin Amelio, Avi Nash, and Sam Hazeldine on a treacherous journey. Kent M. Wilhelm said in his Sundance review, “McKinley’s intense and, at times, brutal thriller is crowd-pleasing without being pandering. He melds a winning premise, breathless sequences, and lush photography with the right cast to draw you into the treacherous journey. The Weight borrows from action-adventure films like Cliffhanger and Indiana Jones, but possesses a more thoughtful soul—one hand on its heart, the other on a blade.”
8. Barbara Forever (Brydie O’Connor, Sept. 4)
Avant-garde pioneer Barbara Hammer has received a much-deserved documentary portrait ahead of the world premiere of the new restoration of her seminal Nitrate Kisses at the New York Film Festival. As Dan Mecca said in our Critic’s Pick review out of Sundance, “The best thing about Brydie O’Connor’s documentary Barbara Forever is how it functions as an interesting, engaging movie on its own terms. It concerns the life of filmmaker Barbara Hammer, a pioneer of queer cinema and larger, cultural queer identity. And while there are plenty of films and archival photos and video to tell Hammer’s story, O’Connor is smart to never make this feel like homework. It is ultimately much more than a celebration of a great artist (Hammer passed away in 2019). Too often do these profiles of artists play it safer than said artist ever would. Barbara Forever does not do that. It often feels like a Barbara Hammer film itself while evolving into a sharp, clever montage that moves fast and entertains throughout. It’s funny and disarming and, ultimately, quietly uplifting.”
7. If They Go Will They Miss Me (Walter Thompson-Hernández, Sept. 11)
Finding poetic beauty in the quotidian, Walter Thompson-Hernández’s If I Go Will They Miss Me centers on coming of age in housing projects of southern Los Angeles. It’s a way of life often depicted with a grittiness that favors do-or-die intensity, yet this emerging director of great promise takes an opposite approach. One where dreams of flight are always on the mind as the planes coming in and out of nearby LAX are constantly passing above. Greek gods, as studied in school, give purpose to a higher calling. An affection and adoration for and from its ensemble (many non-professionals, in this case) form a portrait of a living, loving community that rises above hardship. Just as his characters draw grand personal inspiration, Thompson-Hernández is greatly indebted to a variety of renowned directors, including Barry Jenkins, RaMell Ross, Charles Burnett, and Spike Lee, with the end result a film greater than the sum of its recognizable influences. Continue reading my full review.
6. Hope (Na Hong-jin, Sept. 9)
Following a divisive Cannes premiere that spurred curiosity more than merely decent reviews, the “final cut” of Na Hong-Jin’s sci-fi thriller Hope is now coming to theaters this month. Luke Hicks said in his review, “It’s never night in Hope Harbor. At least so long as we’re there. The eschatological events of writer-director Na Hong-Jin’s high-octane, highly anticipated Hope unfold over the course of one long, grueling, nonstop chase of a day for its rag-tag team of small-town South Korean cops, yokels, and hicks, an ensemble that ranges from heroic to hilarious in this blathering creature-feature phantasm.”
5. Brand New Landscape (Yuiga Danzuka, Sept. 22 on Fandor)
A favorite on the festival circuit last year, where it premiered at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, Yuiga Danzuka’s debut feature is now coming to Fandor this month. Blake Simons said in their review, “When confronted with the past, do you drive away or turn back to face it? Siblings Ren (Kurosaki Kodai, in his first lead role) and Emi (Mai Kiryu) have been estranged from their father (Ken’ichi Endô) for the ten years since he chose a new work opportunity in Tokyo. Ren, now a florist, notices a familiar name on the neighboring workstation’s order card. Propelled by emotion, not logic, he takes on the delivery himself, arriving to discover his father staring back at him through the floor-to-ceiling window of a major exhibition. Clutching the arrangement tight to his chest, there’s a heavy burden to carry.”
4. Primetime (Lance Oppenheim, Sept. 25)
The year of Robert Pattinson continues. Lance Oppenheim, marking his narrative-feature debut after Some Kind of Heaven and Spermworld, directs the actor as To Catch a Predator‘s Chris Hansen in Primetime, which is set for a Venice premiere. It’ll be curious to see what Oppenheim’s approach is after David Osit’s terrific documentary Predators, which explored the creation, moral complications, and copycat imitators of the original show. But it has the makings of what could be Pattinson’s finest role in a year of stellar offerings.
3. The History of Concrete (John Wilson, Sept. 18)
After a few seasons delighting audiences on HBO, John Wilson is hitting the big screen. The History of Concrete, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, will be familiar to fans of the director’s deadpan, inquisitive style, and he loses no strange charm expanding to feature-length. Caleb Hammond said in his review, “Like a movie tie-in, John Wilson’s debut documentary feature, The History of Concrete, picks up immediately where his HBO series How To with John Wilson left off after three seasons. An elevated public profile does not lead to the next bigger, better project. Instead it’s illustrated via Wilson stumbling upon an empty bag of weed featuring an unauthorized branding of his likeness. The full-sized crew afforded by his show now absent, Wilson is forced back to his roots, filming the day-to-day scenes of New York City life solo.”
2. Serpent’s Path (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Sept. 11)
Coming to U.S. theaters after his recent Cannes premiere The Samurai and the Prisoner, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Serpent’s Path finds the director remaking his own film in uncompromising fashion. Steve Erickson said in our fall preview, “Remaking his 1998 film, Kiyoshi Kurosawa gives Serpent’s Path a menacingly polished sheen. Rather than feeling like a B-movie, it’s a slow, stately crawl through warehouses turned into torture chambers as Albert (Damien Bonnard) and Sayoko (Ko Shibasaki) seek to avenge a ring of wealthy child-traffickers who kidnapped and killed their daughters. Setting the story in France rather than the original Japan, he sticks to a few locations and turns the emotional volume way down, creating a chilling vision of manipulation and affectless violence.”
1. Chronovisor (Kevin Walker and Jack Auen, Sept. 4)
In a year of remarkable debuts, one of the most formally astounding comes with Kevin Walker and Jack Auen’s unclassifiable, riveting detective-meet-academia tale, Chronovisor. As Leonardo Goi said in our Rotterdam review, “Ostensibly set in the present, Chronovisor keeps jamming your temporal bearings. Save for the occasional smartphone, the ‘action,’ such as it is, unfolds in a world frozen in time (when Béatrice tries to contact one of Ernetti’s surviving relatives, it isn’t an email she sends but a typed letter). The focus gradually moves from the academic-turned-detective toward the media she consults: we hear recordings of a lecture Ernetti gave about his creation, watch old TV footage concerning the man and others who sought to communicate with the dead, but mostly we read. Chronovisor is so enamored with the written word that close-ups of books and articles comprise most of its runtime—with English translations of their various languages dished out not as subtitles but placed directly over the original text on the page. There’s nothing precious about the choice: Auen and Walker want you to read along with Béatrice, and what’s so fascinating about their film is the way it tries to combine two different art forms (literature and cinema) and different actions (reading and watching) all while adjusting its pace to the time needed to perform both.”
More Films to See
- Teenage Wasteland (Sept. 4 on Netflix)
- Onslaught (Sept. 4)
- The Uprising (Sept. 11)
- Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger (Sept. 11)
- Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie (Sept. 17)
- Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom (Sept. 18)
- Bad Apples (Sept. 18)
- Take Me Home (Sept. 23)
- Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother (Sept. 25)
- The Incomer (Sept. 25)
- Charlie Harper (Sept. 25)
- The Stunt Driver (Sept. 25)
- Never After Dark (Sept. 25)
- In the Mouth (Sept. TBA)
The post 15 Films to See in September first appeared on The Film Stage.
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