If one peruses our 50-title fall movie preview, there shouldn’t be too many surprises for narrowing down what to see in September. But with our most-anticipated film of the entire year arriving this month, along with some early autumn gems, there’s much to look forward to.
13. Plainclothes (Carmen Emmi; Sept. 19)
Premiering earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival (where it picked up the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for its ensemble) Carmen Emmi’s feature debut Plainclothes stars Tom Blyth and Russell Tovey in a story of an undercover officer in 1990s Syracuse who lures and arrests gay men, then ends up falling for a target. John Fink said in our Sundance review, “A darker take on coming out, Plainclothes has a few familiar twists but ultimately succeeds through its performances and take on the material. The last act effectively ratchets up the tension, bringing the two timelines to a head around some familiar family archetypes.”
12. A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (Kogonada; Sept. 19)
Following his tender, formally precise indie dramas Columbus and After Yang, video-essayist-turned-filmmaker Kogonada is stepping up to the big leagues with his next project. The Seth Reiss-scripted A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, starring Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell, was once set to kick off the summer movie season. However, Sony Pictures moved it to the more awards-friendly fall season, where it’ll now be released on September 19. Though it’s curiously skipping festivals, we’re hoping the director transitions up, Farrell in tow once again, with swooning imagination.
11. Twinless (James Sweeney; Sept. 5)
One of the most-discussed films premiering at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, where it went on to win the Audience Award, James Sweeney’s Twinless will now arrive on September 5 from Roadside Attractions. Sweeney stars alongside Dylan O’Brien, Lauren Graham, Aisling Franciosi, Tasha Smith, and Chris Perfetti. As Jake Kring-Schreifels said in our Sundance review, “Twinless starts like a prototypical Sundance movie––grim and serious, plus unexpected levity. That’s the general formula for a festival that might as well have manufactured the term ‘dramedy.’ In this case there’s an offscreen car accident and quick cut to a funeral. Roman (Dylan O’Brien) stands grieving beside his mother (Lauren Graham) as the casket containing his gay identical twin brother, Rocky, is lowered into the ground. It’s a somber affair––tears, tissues, a violinist’s rendition of ‘Danny Boy’––until the song pauses abruptly on a false note, engendering awkward silence. It’s the first permission you have to laugh, then to recognize the faint absurdity of a gathering in which mourners approach Roman and bawl at his uncanny likeness to the deceased.”
10. Dreams (Dag Johan Haugerud; Sept. 12)
While this summer had its fair share of sequels, leave it to Dag Johan Haugerud and Strand Releasing to roll out an entire trilogy of films across the season. The final entry in the Norwegian filmmaker’s Oslo Trilogy, his Berlinale Golden Bear winner Dreams, will now arrive this September. The film follows Johanne, a young woman who documents her first love––an infatuation with her teacher––through intimate writing.
9. The History of Sound (Oliver Hermanus; Sept. 12)
Following up his Akira Kurosawa remake Living, Oliver Hermanus brought the queer drama The History of Sound, starring Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor, to Cannes earlier this year. Luke Hicks said in his review, “It’s strange to hear backwood Appalachian fiddle folk in a French theater at the hand of a South African director portraying the queer, song-collecting lives of two American men who are madly, delicately in love and played by British stars. Thanks to Paul Mescal, it’s also quite lovely. The History of Sound––Oliver Hermanus’ hushed ode to New England’s rich tapestry of folk history, adapted by Ben Shattuck from his short-story collection of the same name––is a tenderly felt drama sung in whisper and sorrow, the kind that almost guarantees a cry for anyone weakened by a phenomenal homegrown voice or piercing romance. Its alternately hyper-specific and vast range of vocals, styles, and tunes suggest the minor dawning of a lesser-known American sound. Much as Inside Llewyn Davis and O Brother, Where Art Thou? sought to reintroduce music the Coens trusted would resonate with modern audiences, The History of Sound means to show us the power of (primarily a cappella) folk songs of their time and place. T Bone Burnett will be proud.”
8. Sunfish (& Other Stories On Green Lake) (Sierra Falconer; Sept. 12)
One of the great discoveries from this year’s Sundance Film Festival was Sierra Falconer’s directorial debut Sunfish (& Other Stories on Green Lake). The lovely anthology feature comprising four stories was boarded by Joanna Hogg as executive producer and picked up by The Future of Film is Female. Dan Mecca said in his review, “Filmmaker Sierra Falconer’s Sunfish (& Other Stories on Green Lake) captures a bittersweet feeling. That feeling of endings and beginnings, happening at the same time. For eighty minutes, we watch four short stories unfold in and around Green Lake. One involves a young girl (Maren Heary) learning how to sail after being dumped at the doorstep of her grandparents’ lake house by her neglectful mother. Another concerns a young boy (Jim Kaplan) at the fancy summer camp on the other side of the lake. He’s facing intense pressure from his mother to make first chair violin in the camp orchestra. An extended sequence of him practicing is particularly tense. The third story features an overworked young mother (Karsen Liotta) seduced by adventure in the form of a charming, wayward bar patron (Dominic Bogart) and a once-in-a-lifetime fish to be caught. Finally, there’s the lovely tale of two sisters (Tenley Kellogg and Emily Hall) running a lakeside bed-and-breakfast, the older of the two teaching the younger every needed task to completion before leaving for college.”
7. Happyend (Neo Sora; Sept. 12)
With the pausing of Metrograph Pictures, a few releases were in limbo. Thankfully, Film Movement has come to the rescue for one: Neo Sora’s narrative debut Happyend (following his first feature, capturing his father in Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus). Savina Petkova said in her review, “‘Something big is about to change’ is surely one ominous beginning for a debut fiction feature, but director Neo Sora knows how to calibrate the fine balance between anticipation and inevitability. A story set in the near future, Happyend makes Tokyo a vast playground to high-school seniors gathered around childhood pals Yuta (Hayato Kurihara) and Kou (Yukito Hidaka). Life is blooming and the future is ripe for those teenagers, even if the whole city is constantly preparing itself for a catastrophic earthquake. Daily drills and false alarms interrupt an otherwise-smooth rhythm where Yuta and Kou gather their classmates at their Music Research Club, an extracurricular that’s more enjoyable than practical in purpose. With a fully equipped school room at their disposal at all times, the gang can build a secure microcosm for the shared love of electronic avant-garde and a generally good time.”
6. The Baltimorons (Jay Duplass; Sept. 5)
After a flurry of features directed with his brother Mark Duplass, from 2005’s The Puffy Chair to 2012’s The Do-Deca-Pentathlon, Jay Duplass is now helming his first solo film. The charming The Baltimorons stars Michael Strassner (who co-wrote the script with Duplass), Liz Larsen, and Olivia Luccardi. John Fink said in his review, “A return to form for Jay Duplass, who’s also making his solo-directing debut, The Baltimorons is a charming throwback to the low-budget indies he directed with his brother Mark. Written and starring burly stand-up comedian Michael Strassner, the Baltimore-set film follows the mis-adventures of an unlikely romantic duo: Strassner’s Cliff, a stand-up comedian six months sober, and his older workaholic dentist Didi (Liz Larsen). Cliff is bantering with his fiancée Brittany (Olivia Luccardi) when he falls and chips a tooth, sending him frantically searching for a dentist who will take him on Christmas Eve. Didi is the only one who takes his call, agreeing to meet him in her empty office for surgery.”
5. Riefenstahl (Andres Veiel; Sept. 5)
As fascism rears its ugly head once more across the United States and beyond, it is ever more important to remember our heinous history. Written and directed by Andres Veiel, Riefenstahl uses never-before-seen documents from the personal archive of filmmaker and Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl––including private films, photos, recordings and letters that complicate the post-war narrative she meticulously crafted––to reexamine her legacy and its significance in our modern times. Dan Mecca said in our fall preview, “It is fascinating what the human mind will allow. Riefenstahl, a documentary directed by Andres Veiel about the life of Leni Riefenstahl, explores the rationalizations the filmmaker allowed herself in order to explain her collaborations with the Nazi Party in Germany during their time in power. Until the day she died (at 101 years old in 2003), Riefenstahl refuted accusations that she was aware of the crimes being committed around her. ‘I never saw any atrocities happening,’ she says in an interview from 1976, after the interviewer presents her with an account of her witnessing the murder of 22 Jews. She denies it adamantly. Throughout the film, we watch her deny much, while separate information suggests she was more aware of the evil around her than she ever let on. How much did Leni Riefenstahl know when she was working directly with Hitler and his team of monsters?”
4. MEGADOC (Mike Figgis; Sept. 19)
Behind-the-scenes tales of the ambitious, ceaselessly imaginative Francis Ford Coppola can be just as entertaining as the final artistic statement. We now have the definitive look at the making of Coppola’s long-in-the-works passion project Megalopolis from filmmaker Mike Figgis, who had intimate access to every facet of the production. David Katz said in his review, “With greater parallels to Apocalypse Now in its self-funded genesis than in his studio-backed career highlights (extending up to Bram Stoker’s Dracula in the early ‘90s), clearly a documentary enshrining the events on the ground had to be made. Up steps Mike Figgis, no stranger to iconoclastic, independent-working, and Hollywood-revenge narratives. Watching MEGADOC, the 107-minute result premiering this week at the Venice Film Festival, we wonder what Figgis wasn’t legally permitted to show, yet his project is key to understanding what Megalopolis is and what hamstrung it, and maybe, also, that greatness wasn’t its destiny.”
3. Where to Land (Hal Hartley; Sept. 12)
11 years since Ned Rifle, indie stalwart Hal Hartley is finally returning with his Kickstarter-backed Where to Land, which gets a run at NYC’s Roxy Cinema this month, hopefully followed by more theatrical engagements. Glenn Heath Jr. said in our fall movie preview, “Much like the great slapstick auteur Preston Sturges, indie stalwart Hal Hartley has always been able to tap into the contradictions, uncertainties, and swooning emotions of a specific era much sooner than any of his contemporaries. Where to Land, Hartley’s great new film about a famed rom-com filmmaker who has reached a philosophical and moral crossroads, does just that for this stressed-out moment in history. Mixing Hartley’s patented machine-gun banter with a deep sense of empathy and surprise, the film seamlessly critiques modern America’s culture of assumption and opportunism that threatens to derail us from seeing what matters most in our daily lives. Where to Land is a true marvel of a movie: equally enthralled by wind in the trees and a momentary pause in conversation, patiently rediscovering a calm power that resides in-between the chaos of 21st-century existence.”
2. Predators (David Osit; Sept. 19)
Not to be confused with Dan Trachtenberg’s latest Predator film coming later this fall, David Osit’s Mayor follow-up Predators is one of the most essential documentaries of the year. Exploring the thorny moral complications of To Catch a Predator and Chris Hansen’s approach to journalism, as well as the copycat imitators it has spawned, MTV Documentary Films picked up the Sundance selection for a September 19 release. Dan Mecca said in our Sundance review, “Filmmaker David Osit gives viewers a lot to wrestle with in Predators, his documentary about the reality show To Catch a Predator, which captured the zeitgeist of the early 2000s. In the show, host Chris Hansen confronted adult men who had arrived to a location (following an online chat correspondence) with the alleged intention of engaging in sexual activity with a minor. The set-up was, in fact, a sting orchestrated by the show’s producers in collaboration with local law enforcement. It made for compelling television and was advertised like so, as well as a public good. Predators wrestles with the legacy of the program, the ethical questions it raised, and the copycat vigilantes it inspired.”
1. One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson; Sept. 26)
It’s hard to believe we’re now just a few weeks away from the release of Paul Thomas Anderson’s highly anticipated One Battle After Another. The director’s biggest-budgeted film yet, complete with an IMAX and 70mm roll-out, marks PTA’s long-awaited collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio after they attempted to work together for Boogie Nights some three decades ago. The action-thriller-comedy draws from Thomas Pynchon’s sprawling 1990 novel Vineland––while the novel was set in the Reagan era, PTA has shifted to the modern day, telling the story of a father who has left behind his radical past and is now living a quiet life on the lam with his daughter. When Sean Penn’s white supremacist Colonel character returns from the past to track them down, they must go on the run. With a cast also featuring Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Benicio del Toro, Chase Infiniti, Wood Harris, and Alana Haim, we reported from the first test screenings that the film features “loads of action and car chases”––including a “phenomenal” one in the climax––and is the “closest we’ll ever get” to a full-on PTA action movie.
More Films to See
- Realm of Satan (Sept. 2)
- Sleep with Your Eyes Open (Sept. 5)
- Preparation for the Next Life (Sept. 5)
- The Threesome (Sept. 5)
- Spinal Tap II: The End Continues (Sept. 12)
- Rabbit Trap (Sept. 12)
- Bang Bang (Sept. 12)
- The Lost Bus (Sept. 19 in theaters and Oct. 3 on Apple TV+)
- Another End (Sept. 19)
- Chain Reactions (Sept. 19)