The best movies new to streaming this September

August is finally over, and you know what that means: Summer is almost over! Before we can start putting away our swimsuits and busting out our finest fall-themed sweaters, however, we’ll have to make it through September first. There’s a ton of exciting new releases coming to theaters this month, including Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and Megalopolis, as well as movies new to streaming.

If you’re looking for the best movies you can stream from home this September, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve pored over this month’s newest arrivals to bring you the very best of the best of what to stream. We’ve got an Oscar-winning animated drama, an irreverent neo-noir mystery, a brilliant adaptation of a classic Jane Austen novel, and much more.

Here are the movies new to streaming services you should watch this month.

Editor’s pick: The Boy and the Heron

Where to watch: Max
Genre: Fantasy drama
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Cast: Soma Santoki, Masaki Suda, Aimyon

The latest Oscar-winning animated feature from Hayao Miyazaki is arguably his most personal and deeply moving work yet. Inspired by Miyazaki’s own childhood growing up in post-WWII Japan, The Boy and the Heron follows the story of Mahito, a young boy grieving the death of his mother. Moving to the countryside with his newly remarried father and step-mother, Mahito is despondent over the cruelties of the world.

After crossing paths with a mysterious shape-shifting heron, Mahito embarks on a journey to the land of the dead in hopes of reuniting with his mother and learning an important lesson: how do you continue to live in the wake of 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 considering the film’s parallels to Miyazaki’s own life and legacy. I wouldn’t recommend it as the first Hayao Miyazaki movie one should watch — maybe start with Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke — but it is a must-watch all the same. —Toussaint Egan

New on Netflix

Sonic the Hedgehog

Genre: Comedy
Director: Jeff Fowler
Cast: Ben Schwartz, James Marsden, Jim Carrey

Let’s get this out of the way: yes, there’s a few fart jokes and flossing references in Sonic the Hedgehog. But there’s a whole lotta heart in the movie, and Sonic himself is absolutely adorable, especially when you realize that he’s supposed to be a precocious (yet deeply lonely) preteen. I want to give him a hug! Also every live-action actor fully delivers on their performances, from Jim Carrey’s delightfully unhinged Dr. Robotnik to James Marsden’s everyman police officer, and just makes the interaction with the cartoony Sonic even better. —Petrana Radulovic

New on Hulu

Die Hard With a Vengeance

Genre: Action thriller
Director: John McTiernan
Cast: Bruce Willis, Jeremy Irons, Samuel L. Jackson

Far and away the best of the Die Hard sequels, and in certain circles a candidate for best movie in the whole series, Die Hard with a Vengeance transports John McClane back to his native New York for a face off with a deadly terrorist who’s planted bombs all over the city. 

The movie’s biggest strength is that it doesn’t try to recreate the highs of the original movie, but is instead mostly a cat and mouse game with the terrorist, played wonderfully by Jeremy Irons, giving McClane and his partner Zeus Carver, Samuel L. Jackson fresh off of Pulp Fiction, clues to finding the bombs, all to distract 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 cramped streets of New York as Jackson and Willis rush from one borough to the next, always feeling a step behind. It all makes for a terrific new setting for one of action’s best characters, and one of the best thrillers of the 90s. —Austen Goslin

New on Max

Inherent Vice

Genre: Neo-noir comedy
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson

Few things are better on film than watching a detective slide through life and slink through a case, and few movies have ever depicted that like Inherent Vice. 

Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptation of the Thomas Pynchon novel follows Doc Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix), a private investigator in the ’70s who stumbles into a massive conspiracy that involves a secret society and maybe the whole of Los Angeles. The mystery takes half a dozen baffling turns, and like most noir stories ends up confusing enough that you and the characters can only really follow about half of it. But that’s not what’s important here. 

What makes Inherent Vice truly brilliant is its vibes. Phoenix’s pothead detective is one of the best slapstick characters of the 2010s, and Josh Brolin’s straight-laced detective has two or three of the funniest deadpan reads ever put on film. Anderson shoots his LA of the ’70s with tremendous love and care, and fills out every single one of its office buildings and seedy alleys with tremendous character actors like Martin Short, Benicio del Toro, Jena Malone, Owen Wilson, and more. Even if you can’t keep the movie’s conspiracy straight, or map out all its major players, Inherent Vice is the kind of movie that you can sink into and by the time the credits roll you’ll wish you could stay inside its vibes and charm for at least a few more hours. —AG

New on Prime Video

Emma.

Genre: Period romcom
Director: Autumn de Wilde
Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Johnny Flynn, Josh O’Connor

The world doesn’t hold the same space it used to for Jane Austen adaptations, and that’s a damn shame. Thankfully, this 2020’s excellent adaptation of Emma fills at least a small part of that vacancy. 

Unlike movies like Clueless that take a modern bent to Austen’s work, this version, directed by Autumn de Wilde, approaches it in its original time period. The result is a thoroughly gorgeous movie, with exquisite costumes, and a whole lot of venomous words said with a smile. 

The whole thing rests on the shoulders of a tremendous lead performance by Anya Taylor-Joy, who performs the incredible balancing act of making Emma mean, cruel, petty, and eminently likable and charming. Of course, Joy is also aided by a ridiculously talented supporting cast that includes Josh O’Connor, Johnny Flynn, Callum Turner, Mia Goth, and Bill Nighy. —AG