We’re sad to see summer go, though we won’t miss the heat. But as students go back to school and we inch towards fall, we also get into a great movie season.
September has a whole array of movies we’re excited to see, from franchise continuations like The Nun and The Predator to great novel adaptations like A Simple Favor and The Sisters Brothers. There’s big drama in Life Itself, the wild true stories of White Boy Rick and The Old Man and the Gun, and a dash of comedy thanks to Night School and Smallfoot.
Here’s everything you need to see in September 2018.
September 7
God Bless the Broken Road
When Amber’s husband is killed while serving in Afghanistan, she struggles to raise their daughter alone. Then a hotshot young race car driver ends up in their town, and Amber has to decide between her attraction to a life he represents and the path she’s always walked.
The Nun
The Conjuring storyline expands with this deep dive back into the history of the demonic nun that scared the pants off us in The Conjuring 2. Taissa Farmiga plays a nun in training who, with the priest Father Burke (Demián Bichir) goes to investigate a suicide in a Romanian monastery. It’s no spoiler to say they find more than a suicide, and we can’t wait to be terrified by their discovery.
Peppermint
Jennifer Garner returns to her action roots, which stretch all the way back to her many seasons on Alias. This time she’s partnered with Taken director Pierre Morel. She plays a woman whose family is killed in a shooting. Frustrated after the cops and justice system take no action against the people responsible, Garner’s character trains to fight and ultimately takes the situation into her own hands.
September 14
The Predator
A young boy accidentally activates a signal that brings the alien predators back to Earth. That would be bad enough, but the crew of scientists and soldiers assembled to find and destroy the hunters soon realizes these aliens are more powerful than any which have explored our planet before. Co-written and directed by Shane Black, who made The Nice Guys and Iron Man 3, and who played a role in the original Predator.
A Simple Favor
Mommy blogger Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) is surprised to forge a tight friendship with Emily (Blake Lively), one of the most stylish and enigmatic women in town. But when Emily goes missing the story veers into betrayal and possibly even murder, leaving us to puzzle out the truth about all the characters and their twisted relationships. Based on Darcey Bell’s novel A Simple Favor.
Unbroken: Path to Redemption
Taking the term “spiritual sequel” to a new place, this movie picks up where Angelina Jolie’s 2014 film Unbroken left off, as it follows Olympian and World War II veteran Louis Zamperini as he returns home to the US. Despite being haunted by his war experiences he forges a relationship with a young woman. Even so, he almost loses control of his life – until a fateful experience at a Billy Graham revival.
Where Hands Touch
Amandla Stenberg of The Hunger Games, The Darkest Minds, and The Hate U Give stars with George MacKay, Abbie Cornish, Christopher Eccleston, and Tom Sweet in this eye-raising romantic drama set during World War II. More specifically, Where Hands Touch follows Stenberg as a biracial young German woman living during the Holocaust, who begins a relationship with a member of the Hitler Youth, played by George MacKay.
White Boy Rick
The unbelievable true story of Richard Wershe, Jr., better known as White Boy Rick, who as a teenager in the 1980s became one of the most successful drug dealers on Detroit’s east side. What most people didn’t know at the time was that Wershe was also an informant for the FBI. Starring Richie Merritt as Richard Wershe Jr., with Matthew McConaughey, Bel Powley, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Rory Cochrane, Eddie Marsan, Bruce Dern, and Piper Laurie.
September 21
Assassination Nation
When a data hack hits the parents and high school students of a small town, privacy, secrets, and civilization all go out the window. Four friends try to survive as their town almost literally explodes around them and people take up arms to protect their lives, and their imagined standards of decency.
Fahrenheit 11/9
Documentary gadfly Michael Moore returns with a film about the 2016 election of President Trump and the state of the country following Trump’s win.
The House With A Clock In Its Walls
Adapted from the book by John Bellairs, this spooky story follows young Lewis Barnavelt as he goes to live with a very strange uncle – who turns out to be a warlock, played by Jack Black. Even better, Cate Blanchett plays the good witch next door, and Kyle MacLachlan turns up, too. As the title suggests, the very house inhabited by Lewis’s uncle has some weird stuff going on that connects, somehow, to the end of the world.
Life Itself
The stories of three generations in two different countries intertwine in unexpected fashion. This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman writes and directs a film that is, in many ways, like a big-screen version of his hit show. (The stories and characters here are completely unrelated, however.) And the cast is great: Oscar Isaac and Olivia Wilde play a couple; Mandy Patinkin and Olivia Cooke play a father-daughter pair; and Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Laia Costa, and Antonio Banderas make up a complicated group in Spain.
Lizzie
The true story of Lizzie Borden, one of America’s most famous murderers, is told in this quietly ominous film. Unmarried Lizzie (Chloe Sevigny) is a loner whose domineering father stifles her attempts to live her own life. When the Borden family hires a new maid (Kristen Stewart), the friendship she forges with Lizzie leads to a terrible plan.
The Sisters Brothers
Two tough-guy brothers, played by Joaquin Phoenix and John C. Reilly, search for a scientist (Riz Ahmed) who stole from their boss. But the scientist’s secret might be worth more than they know, and a simple pursuit across the wild west turns into something a lot more dangerous. Jake Gyllenhaal also stars in this atypical, very funny western.
September 28
Hell Fest
A group of friends visits a horror-themed amusement park, where their good time is derailed by a killer who is far more real than the rest of the haunted attractions.
Little Women
Louisa May Alcott’s novel is adapted for a new generation, with Sarah Davenport, Allie Jennings, Melanie Stone, Taylor Murphy, and Lea Thompson as the four March sisters (Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy) and their mother.
Night School
Kevin Hart is Teddy, who can’t get the job he wants until he gets his GED. So it’s off to night school, where Teddy finds himself in a class of misfits led by a teacher played by Tiffany Haddish. So you know there aren’t going to be any low-key study sessions. Directed by Malcolm D. Lee, whose last film, Girls Trip, turned Haddish into a major star.
The Old Man & the Gun
Legendary star Robert Redford makes his final screen appearance (he says) in the true story of Forrest Tucker, who robbed banks armed mostly with charm and made countless escapes from the law. Redford is joined by Danny Glover and Tom Waits, who play members of his “Over the Hill Gang,” while Sissy Spacek plays a woman who forges a connection with Tucker. Directed by David Lowery, whose recent movies A Ghost Story and Pete’s Dragon were two of the best surprises of the last couple years.
Smallfoot
What if the Yeti really existed, and what if they had a whole society in which humans were the legendary creatures only a few individuals believed in? This animated film presents Migo, voiced by Channing Tatum, whose belief in the “Smallfoot” creature is validated when he actually meets a human. Based on the book Yeti Tracks by Sergio Pablos.