From ‘The Penguin’ to ‘Wolfs’, here’s the best of what’s streaming this month
In classic movie-release terms, September is when awards season starts in earnest, and so it is in the streaming era. With summer fading into the rearview, streaming platforms are bringing out the big guns. That includes another Nicole Kidman-led murder mystery, an action-comedy reuniting George Clooney and Brad Pitt, and Colin Ferrell ‘glamming down’ to the most extreme degree as waddling Batman nemesis the Penguin. Meanwhile, new TV seasons are premiering, while other shows are ending and some just beginning. It’s a lot to take in, which is why we’ve assembled this list of the must-watch new movies and series hitting all the major streamers this month. Close the blinds, cancel your plans, and get to watching. Summer’s done – no one will blame you.
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At one point, George Clooney and Brad Pitt co-starring in an action-comedy as bickering criminal clean-up artists would qualify as a major theatrical event. Given that Sony got cold feet on a wide release, though, maybe Quentin Tarantino was right about only one of these guys being a true movie star. In any case, it looks like a good time, and a sequel has already been greenlit.
Premieres Sept. 1.
Gary Oldman's cold warrior Jackson Lamb and his band of out-to-pasture misfits are the smell MI5 just can't shift – quite literally in the case of the soap-dodging Lamb. Season 4 sees them dealing with assassins, terrorists and Kristin Scott Thomas's snaky intelligence wonk, with Hugo Weaver adding yet more quality to one of the finest small-screen ensembles around. The action sequences aren't bad, either.
Premieres Sept. 4.
Any movie with Elizabeth Olsen, Natasha Lyonne and Carrie Coon acting together in a confined space is going to have a high floor for success. Writer-director Azazel Jacobs (French Exit) sequesters them in a cramped New York City apartment as estranged siblings awaiting the imminent death of their father and watches the emotional dams burst. It’s possibly this year’s May December or Marriage Story – the prestige Netflix indie drama with potential awards heat.
Premieres Sept. 6.
HBO’s well-regarded adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s ‘Neapolitan novels’ comes to an end, having followed childhood besties Elena and Rafaella from their impoverished upbringing in 1950s Naples to the 1980s, where the final season is set. La Chimera’s Alba Rohrwacher and Gomorrah’s Irene Maiorino step in as the older versions of the two friends, who are estranged at the start of the season yet more closely connected than ever.
Premieres Sept. 9.
Natasha Rothwell stole every scene she had in both Insecure and The White Lotus, so to have a full project with her at the centre is welcome. She also conceived this comedy, which the press materials say is about a ‘broke, fat, Black JFK airport employee who's never been in love and forgotten how to dream’ who finally starts taking control of her life following a near-death experience. We’re already rooting for her.
Premieres Sept. 13.
Jeff Bridges is back, and older than ever! At the end of the first season of this knotty espionage thriller, Bridges’ grizzled, on-the-run ex-CIA operative Dan Chase teamed up with the agent formerly trying to bring him down (John Lithgow) and headed out to rescue Chase’s kidnapped stepdaughter (Alia Shawkat) from her real father, a vengeful Afghan warlord. Got all that? Actually, probably best to look up one of those YouTube recap videos before the next season starts.
Premieres Sept. 13.
A wealthy family’s pristine image unravels after a body is discovered outside their beachfront property in Nantucket. No, Daniel Craig does not show up to investigate, but the trailer for this Elin Hilderbrand adaptation does give off Knives Out vibes, with a dollop of Big Little Lies – it even has Nicole Kidman in the cast as a bestselling mystery novelist whose life suspiciously begins to resemble one of her books.
Premieres Sept. 15.
Ryan Murphy already knows a bit about famous football players standing trial for murder, but the crimes of ex-New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez might be even more brazen than OJ Simpson’s, if only because he was still playing in the NFL when he decided to kill someone. Murphy is producing this 10-episode dramatisation, the first in a series of sensational true stories from the world of sports.
Premieres Sept. 17.
Even Marvel detractors had to admit that WandaVision was a pretty neat show with a cool concept and clever execution, while devotees must acknowledge that the MCU’s television output has since started to flag. Will this spinoff, focused on witch-next-door Agatha Harkness, prove revitalising? Well, it’s got Kathryn Hahn in the lead and Aubrey Plaza as a self-described ‘warrior witch’, so that’s certainly a good starting point.
Premieres Sept. 18.
In 2019, Prince Andrew gave an interview to the BBC about his connections to Jeffrey Epstein considered so disastrous it’s now produced two dramatisations of the events leading up to it. Following up on Netflix’s Scoop, this three-part miniseries puts a bit more focus on journalist Emily Maitlis (Ruth Wilson), whose questioning steered the Duke of York (the always-dependable Michael Sheen) into what the press dubbed a ‘nuclear explosion’ for the Royal Family.
Premieres Sept. 19.
Spinning off from the latest ‘dark and gritty’ reboot of the Caped Crusader mythos, 2022’s The Batman, this miniseries charts the supervillainous rise of lumpy, disfigured Oswald Cobb, played, as in the movie, by Colin Farrell under a load of prosthetics. Initially a low-level mobster, his self-loathing gradually metasticises into a rage unleashed on the citizens of Gotham. Hurt people hurt people, as they say.
Premieres Sept. 19.
Miss GLOW? This series, inspired by the life and career of female Japanese wrestling legend Dump Matsumoto, should dropkick that itch. Don’t expect as much camp, though: Japan takes pro-wrestling more seriously than the US, and the character Matsumoto embodied legitimately terrified the screaming schoolgirls who attended her matches in the ‘80s. And if you’ve seen those matches yourself, you know there will definitely be blood.
Premieres Sept. 19.
The majestic Aussie comedy is back for another season. Gordon, the gormless but mostly loveable microbrewery owner, and deadpan junior doctor Ashley are going steady(ish) and on a mission to retrieve Colin, their beloved, disabled pooch, from his new owners. The pair are played by real-life marrieds and show creators Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer. They’ve come up with a sitcom that might just sit alongside Fawlty Towers and Peep Show one day soon.
Premieres Sept. 26.
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