As summer begins, finally, its slow crawl into fall, the streamers are starting to leak some of their prominent projects. We’re not into Oscar bait-y territory yet, and frankly, we couldn’t find anything worth spotlighting on Max or Hulu this month on the cinematic front. But these notable titles for September include a pitch-black satire from one of world cinema’s most stylish directors, a powerful sit-down with an embattled world leader, and a fable about the transformational power of music.
ON NETFLIX
Starts Sept. 15
El Conde
One of the most interesting directors on the international stage, Chilean auteur Pablo Larraín has proven to be a maestro of offbeat historical drama, from “No” and “Neruda” to his English-language eccentricities “Jackie” and “Spencer.” His latest film follows in this tradition of merging fantasy with dark history, with the director putting his cerebral stamp on a deathless horror subgenre: the vampire flick. In “El Conde,” the count in question happens to be Augusto Pinoche, the brutal Chilean dictator, who in Larraín’s imagining never died; he in fact stuck around as a 250-year-old vampire, and only now is his history of abuse and malfeasance finally coming home to roost. The trailer, in stark and beautiful black-and-white, suggests a delirious black comedy with a potent political subtext; it’s not a coincidence that “El Conde” is being released to Netflix four days after the 50th anniversary of the 1973 coup d’etat that brought Pinochet into power.
ON AMAZON PRIME
Starts Sept. 15
A Million Miles Away
An inspiring true story of drive, talent and dogged perseverance in the face of institutional adversity, “A Million Miles Away” is adapted from a memoir by NASA flight engineer José Hernández, and chronicles his journey from a family of Mexican migrant farm workers to the outer reaches of the cosmos. As portrayed by Michael Peña, Hernández is literally laughed at when he shares his aspirations to become an astronaut at NASA—an organization with a history that’s as lily-white as the universe is big—and in his early days in the industry, he’s often mistaken for the help. But “A Million Miles Away” stands as a testament to the American Dream, even if the road to get there is a rocky one.
Starts Sept. 23
Cassandro
Another biopic about a Mexican-American success story, “Cassandro” stars a magnetic Gael Garcia Bernal as Saúl Armendáriz, a gay lucha libre wrestler in 1980s Texas who is inspired to embrace his queerness by his new trainer, Sabrina (Robert Colindrez). So the struggling grappler adopts the persona of a so-called “exótico”—a style, dating back to the 1940s, of feminized, often-campy luchadors wrestling in drag. His new moniker, Cassandro, shakes up the border towns where he performs, achieving subversive triumph in an atmosphere of macho aggression. Co-starring Bad Bunny, and making creative use of classic period cuts from Blondie and Baccara, “Cassandro” has been met with near-universal praise from the critics who have viewed it early; it boasts a 97-percent Fresh ranking on Rotten Tomatoes.
ON PARAMOUNT PLUS
Starts Sept. 18
Superpower
When Sean Penn first traveled to Ukraine to shoot a documentary on a former comedian, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who had made an unlikely rise to the presidency of his country, the war with Russia had not yet broken out. When Vladimir Putin’s troops invaded, last February, Penn—who, for better or worse, is an artist who enjoys being in the center of conflict—pivoted, transforming “Superpower” from a collegial sit-down to a portrait of courage in the face of potentially existential hostility. His interviews with Zelenskyy, which play out in an undisclosed underground bunker, shed new light on life during wartime. “Superpower” earned a standing ovation when it premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year.
ON APPLE TV
Starts Sept. 29
Flora and Son
“Flora and Son” is the latest ode to the transformative power of music from a director, John Carney, who has embraced this theme as a mantra: He expressed it lovingly in his previous films “Once” and “Sing Street.” Eve Hewson plays the title character, a single mother in Dublin struggling to rein in her rebellious teenage son. When the boy, Max, is arrested for petty thief and urged by the local police to adopt a constructive hobby, Flora buys him a used guitar, and signs up for YouTube music lessons—from a roguish, flirtatious Californian played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt—that end up impacting her as much as her offspring. The movie may prove to be a breakout film role for Hewson, who happens to be Bono’s daughter (though she never turned to her dad for musical tips, she has said). “Flora and Son” premiered at Sundance this year, and has been near-universally praised by critics.
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