Max continues to keep us movie buffs on our toes by ushering in its monthly titles, keeping its status as one of the best streaming services alive and burning. When it comes to its September 2024 schedule, you’ll finally be able to catch up on very recent movies you may have missed in theaters, all with seriously high critical ratings.
It wouldn’t be a Max list without titles from A24, so in that case we’ve included two 2024 releases from the war-action and horror categories, as well as Studio Ghibli’s latest animated feature, and a little-seen Academy Award winner from 2021.
Our four movie picks have all been released within the last three years and are bound to ease you into the beginning of the fall months and are ideal for cozy nights in, or if you fancy sinking into a new movie while the kids are back at school.
The Boy and the Heron (2023)
RT Score: 97%
Age rating: PG-13
Length: 124 minutes
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Arriving on: September 6
The Boy and the Heron is the most recent animated entry Studio Ghibli director and legend Hayao Miyazaki, which earned the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. In his latest fantasy adventure story, young boy Mahito loses his mother to the war and moves to a countryside family home where he bares witness to mysterious events that lead him to the home of a gray heron. When his stepmother is declared missing, he follows the heron into a world where the living and the dead co-exist, uncovering the land’s secrets and discovering hidden truths about himself.
I Saw The TV Glow (2024)
RT Score: 84%
Age rating: PG-13
Length: 100 minutes
Director: Jane Schoenbrun
Arriving on: September 20
In this super-recent horror drama from A24, high-school student Owen (Justice Smith) is trying to navigate through a depressing suburban life when his classmate Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine) introduces him to a late-night television show. Depicting a supernatural world that exists beneath them, and the two connect over the TV show and quickly start to question reality and their own identities. Schoenbrun’s sort-of-horror movie highlights how shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer (which is specifically referenced) helped people discover their queerness through supernatural elements and relatable characters, taken to the most extreme and thrilling version of that journey.
Civil War (2024)
RT Score: 81%
Age rating: R
Length: 110 minutes
Director: Alex Garland
Arriving on: September 13
The other A24 entry in our list sees the return of Alex Garland since the release of his 2022 horror feature Men. In his dystopian thriller set in a near-future USA, a team of war journalists band together to travel from New York to Washington D.C. where a war has broken out between the government and secessionist movements. Together, they race against the clock to try to speak to the President in person before the rebellion engulfs the White House itself.
Drive My Car (2021)
RT Score: 97%
Age rating: R
Length: 179 minutes
Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Arriving on: September 2
With a near-perfect score of 97%, it’s no surprise that Drive My Car took home the Oscar for Best International Feature in 2022. In an attempt to deal with the passing of his wife, stage actor and director Yusuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima) receives an offer to direct a production of Uncle Vanya in Hiroshima. As the premiere approaches, Yusuke finds himself tangled in tension with actor Koji Takatsuki (Masaki Okada) who has a hidden connection to Yusuke’s late wife. With the help of his personal chauffeur Misaki Watari (Toko Miura), he uncovers painful truths of his past and learns of the secrets his wife left before she passed.
