The 8 best movies new to streaming on Netflix, Max, and more in September

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September is upon us, and that means it’s time time to dust off your favorite sweater and dapple a little pumpkin spice in your morning coffee.

We’ve got many new movies, television, and books to look forward to in the coming weeks and months, not to mention all the exciting new films arriving on streaming this month.

Our roundup for September includes Denis Villeneuve’s 2016 sci-fi thriller Arrival, the 2013 sci-fi action film Riddick starring Vin Diesel, William Friedkin’s supernatural horror classic The Exorcist, and more.

Let’s dive in and see what this month has in store.

New on Netflix

Arrival

Genre: Sci-fi thriller
Run time: 1h 56m
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Cast: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker

Based on Ted Chiang’s 1998 short story “Story of Your Life,” Arrival is Dune director Denis Villeneuve’s first foray into hard science-fiction and easily ranks among his best.

He stars Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner; the film centers on Louise Banks (Adams), a linguistics professor enlisted by the US government to lead a team of investigators on a first-contact expedition when twelve mysterious spaceships touch down across the planet. With a beautiful score composed by the late Jóhann Jóhannsson — his last collaboration with Villeneuve before he died in 2018 — and a moving premise focused on the intrinsic power of language and communication, Arrival is an intimate sci-fi love story for the ages. —Toussaint Egan