The Best Streaming Movies You Didn't Watch In September 2024

(Welcome to Under the Radar, a column where we spotlight specific movies, shows, trends, performances, or scenes that caught our eye and deserved more attention ... but otherwise flew under the radar. In this edition: Jeremy Saulnier's action flick "Rebel Ridge," the coming-of-age comedy "Snack Shack," and the wonderful Studio Ghibli documentary "Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron.")

Don't look now, but 2024 is almost completely in our rearview mirror and you, our loyal /Film readers, must know what that means. Putting the finishing touches on our top 10 lists, engaging in unnecessarily angry debates about the buzziest Oscar-worthy movies, and cramming multiple disparate holidays into one hazy, months-long exercise in stream of consciousness are what the autumn and winter seasons were made for! But as this year in film begins to wind to a close, let not a single film enthusiast forget their most sacred duty of all. Of the many benefits of this column, perhaps none are more important than looking back at every installment so far, making note of the most under-the-radar picks, and obnoxiously chiding your friends for sleeping on the job and missing out on all the best hidden gems. Folks, that's what we're here for: to make you look like a better, more informed moviegoer than the rest of the general public.

In that spirit, our newest edition of "Under the Radar" coalesced around a single theme: streaming. As much as proponents of movie theaters have a love/hate relationship with our new digital reality, there's just no denying that streaming affords us an easy and convenient opportunity to catch up on what we missed the first time around. (Back in the olden days, we would've just called that phenomenon "cable," but so it goes.) This past month, some of the best and most entertaining titles just so happened to hit the digital airwaves ... and most of us, even yours truly, almost missed them completely. From Netflix action extravaganzas to understated dramedies to a documentary about arguably our most talented living filmmaker, here are the best picks from September.

When it's all said and done, you're going to want to be on the right side of history when it comes to Jeremy Saulnier's body of work. The idiosyncratic director has carved out quite a niche for himself over the years, first teaming up with friend and actor (and writer, and producer) Macon Blair to deliver low-budget thrillers like 2007's "Murder Party" and, most notably, the criminally underseen "Blue Ruin" in 2013. He followed that up with the gnarly, Nazi-killing genre film "Green Room" (starring Patrick Stewart in the villainous role of a lifetime) and the underappreciated "Hold the Dark" a few years later. After taking some time out to direct a few episodes of "True Detective" season 3, he returned to the big screen (well, in a manner of speaking) with "Rebel Ridge," which enjoyed a fair amount of hype before hitting Netflix last month. Although the streamer's dubious metrics indicate a hit, we're not taking anything for granted this time around. Let's give this movie the love it so clearly deserves.

Led by "Old" scene-stealer and our newest Green Lantern Aaron Pierre, "Rebel Ridge" sees the hulking actor in a role he's perfectly cast to knock out of the park. A former Marine, Pierre's Terry Richmond invites immediate Jack Reacher vibes as a drifter unburdened by any real ties since leaving the military — outside of his family, of course. Frantically bicycling to the local courthouse to deliver bail money for his incarcerated brother, the tension and stakes increase almost instantly as Terry is pulled over by the cops for, well, no real reason at all beyond his skin color. Abused and ultimately robbed by the officers, he spends the rest of the runtime frantically trying to save his brother and, when that fails, take vengeance upon one of the most corrupt institutions in America. Every step of the way, Saulnier directs this to deliver maximum impact — literally speaking, once the bullets start flying and the tightly-wound script inevitably heads towards the edge of the cliff. Modern action movies simply don't get much better or more hard-edged than this.

"Rebel Ridge" is currently streaming on Netflix.

You're a teenager in 1991 and it's the time of oversized T-shirts and Nike sneakers, long summer months with nothing to do but dream up get-rich-quick schemes and develop crushes on the new girl literally next door, and scramble to find a job once your overbearing parents decide to put an end to your troublemaking ways and make you grow up already. Little do they know that that's next to impossible for a pair of best buds like A.J. (Conor Sherry) and Moose (Gabriel LaBelle, last seen channeling young Steven Spielberg in "The Fabelmans") — a "package deal," as Moose describes themselves early on. Set in Nebraska and following in the footsteps of "Dazed and Confused" (and countless coming-of-age movies like it), "Snack Shack" is a warm and welcoming blast of nostalgia for much more innocent days gone by. Although some may find its throwback charms derivative, writer/director Adam Rehmeier crafts something uniquely specific and utterly real here in his tale of two young friends obsessed with making the big time.

If only they had any other life skill to pull off these grand dreams. "I want to pitch you an idea," Moose confidently states in what turns out to be the first of many harebrained hustles to make a buck. Once their latest business venture falls to pieces — A.J.'s parents discover the makeshift distillery they've been running and empty out the surprisingly good beer they've been selling to local high schoolers — the two set their sights on acquiring the rights to run the ramshackle Snack Shack located by the public pool. For these small-time hucksters, it's certainly a better use of their time than karate chopping each other in the neck, provoking bullies, and betting on dog races while they're supposed to be on class field trips. But once both end up developing crushes on Brooke (Mika Abdalla) and are forced to deal with real issues for a change, what unfolds is a coming-of-age tale that, yes, leans on all sorts of tropes ... but never once strikes a false note.

Come for the hilarious and fun-loving tone, stay for the trio of performances heralding stars in the making, and walk away pleasantly surprised by this blast from the (recent) past.

"Snack Shack" is currently available to stream on Prime Video.

This was a documentary that was decades in the making, chronicling what many thought would be the great Hayao Miyazaki's final film ever before sailing into the retirement sunset (for real, this time). It's everything that longtime fans could possibly want, detailing the longsuffering process — and emphasis on suffering — of overseeing every drawing and every frame of what would eventually become "The Boy and the Heron." It offers never-before-seen insights into the creative process and personal life of the legendary director, putting in sharp relief just how much every movie (but especially this one) takes a toll. It's also a movie that begins with Miyazaki in a hot tub and completely in the nude, with only a cheeky blur maintaining his dignity. Like Miyazaki himself, this film contains multitudes.

If a better documentary arrived this year, nobody informed "Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron" of that little detail. The up-close-and-personal feature shines a whole new light on the tortured genius who pours every iota of himself into his art. According to this, however, no movie is as close to being an outright autobiography as "The Boy and the Heron." Armed with years of video shot in Miyazaki's home and studio, archival footage from his younger years, and some brilliantly evocative editing, director Kaku Arakawa begins the action in  September of 2013, when the master announced his "retirement" ... only to commence production on a certain boy's adventure with a certain loudmouthed heron-man only three years later. From there, he walks viewers through a countdown to the Japanese premiere of the filmmaker's latest triumph, charting the painstaking journey and the never-ending personal losses he endured along the way — all of which influenced what the movie would ultimately turn out to be.

"When I close my eyes, I can't stop thinking," Miyazaki laments to nobody in particular. Over the course of two hours, we slowly realize the truth of this statement. Whether a longtime fan or a relatively new admirer, "Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron" is a must-watch experience for anyone who loves the medium of film and the visionaries who make it special in the first place.

"Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron" is now streaming on Max.