With summer coming to a close, it’s time for movie theaters to hang up their capes and bury those dinosaurs, as the season of award hopefuls and indie darlings takes flight. This includes films from big name directors—the likes of Paul Thomas Anderson and Darren Aronofsky—as well as newer, but still just as exciting, faces to the cinema landscape. From period pieces focusing on the eternal feeling of being loved to intense thrillers about the very nature of the same idea, the month of September holds some truly exciting releases going into the 2025 awards race.
Whether you’re in the mood for a big cry, huge laughs, or simply watching Benicio del Toro continue to be one of the best actors working today, there’s no shortage of options from theaters in the Hudson Valley. Here are five movie events and an shop opening to keep your eyes on throughout September.
Sleepover Trading Co. Opening
Before getting into the film screenings of this month, attention must be paid to the arrival of a new go-to for any movie lover: Sleepover Trading Co. The local legendary duo, Guido A. Sanchez and Rob Ribar, have been creating events and slinging memorabilia throughout the Hudson Valley for years, and have now reached their dream of opening up their very own brick-and-mortar shop. Located in the newly opened Community Theatre in Catskill, Sanchez and Ribar have collected some of the VHS, DVDs, toys, comics, posters, and general movie paraphernalia that they have acquired over years of hunting, research, and the rare lucky find. All of these findings, including anything from the wildest basements you’ve ever seen, all the way to the complete inventory from the recently closed Video Visions in Chatham, have given Sleepover Trading Co. a “living, breathing archive,” as Ribar perfectly puts it. When you walk into their space, you won’t just have a good time and find amazingly cool stuff, you might also get as close to time travel as possible.
Sleepover Trading Co., located at the Community Theater in Catskill, has their shop preview on September 10, and their grand opening on September 12.
My Beautiful Laundrette
Stephen Frears’s My Beautiful Laundrette is a synthy and glowing film about how love can connect us, destroy us and, just maybe, fix all of our problems. Jacob Burns Film Center showcases this 1985 classic, starring Daniel Day Lewis and Gordon Warnecke, which finds the partnership of two newly reconciled friends put at odds against the world they come from. Day Lewis is, of course, fantastic, but in a way that is both similar and very separate from his legacy as one of greatest living actors of his time. Frears’s seemingly insatiable need to create a fantasy vibe within reality is a wonder. This presentation is part of the Out There series, which has showcased films in the past like Heightened Security and will soon present screenings of Plainclothes, Dreams, and Bad Shabbos. The screening, in collaboration with Pleasantville Pride, will be followed by a Happy Hour at Take 3 Wine Bar & Café, where you can show your ticket at the bar to get 50% off any wine on their menu.
My Beautiful Laundrette screens September 11 at Jacob Burns Film Center.
The City Without Jews with Live Original Music
With no exaggeration, The City Without Jews is one of the most mindblowing films from the early days of cinema that you could ever hope to watch. Upstate Films brings this momentous piece to the big screen, accompanied by a live score, to create a singular experience of awe and dread. The 1924 film, directed by Hans Karl Breslauer, was lost to time until being found in 2015 at a Paris Flea Market, and was then restored by Austria’s National Film Archive. The film follows the happenings in the mythical world of “Utopia,” where prospects for the future are diminished, money has become arbitrary, and the guilty party has been chosen by the governing class. A darkly comedic take on the events of our world at the time, told through the timely lens of German Expressionism, this film was thought to be completely destroyed by the Nazi Party after 1933. It is now given new life through this restoration, with a live score performed by world-renowned violinist Alicia Svigals and the celebrated silent film pianist Donald Sosin.
The City Without Jews screens Sept 14 at Upstate Films Orpheum Theatre.
Plainclothes
One of the most talked about films from Sundance this year was Camren Emmi’s Plainclothes, a film that simultaneously harkens back to the great thrillers of the ’90s, while building its own nest in current affairs. This movie, inspired by true events, follows an undercover agent who is tasked with entrapping gay men, only to find himself in a conflict of both morals and soul when he finds himself romantically drawn to one of his targets. Plainclothes is not for the faint of heart, as it showcases the many faces we can have when confronted with not only love and redemption but also deceit and exile. Writer/director Cameron Emmi pulls no punches in all of these equations, and Tom Blythe, who plays the aforementioned agent, is nothing short of mindblowing in his portrayal of man caught between worlds.
Plainclothes starts September 19 at Time & Space Ltd and screens September 23 at Jacob Burns Film Center with a talkback featuring filmmaker Carmen Emmi and composer Emily Well.
The History of Sound
Director Oliver Hermanus made waves with his 2019 film, Moffie, a film that is as exhilaratingly touching as it is tremendously difficult to watch. His followup film, 2022’s Living, was an adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 film Ikiru, both astonishing works of emotion and the perseverance of life and self. The History of Sound, his latest film, lives up to his filmography, showcasing exquisite performances from Josh O’Connor and Paul Mescal. The two actors play young men who bond over music and after World War I, travel the countryside of Maine to collect folk songs from locals and faraways alike. Throughout the journey, their relationship, and its ambiguities, become more than they may be able to control.
The History of Sound starts September 19 at Story Screen Cinema.
One Battle After Another
Caught Stealing has been viewed as Darren Aronofsky’s reprieve from “art filmmaking,” where the auteur takes his usual sense of depravity and character longing and transfixes it onto a Scorsese-esque crime-thriller. The result is wonderful, as Caught Stealing is one of the most distinctive films to hit cinemas this year. Paul Thomas Anderson, who many would know as the director of coveted films like There Will Be Blood and Phantom Thread, has seemingly reached back into his early age of releases, like Hard Eight and Boogie Nights, to create something as singular as his latest film, One Battle After Another. The film has an all-star cast, with Leonardo DiCaprio, Regina Hall, Benicio del Toro, Teyana Taylor, and Sean Penn. The story of the film is a simple one: An ex-revolutionary seeks help from his past comrades to track down his daughter after she is kidnapped. What starts as a basic premise turns into a philosophical and, unfortunately, ideological adventure of one man attempting to find not only his daughter but the meaning for why he’s still even here.
One Battle After Another starts September 26 at Jacob Burns Film Center.
Two words: SPINAL TAP!!!! No mention of the monumental cinematic event that is the follow up to the greatest, if you will, “rockumentary” ever? 😅
Also, semi-seriously: three cheers for comedy actually showing up at the movie theater. I’m excited to see all the movies you mention, but it seems like comedy isn’t a thing anymore. I am stoked for Tap!