Welcome back to the Weekend Watch where each week we take a look at a new piece of film or television media and give it a rating, review, and recommendation. This week, we’re looking back at the films released in the month of September, highlighting the best films and rating them by their likelihood of being considered among the best films of the year and possibly even all time. As always, they’re categorized into Long Shots, Possible Things, and Sure Things. September has often been viewed as the soft kick-off of awards season with many films fresh off of runs at TIFF and Venice dipping their toes into the water. While the past few Septembers have felt more like false starts than true soft launches, September 2024 has given us a really solid slate of films that belong firmly in the conversation, even if they’ll inevitably be on the outside looking in, in addition to a strong slate of crowd-pleasers as well. Let’s get into it.

Long Shots:

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: Already one of the highest grossing films of the year, Tim Burton’s legacy sequel has pleased audiences and critics without fully blowing them away. Strong production design might give this film the lift that its vaguely positive scores need to make it as a great.

Rebel Ridge: A refreshingly fresh take on the action/revenge genre from a streamer was this Aaron Pierre and Don Johnson led film from Netflix. While the story doesn’t necessarily stick the landing, it’s a solid action thriller that has outperformed expectations from both audiences and critics.

Transformers One: One of the worst ad campaigns I’ve seen in recent years for an animated film has delivered an underperforming box office for what is otherwise one of the best Transformers films since the first Michael Bay film. A great voice cast might not be enough to get this film into the all-time conversation as it faces off against a broad slate of great animated films, but it’s definitely worth checking out.

Speak No Evil: The mainstream remake of the recent international horror film has been a sensation in theaters, carried by another great performance from James McAvoy. It’s a horror film that doesn’t really seek to elevate anything about the genre, so don’t expect to hear its name among the awards films, but it still bears watching.

Rez Ball: Netflix has yet another sleeper hit basketball film on its hands with the Lebron James-produced film about a reservation basketball team from New Mexico banding together to overcome the loss of their star player to compete for a state championship. Anyone looking for a decent feel-good sports film will be pleased with this one.

Will & Harper: The timely documentary following Will Ferrell’s road trip across the U.S. with his friend Harper Steele and engaging in conversations with each other and the public about trans people. It’s a timely and emotionally engaging film whose reviews have inevitably faced the adversity of conservative review-bombing that it’ll have to overcome with some wins in the coming season to make the score.

Possible Things:

His Three Daughters: Netflix’s first true awards-bait film of the year is Azazel Jacobs’s film about three daughters dealing with the imminent death of their father. All three actresses – Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyonne, and Elizabeth Olson – give phenomenal performances that could warrant awards love in a less stacked year, but it’s a really excellent film regardless of its official recognition.

My Old Ass: The Aubrey Plaza and Maisy Stella starring film about a girl whose mushroom trip gives her the opportunity to meet her 39-year-old self. It has been heralded as one of the best comedies of the year that also carries some solid emotional weight as well and is definitely one to watch.

How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies: This dramedy from Thailand about a young man scheming on his grandmother’s fortune should be the country’s submission for Best International Feature this year, as many are calling it one of the year’s best, carrying emotional weight and telling an original story. If you can find it showing near you, you should check it out.

The Substance: Coralie Fargeat’s body horror commentary on media’s perception of female body image starring Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, and Dennis Quaid has been one of the most unpleasant pleasant surprises of the year. The comedy, social commentary, and visceral images have all hit the right notes along with the performances from the leading ladies and their terrifying supporting man. It might be the film to overcome the genre bias at awards shows as well. We’ll see.

Sure Thing:

The Wild Robot: Pixar once again has a run for its money for the best animated film of the year in DreamWorks Animation’s adaptation of the children’s book. The animation, story, and characters all hit the perfect notes of a great film, and it’s earned this blog’s fourth “Sure Thing” certification of the year. Go see it if you haven’t already.