Anyone with a Paramount+ subscription has plenty to watch this September. The service added a robust slate of titles, including an science-fiction masterpiece from Denis Villeneuve, a pre-MCU Marvel outing and a 1970s paranoia classic. Paramount+ even added a 2025 Sundance hit to its service this month.
Here are seven best new movies on Paramount+ this September.
“Arrival”
What would you endure for your child?
This question lies at the center of “Arrival,” one of the best films from “Dune” director Denis Villeneuve. At first glance, “Arrival” seems like a rather stuffy approach at science fiction. Amy Adams stars as Louise Banks, a linguist called in to help decipher an alien language after a series of spacecrafts touch down across Earth. As she (joined by Jeremy Renner as physicist Ian Donnelly) attempts to decipher this language piece by minuscule piece, Louise is haunted by visions of her daughter. Though now a widely beloved filmmaker, Villeneuve often receives the criticism that his films are rather sterile, a series of excellent crafts pieces that lack true emotional heft. “Arrival” should’ve been enough to debunk this theory long ago.
With a script from Eric Heisserer, based on Ted Chiang’s novella “Story of Your Life,” Villeneueve and his team assembled an intriguing and complex piece of sci-fi storytelling with massive emotional payoff. Adams delivers a career-best performance, carrying the weight of the complicated story on her shoulders while making the finale a true gut punch. With gorgeous cinematography from Bradford Young and an impactful score from Jóhann Jóhannsson, “Arrival” remains one of the best sci-fi films this century (a list Villeneuve probably claims several entries on).
“Blade”
Blade has become something of a punchline in the Marvel movie world, as the MCU’s Mahershala Ali-led adaptation repeatedly fails to launch. It’s a real shame — both for wasting Ali, and for failing to capitalize on a character who’s a proven big-screen success.
Long before the days of the MCU (pre-dating even the “X-Men” and “Spider-Man” film franchises), “Blade” gave audiences a first taste at what a successful big-screen adaptation of Marvel Comics could look like. Wesley Snipes turns in an incredible performance as Blade, the Daywalker whose half-human, half-vampire blood grants him a blood-sucker’s powers without weakness. It’s a compelling concept — a vampire hunter with the abilities of the creatures he slays — that Snipes plays to perfection in a slick action-horror from Stephen Norrington and David S. Goyer. Fans wanting more Blade can check out the whole trilogy on Paramount+ this September (including the solid sequel from Guillermo del Toro).
“Cloverfield”
Before Matt Reeves directed talking apes or Gotham’s Dark Knight, he set his sights on an otherworldly creature of Lovecraftian horror. “Cloverfield,” directed by Reeves and written by Drew Goddard, uses the found footage format to follow a group of party-goers attempting to survive a kaiju encounter in New York City. The results are intense.
Reeves, cinematographer Michael Bonvillain and their stars inject the film with a manic frenzy, portraying the fear of being an average person caught in the middle of a disaster they can’t understand. The film is an interesting artifact for its viral marketing, cryptic post-credits tease and surprise anthology sequels. Beyond these puzzle box aspects (no doubt the influence of producer/project originator J. J. Abrams), however, “Cloverfield” manages to pull off genuine scares and suspense as a frighteningly real take on an apocalyptic kaiju event.
“Face/Off”
“Face/Off” walks a fine line. This John Woo action thriller is, in a word, ridiculous. The film features a bizarre premise and beyond over-the-top performances from John Travolta and Nicolas Cage. This is all a feature, not a bug.
What “Face/Off” lacks in seriousness, it makes up for in commitment to the bit. There is no moment with Travolta and Cage that is anything less than delightful, with the face-swapped actors hamming it up like sandwich-makers on the day the meat expires. Watching two generational overactors riff on each other’s own overacting is truly a thing to behold. Beyond the performances, Woo brings his signature talent for action filmmaking to “Face/Off” with big, explosive sequences that are entirely exhilarating. “Face/Off” is one of the most enjoyable movies you will find on Paramount+ right now, an unironic giant of 90s action.
“Galaxy Quest”
In “Galaxy Quest,” Tim Allen plays the egotistical lead of a sci-fi series (one where characters trek through the stars, if you will) who is mistaken by a group of aliens for a real space-faring hero. He quickly folds in his cast mates, played Sigourney Weaver, Tony Shalhoub and an astonishingly funny Alan Rickman, to help him play the part of a Kirk-like captain — and become real heroes in the process.
“Galaxy Quest” has the heart and adventurous spirit of “Star Trek” in a more highly comic package, effectively serving as both spoof and outright reimagining. The humor comes fast and furious, with a number of excellent performances from comic powerhouses. Yet, rather than outright parodying “Star Trek,” “Galaxy Quest” pokes fun at the hallmarks of the show while still delivering a fun and engaging adventure. It would still be a good movie in a world where “Star Trek” didn’t exist, and makes a fine addition to Paramount’s “Star Trek” package.
“The Parallax View”
“The Parallax View” marks the middle chapter of Alan J. Pakula’s “Paranoia Trilogy,” a series of films connected only by their themes of surveillance, conspiracy and mistrust of government and institutions. Today, “The Parallax View” may be slightly less popular than the Neo-noir “Klute,” and certainly less discussed than “All the President’s Men” (starring a pitch-perfect Robert Redford), but it holds its own among these stellar trio of 70s film.
“The Parallax View” stars Warren Beatty as Joseph Frady, an investigative reporter who finds himself pulled into a conspiracy involving the assassination of a presidential hopeful. As Frady digs deeper into the web of dead witnesses (including his ex-girlfriend), he uncovers a far bigger plot than he’d imagined, with the mysterious Parallax Corporation at its center. “The Parallax View” is an all-timer of the political thriller genre, and a sterling example of 70s paranoia filmmaking.
“The Wedding Banquet” (2025)
After having its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival, Andrew Ahn’s “The Wedding Banquet” has made its streaming debut on Paramount+. The film, written by Ahn and James Schamus, is a 2025 remake of Ang Lee’s 1993 rom com of the same name. Bowen Yang, Lily Gladstone, Kelly Marie Tran and Han Gi-chan star in this comedy of manners (alongside Joan Chen and Best Supporting Actress winner Youn Yuh-jung) as two queer couples exchanging a green-card marriage for fertility treatment payments.
“While the original managed to tap into something new for its time, it is also not untouchable and, as Ahn proves so decisively here, was worth revisiting just so we could experience his thoughtful approach,” TheWrap’s Chase Hutchinson wrote following the film’s Sundance debut.
