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September at the movies in NYC: Occult scenes, concrete dreams
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC. Gothamist Listen Live Donate Arts & Entertainment September at the movies in NYC: Occult scenes, concrete dreams By Emma Stefansky Published Sep 1, 2026 at 12:00 p.m. ET
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Deep in the bowels of the city’s oldest research institutions, an obsessive academic researches something forbidden and occult. Out on the streets, a location scout tries to find the perfect interiors for an overbearing director. And as he trudges down the city’s miles of sidewalks, an accomplished director discovers he’ll have to do a little more than he bargained for to sell a movie about the most boring substance on the planet.
These are just some of the situations you’ll see on New York City’s movie screens this September, a month full of classic adventures, untold histories, and brand-new cinematic experiments.
When a Columbia University professor uncovers whispers of a legendary device called the “chronovisor,” said to have the ability to project historical events onto a screen exactly as they happened, her interest quickly grows into an all-consuming obsession. Her desperation to uncover the truth sends her on a Dan Brown-style journey through old newspapers, obscure manuscripts, and secret recordings in the archives of the New York Public Library. Based on real tales of a fake artifact, mystery-thriller “Chronovisor” is a love letter to New York City as a hub for research, and an internet-eschewing celebration of the art of looking things up.
Ahead of "Chronovisor," be sure to catch Film at Lincoln Center’s “Bibliomania” screening series of academic mystery-thrillers, from serial killer thriller “Copycat” to underrated adventure “National Treasure: Book of Secrets.”
No filmmaker captured warts-and-all New York on camera the way Frederick Wiseman did during his long career as a celebrated documentarian. As part of Metrograph’s “Wiseman’s NYC” series honoring the late director, don’t miss his film “Model,” a headfirst dive into the fashion industry of the city in the 1980s, following the models, photographers, magazine writers, agents, directors and designers who make it all happen, turning fantasy into reality and reality back into fantasy with a twirl of fabric and a camera flash.
If you’ve ever caught yourself roaming the city streets late at night with a million things to do and no plans to head home anytime soon, you’ll likely feel a certain kinship with “After Hours”’ frantic, sleep-deprived protagonist. Martin Scorsese’s 1985 black comedy stars Griffin Dunne as a meek computer clerk suddenly caught in an ever-increasing number of unlikely and unfortunate scenarios well past his bedtime. His odyssey through downtown Manhattan puts him in the path of angry taxi drivers, aggressively flirty waitresses, crazed papier-mache sculpture thieves, hair-shaving punks, and all manner of other delightful weirdos who stalk the city after sunset. One of many films Scorsese made tipping his hat to the fabulous contradictions of living in NYC, “After Hours” is a perfect distillation of Murphy’s Law: Anything that can go wrong, will.
Over 50 years after the Vietnam War, the surviving members of the conflict’s first all-Black American special ops patrol unit reunite to share memories and examine old wounds. The documentary “Soul Patrol” follows Ed Emanuel, one of many young Black men who found themselves at war in a foreign land when the fight for civil rights was just beginning to boil back home. While Emanuel reconnects with his erstwhile comrades, the film uses archival footage and modern-day reenactments to take a hard look at what it meant for these men to be so far from home during the two most important struggles of their lives.
The New York premiere screening on Sept. 15 will have a Q&A with director J.M. Harper.
Those familiar with absurdist documentarian John Wilson will know that his projects are never about just one thing, and his feature film “The History of Concrete” is no different. After attending a workshop on how to sell the perfect Hallmark movie, Wilson attempts to apply the tried-and-true formula to a decidedly uninspiring concept: a film literally about concrete. Stymied at every turn, Wilson soon discovers that getting people excited about a movie about concrete is about as difficult as it sounds.
To explain what makes Makoto Shinkai’s animated metaphysical fantasy romance so good would be to spoil its biggest twist, so we’ll have to stick with the basics: A young rural schoolgirl makes a wish to become a boy with an exciting city life. Her wish comes true, and she starts intermittently switching bodies with a boy from Tokyo. The two share their lives, communicating through notes written on their skin or in their phones — until one day the messages stop, and a devastating truth threatens to keep them apart forever. The first in Shinkai’s “disaster trilogy,” “Your Name.” is being re-released this year for its 10th anniversary.
Far more than simply the first ever hip hop movie — though that in itself is a worthy accomplishment — “Wild Style” is the definitive snapshot of a New York not often put to film, commemorating the people, the music, and the artistic fearlessness that makes this place special. Its plot follows uptown graffiti artists from the Bronx and enfants terribles of the downtown art scene brought together by a local journalist to put on a ground-shaking concert. Made entirely with amateur local actors and boasting an instant classic soundtrack including Fab 5 Freddy, the Cold Crush Brothers, a...
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