September is the prelude to the most exciting time of the year: the holiday season! Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are already in everyone’s minds, and September is here to act as a prelude. However, there’s more to this underrated month than just pre-holiday anticipation.
Indeed, September is the perfect month to get in the fall and spooky mood. The current No. 1 movie at the domestic box office is the decidedly Halloween-friendly Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, for crying out loud! So take advantage of this convenient time of the year to catch up on some underrated movies you wouldn’t watch otherwise. From trippy horror movies to stories of longing and heartbreak, these hidden gems are perfect to enjoy during this equally undervalued month.
Santa Sangre (1989)
Directed by the master of cinematic surrealism, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Santa Sangre tells the story of Fénix (Axel Jodorowsky), a former circus performer who escapes a mental hospital to rejoin his armless mother, Concha (Blanca Guerra), in a strange cult. There, he enacts horrific murders in her name, thus becoming “her arms.” If that sounds messed up to you, then you have no idea what you’re in for with this twisted piece of arthouse horror.
Like every other film by Jodorowsky, Santa Sangre is visually striking, yet decidedly confusing, erratic, uneven, and intentionally challenging. The imagery here ranges from the bizarre to the outright grotesque, becoming the cinematic equivalent of a violent nightmare you can’t help but watch.
Santa Sangre is available to stream on Tubi.
Baby Boom (1987)
Who doesn’t love Diane Keaton? The Academy Award winner has starred in many beloved comedies throughout her career, but perhaps none is more underrated than 1987’s Baby Boom. The actress stars as J. C. Wiatt, a yuppie and hyper-driven career woman nicknamed “Tiger Lady” because of her confrontational personality. However, her life changes when a long-lost cousin dies and leaves her an unexpected inheritance: a 14-month-old baby girl named Elizabeth. Forced to move to Vermont, J. C. must decide what really matters to her.
Baby Boom is far from the best movie of the 1980s — it’s not even the best comedy in Keaton’s repertoire. However, it is a remarkably funny and heartwarming story that perfectly captures the very essence of the fall season with its lush Vermont scenery. Keaton is in fine comedic form, keeping things bright and engaging through a strong and irresistible performance that ranks among her sweetest. Baby Boom offers quite the idealized take on motherhood and the struggle between balancing parenthood and a career, but anyone expecting realism from a Diane Keaton vehicle where she sells gourmet baby food is watching the wrong movie.
Baby Boom is available to stream on Tubi.
Autumn Leaves (1956)
Joan Crawford epitomizes the ideal of a Classic Hollywood star: impossibly beautiful, poised, and seemingly flawless. The truth was, of course, far from that, but her roles throughout the late 1940s and ’50s sure tried (and succeeded) in selling that idea. Take Autumn Leaves, the 1956 psychological drama helmed by her future What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? director Robert Aldrich. The plot sees Crawford as Millicent, a middle-aged woman whose sudden marriage with a much younger man turns sour when he exhibits signs of mental illness.
Autumn Leaves is not the best older-woman/younger-man romance Crawford did in her later career — that honor goes to the stunning 1946 movie Humoresque. However, it is an intriguing entry in Crawford’s career, showcasing the strength of her dramatic abilities in a performance that effortlessly blends camp with genuine pathos. Aided by an equally impressive Cliff Robertson, Autumn Leaves is an unlikely, but welcome addition to any cinephile’s fall catalog.
Autumn Leaves is available to stream on Tubi.
