The summer movie season is officially behind us, and the first weekend of September brings a surprisingly varied trio of new wide releases. There is a fact-based crime thriller pairing Mark Wahlberg with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, an unapologetically bloody science-fiction action movie from director Adam Wingard, and a much quieter relationship drama starring Dakota Fanning. Here are the three major films opening nationwide on Friday, September 4.
By Any Means
Director Elegance Bratton (The Inspection) moves into crime-thriller territory with By Any Means, a story inspired by actual events in the civil-rights era. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II plays a young Black FBI agent sent to Mississippi during the 1960s to investigate a series of brutal killings targeting civil-rights leaders. When conventional law enforcement fails, he is forced into an unlikely alliance with notorious Mafia hitman Greg Scarpa, played by Mark Wahlberg. The investigation pushes both men into murky territory where the difference between justice and vengeance becomes increasingly difficult to define.
The supporting cast is particularly strong, including Nicole Beharie, Giancarlo Esposito, David Strathairn, Josh Lucas, LisaGay Hamilton, LaChanze and Ethan Embry. Bratton directs from a screenplay by Sascha Penn.
As of this writing, the movie has not yet been screened widely enough for a meaningful critical or audience consensus. The premise and cast make this one of the weekend’s more intriguing choices, particularly for viewers who enjoy historical crime thrillers. My recommendation: worth considering but check the reviews as they begin appearing later this week.
Onslaught
If subtlety is not what you are looking for, Adam Wingard’s Onslaught may be the weekend’s answer. Adria Arjona stars as Celeste, an Army sniper and single mother whose life explodes into chaos when a rogue group of genetically engineered super-soldiers is unleashed in the desert. Forced to protect her young daughter, Celeste finds herself in an increasingly violent battle for survival. The cast includes Dan Stevens, Eric Wareheim, Reginald VelJohnson and Michael Biehn, with Wingard directing from a screenplay by his longtime collaborator Simon Barrett.
Early reviews are encouraging. Onslaught currently has an 82 percent Rotten Tomatoes score from 22 reviews, with particular praise going to Arjona’s performance and Wingard’s gleefully excessive approach to action and horror. The Daily Beast called it a mixture of the kinds of things genre fans adore and singled out Arjona as a convincing new action heroine. Other critics have been less enthusiastic, arguing that the film spends too long building toward the mayhem and ends just when it seems to be hitting its stride.
There are not yet enough verified audience ratings to establish a reliable public reaction, which is understandable before Friday’s opening. Still, anyone who enjoyed Wingard’s The Guest or prefers their action movies bloody, fast and deliberately over-the-top should probably have this at the top of the weekend list. My recommendation: the most promising choice for action and horror fans.
The Sun Never Sets
At the opposite end of the spectrum is Joe Swanberg’s The Sun Never Sets, a small, intimate relationship drama set against the striking landscape of Alaska. Dakota Fanning stars as Wendy, whose troubled relationship with boyfriend Jack, played by Jake Johnson, becomes considerably more complicated when an old love returns to her life. Debby Ryan, Cory Michael Smith and Anna Konkle are also featured. Swanberg both wrote and directed the film.
This is currently the best-reviewed of the weekend’s wide releases, with an 82 percent Rotten Tomatoes score from 34 critics. Reviewers have praised the performances—particularly Fanning—and the film’s refusal to turn its romantic complications into artificial melodrama. RogerEbert.com awarded it 3½ out of four stars, describing it as a messy but emotionally honest relationship story, while some less enthusiastic critics felt Swanberg was returning to familiar thematic ground without adding much that was new.
This is clearly the weekend’s choice for moviegoers who prefer performances and character relationships to explosions and gunfire. My recommendation: a good bet for adult audiences looking for something quieter and more thoughtful.
It is a small opening weekend, but at least the three wide releases offer genuinely different choices. Onslaught looks like the most entertaining prospect for genre fans, while The Sun Never Sets has the strongest critical backing for viewers interested in an intelligent adult drama. By Any Means may ultimately be the most ambitious of the three, but with reviews still under wraps, it remains the weekend’s wildcard. After a summer packed with sequels, superheroes and spectacles, September begins with three very different movies competing for your attention.
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