The best new movies on Netflix in September 2015

Epic is an over-used word in cinema, but David Lean’s four-hour 1962 journey with T.E. Lawrence (Peter O’Toole) into the Arabian desert is surely the gold standard for films grand in scale and design. It’s been more than 50 years since Lean chronicled the exploits of Lawrence, an unconventional British officer who struck out alone during World War I with the aid of Bedouins (including Omar Sharif in his most famous role) to fight the Turks.

Wes Anderson, the dapper auteur behind such idiosyncratic works as The Royal Tenenbaums and Fantastic Mr. Fox, wrote and directed this continuously surprising and delightful adolescent romance about two runaways trying to find a happy place together on a small chunk of rock off the coast of Rhode Island in 1965.

This Iranian drama was made in 2009, prior to its writer-director Asghar Farhadi’s Oscar-winning A Separation. As in that film, social strictures and tensions loom large in a narrative that defies easy prejudices during its early scenes of lively young Iranians leaving Tehran for a coastal holiday. Tagging along is Elly (Taraneh Alidoosti), a teacher invited along in the hope that she’ll hit it off with divorced Ahmad (Shahab Hosseini).

John Rambo’s first onscreen adventure has suffered so much by association with its risible gung-ho sequels that it can be something of a shock to revisit it. First Blood isn’t the fun-but-dated meathead beat-’em-up you might remember—it’s a nuanced, heartfelt and riveting polemic that might be one of the few genuinely antiwar films Hollywood has ever produced. Stallone’s persecuted Vietnam vet isn’t a bruised hero—he’s a shattered, monosyllabic shell, so traumatized that he’s barely capable of speech.

Based more or less on a 1971 London bank heist dubbed “the walkie-talkie robbery” (high-tech!), the film assembles a likable gang of working-class crooks to knock over a vault. Unbeknownst to team leader Terry (Jason Statham, playing both to and against type), the film’s femme fatale has an ulterior motive. A porn star and an uncomfortably cartoonish black-power leader also figure in.

And here’s the full list of what’s coming to Netflix streaming in September, by date:

Available September 1
72 Dangerous Animals: Australia: Season 1
Arthur: Season 17
Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher (2014)
Battle Creek: Season 1
Blackbird (2014)
Capital C (2014)
Combustion (2013)
Da Jammies: Season 1
Divorce Corp. (2014)
Hamlet (1990)
Hardball (2001)
Heather McDonald: I Don’t Mean To Brag (2014)
Lawrence of Arabia: Restored Version (1962)
Masters of the Universe (1987)
Mississippi Damned (2009)
Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood: Volume 1
Los hombres también lloran: Season 1
Mouk: Season 1
Our Man in Tehran (2013)
Pandas: The Journey Home (2014)
Person of Interest: Seasons 1-3
Puffin Rock: Season 1
Rambo: First Blood (1982)
Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)
Rambo III: Ultimate Edition (1988)
Shake the Dust (2014)
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
Such Good People (2014)
The Adventures of Sharkboy & Lavagirl (2005)
The League: Season 6
The Monster Squad (1987)
Up in the Air (2009)
Zathura (2005)
Zoo Clues: Season 1

Available September 2
Black or White (2014)
Miss Julie (2014)

Available September 3
Drumline: A New Beat (2014)

Available September 4
Baby Daddy: Season 4 (new episodes)
Bad Night (2015)
Madame Secretary: Season 1
Melissa & Joey: Season 4 (new episodes)

Available September 7
Space Dandy: Season 2

Available September 8
6 Years (2015)
Love At First Fight (2014)

Available September 9
Teen Beach Movie 2 (2015)

Available September 10
Longmire: Season 4

Available September 11
About Elly (2009)
God Bless the Child (2015)
Madame Bovary (2014)

Available September 12
It Happened Here (2015)
Portlandia: Season 5
The Roughnecks (2014)
Fugitivos: Season 1
Why Did I Get Married? (2007)

Available September 13
Comedy Bang! Bang!: Season 4 (part 2)
Pixies (2014)

Available September 14
Call the Midwife: Series 4

Available September 15
Closer to the Moon (2015)
Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret (2014)
Kambu: Season 1
Rubble Kings (2015)
Sin Senos no Hay Paraiso: Season 1
The Bank Job (2008)
The Road Within (2015)
Zoobabu: Season 1

Available September 16
Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
Reservation Road (2007)
The Blacklist: Season 2
The Fosters: Season 3

Available September 17
The Mysteries of Laura: Season 1

Available September 18
Keith Richards: Under the Influence (2015)

Available September 21
Gotham: Season 1
The Following: Season 3

Available September 22
Person of Interest: Seasons 4
Philomena (2013)
SMOSH: The Movie (2015)

Available September 23
The Loft (2015)

Available September 24
Iris (2014)

Available September 25
Blue Bloods: Season 5
Hawaii Five-0: Season 5
Parenthood: Season 6
VeggieTales in the House: Season 1 (New Episodes)

Available September 26
The Canyons (2013)

Available September 27
The Walking Dead: Season 5

Available September 29
Bones: Season 10
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013)
Monster High: Boo York (2015)
RL Stine's Monsterville: Cabinet of Souls (2015)

Available September 30
Agatha Christie's Poirot: Series 12
Leafie: A Hen into the Wild (2011)
Midnight’s Children (2012)
Murdoch Mysteries: Season 4-7
Ned Rifle (2014)