There was a time when you could count the big, blockbuster action films starring women on one hand. In a stunning reflection of how things are changing in Hollywood, now you’d probably need to use two hands—and in fact, we’ve progressed so much that women can now lay claim to an extremely problematic, culturally fetishistic shoot-’em-up of their very own.
Yes, on September 10, Netflix will release Kate, which stars Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’s Mary Elizabeth Winstead as an assassin who is poisoned during her final mission (when else?) and has only a few hours to hunt down her killers before she up and dies (this is one of those special movie poisons that apparently leaves you with no ill effects until it kills you). It looks incredibly cool—Winstead, an actress I adore, seems to have taken to the action genre with relish—or it would, if the trailer for the Japan-set flick wasn’t slathered with the kind of Orientalism-bordering-on-racism that I thought we’d left behind in the early ‘90s, when Japanese businessmen stopped being the villains in every movie.
From Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, the director of the second Snow White and the Huntsman movie, Kate looks like a frenetic cross between John Wick and Crank, and at least as entertaining as recent Netflix female assassin film Gunpowder Milkshake, but it’s a real warning sign when your film’s baddie is referred to simply as “the Yakuza,” ever the reliable East Asian Boogeyman in movies for Western audiences. Maybe the final result won’t reduce an entire country to a series of tropes, I dunno. Given the director calls it his “love letter to Japan,” things could really go either way.
Here’s everything else coming to the streamer this month, including a new He-Man animated series (Sept. 16)—a different one this time—and additional seasons of streaming favorites like Love on the Spectrum, Nailed It!, and reality sensation, The Circle.
What’s coming to (and leaving) Netflix in September 2021
Table of Contents
Coming to Netflix in September
Arriving this month (no date announced)
Arriving September 1
- How to Be a Cowboy — Netflix Original Series
- Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror — Netflix Documentary
- A Cinderella Story
- Agatha Christie’s Crooked House
- Barbie Big City Big Dreams
- Blade Runner: The Final Cut (1982)
- The Blue Lagoon (1980)
- Chappie
- Clear and Present Danger
- Cliffhanger
- Cold Mountain
- Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles
- Dear John
- Do the Right Thing
- Freedom Writers
- Green Lantern
- House Party
- House Party 2
- House Party 3
- The Interview
- Kid-E-Cats: Season 2
- Labyrinth
- Letters to Juliet
- Love Don’t Cost a Thing (2003)
- Mars Attacks!
- Marshall
- Mystery Men
- The Nutty Professor
- The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps
- Once Upon a Time in America
- Open Season 2
- Rhyme & Reason
- School of Rock
- Tears of the Sun
- Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins
Arriving September 2
Arriving September 3
Arriving September 6
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Arriving September 7
Arriving September 8
Arriving September 9
Arriving September 10
Arriving September 13
Arriving September 14
Arriving September 15
Arriving September 16
Arriving September 17
Arriving September 19
Arriving September 20
Arriving September 21
Arriving September 22
Arriving September 23
- Je Suis Karl — Netflix Film
Arriving September 24
Arriving September 28
Arriving September 29
Arriving September 30
What’s leaving Netflix in September 2021
Leaving September 3
Leaving September 6
Leaving September 7
- Ripper Street: Series 1-5
Leaving September 11
Leaving September 12
Leaving September 14
Leaving September 15
- Angry Birds: Seasons 1-2
- As Above, So Below
- Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Leaving September 16
- Penny Dreadful: Seasons 1-3
Leaving September 18
- Beauty & the Beast: Seasons 1-4
Leaving September 26
Leaving September 30
- Air Force One
- Austin Powers in Goldmember
- Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
- Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
- Boogie Nights
- Cradle 2 the Grave
- Evil: Season 1
- Fools Rush In
- Insidious
- The Karate Kid
- The Karate Kid Part II
- The Karate Kid Part II
- Kung Fu Panda
- Kung Fu Panda 2
- No Strings Attached
- The Pianist
- Prom Night
- The Queen
- Star Trek
- Star Trek: Enterprise: Seasons 1-4
- Star Trek: Seasons 1-3
- Star Trek: Voyager: Seasons 1-7
- The Unicorn: Season 1
- Why Do Fools Fall in Love