New movies to watch in June

Vroom vroom! Among the many new movies to watch in June is a treat for Formula One fans, who are in for some big-screen cinematic action to follow this month’s big race in Montreal. Brad Pitt stars in F1 (June 27), from Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski, as a former Formula One driver who comes out of retirement to mentor a rookie. Made in close collaboration with F1 racers (and there are many cameos), the film also stars Damson Idris, Kerry Condon and Javier Bardem. 

After Nearly 10 years since the last film in the series, 28 Years Later (June 20) takes us deep into the future of the post-apocalyptic hellscape first imagined by Danny Boyle and Alex Garland. A group of survivors live on a small island connected to the mainland. When one decides to venture into the heart of darkness, he soon discovers a mutation that will add a new twist to the horrific zombie-creating disease. Boyle not only returns to direct, but the film features an all-star cast including Ralph Fiennes, Jodie Comer and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. 

Always a reason for celebration, Wes Anderson is back with The Phoenician Scheme (June 6). Benicio Del Toro stars as a wealthy businessman, Zsa-zsa Korda, who appoints his only daughter — a nun — as sole heir to his estate. As Korda embarks on a new enterprise, they soon become the target of scheming tycoons, foreign terrorists and determined assassins. An all-star cast of Anderson alumni and new faces includes Michael Cera, Tom Hanks, Willem Dafoe, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch and Mia Threapleton, among others. (Read our review of The Phoenician Scheme here.)

Mike Flanagan also returns to the big screen this month with another Stephen King adaptation following his 2019 go at the Shining sequel Doctor Sleep. Tom Hiddleston stars in The Life of Chuck (June 13), a life-affirming, genre-bending story based on King’s novella about three chapters in the life of an ordinary man named Charles Krantz. Jacob Tremblay co-stars. 

Set in the John Wick Universe, Ballerina (June 6) stars Ana de Armas as an assassin trained in the traditions of the Ruska Roma organization who’s seeking revenge after her father’s death. For more action cinema, Off the Grid (June 27) stars Josh Duhamel and Greg Kinnear in a film about a brilliant scientist who goes on the run rather than weaponizing his killer invention. 

If you’re looking for horror-thrills, Dangerous Animals (June 6) is an absurdist shark attack movie about a shark-obsessed serial killer who captures a free-spirited surfer named Zephyr and tries to feed her to the fishes. (Read our Dangerous Animals review here.) M3gan 2.0 (June 27) is set two years after M3GAN’s rampage, as her creator, Gemma, resorts to resurrecting her infamous creation in order to take down a military-grade weapon called Amelia.

It’s a good month for family films. The live action adaptation of How to Train Your Dragon (June 13) follows more or less the same beats as the beloved animated classic — though, predictably, this is much longer. There’s also a new Pixar movie hitting cinemas: Elio (June 20) follows an 11-year-old boy named Elio Solis (Yonas Kibreab) who accidentally becomes the intergalactic ambassador of planet Earth after being beamed up to the Communiverse by aliens making contact. He must form new bonds with eccentric alien lifeforms and navigate a crisis of intergalactic proportions.

Following up her extremely popular feature debut, Past Lives director Celine Song returns with Materialists (June 13). Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans star in this film about a young New York City matchmaker whose lucrative business gets complicated as she finds herself torn between the perfect match and her imperfect ex. (Read our interview with Celine Song here.)

If you’re looking for a couple of films off the beaten path, Cinéma du Parc is screening Super Happy Forever (June 13) and Black Dog (June 27). Super Happy Forever is an unconventional romance that follows a Japanese man searching for a red hat at a hotel resort, only to remember meeting his wife there five years earlier. Black Dog, set in rural China right before the 2008 Olympics, follows a man who was recently released from jail and gets a job clearing stray dogs, where he develops a strong relationship with a black greyhound/Jack Russell mix. 

For something to laugh at, Rebel Wilson stars in Bride Hard (June 20). When a mercenary group takes a lavish wedding hostage, they have no idea what they are in for as the maid of honour is actually a secret agent ready to rain hell-fire upon anyone who would ruin her best friend’s wedding. ■

This article was originally published in the June issue of Cult MTL. For Montreal theatre showtimes, please click here.

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