10 Movies To Look Forward To This June
May was a big month at the box office, for both mega-blockbusters (Avengers: Infinity War, Deadpool 2, Solo: A Star Wars Story), and limited release indies (Disobedience, RGB, First Reformed).
We still have a few more weeks until the summer "officially" begins, but there's quite a number of hotly anticipated releases to look forward to in the meantime. Here are our picks for what movies to look forward to this month - check out our Twitter for the latest updates on these titles, and to tell us what you are most excited about.
Upgrade (June 1st)
Logan Marshall-Green stars in this near-futuristic thriller from writer/director Leigh Whannell (Saw, Insidious), about a man who receives an experimental computer chip in his spinal cord that bestows him superhuman abilities. While planning to avenge his wife's murder at the hands of a mugger that also paralyzed him, but like many classic "be careful what you wish for" scenarios, the situation gets a little out of hand. One of the most talked about films at SXSW this year, and coming from Blumhouse's BH Tilt production division, Upgrade has the makings of a lo-fi genre sleeper.
Ocean's 8 (June 8th)
This spinoff of Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's trilogy centers around an all-female heist crew, led by Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock), the sister to George Clooney's character who is also a bit of a schemer. With one of the best ensemble casts of the whole summer, including Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Rihanna, Helena Bonham Carter, Sarah Paulson, Mindy Kaling, and Awkwafina, and a bonafide talented director in Gary Ross (The Hunger Games, Seabiscuit, Pleasantville), this should hopefully kick off a new series of its own, and hopefully cause studios to consider making more high profile female-led movies in general.
Hereditary (June 8th)
Ari Aster makes his feature filmmaking debut with this supernatural horror film, which scared up Sundance in its world premiere back in January. A family grieving over the loss of their grandmother begins to experience unexplainable happenings, while also coming into contact with shocking revelations about their ancestry. Toni Collette and Gabriel Byrne lead the cast, and have already been touted for serious awards consideration. A24, a studio no stranger to horror films that go against the grain (The Witch, It Comes at Night), looks to be continuing this trend, and early reviews have compared it to classics of the genre such as The Exorcist.
Won't You Be My Neighbor? (June 8th)
Documentarian Morgan Rankin (20 Feet from Stardom, Best of Enemies) is behind this look at beloved and iconic child entertainer Fred Rogers, whose series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood helped an entire young generation to cope with self-esteem and stress over many decades of cultural shifts and changes. Less of a biography, Rankin probes the impact and influence of Rogers' methods, and his desire to use television as an educational medium the likes of which had never been seen. Released by Focus Features, Won't You Be My Neighbor? is certain to be one of the year's most popular documentaries, and has a good shot at making the cut for the Oscars next year.
Incredibles 2 (June 15th)
Disney-Pixar's 2004 family superhero hit finally gets a followup almost a decade-and-a-half later, though it is set directly after the original film. Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, and Samuel L Jackson return to voice their respective characters, this time around Elastigirl is out of the house saving the day while Mr. Incredible is stuck at home looking after the kids. This is sure to be the summer's biggest family film, with the potential to be one of Pixar's biggest releases in their company history. Let's hope it was worth the wait.
Tag (June 15th)
Looking like this summer's adult comedy that could become a Hangover-style hit, Tag follows a group of childhood friends that have been playing an annual game of tag for their entire lives, who attempt to tag out their lone friend Jerry (Jeremy Renner) who has never been caught, before he retires from the game for good. Ed Helms, Jake Johnson, Isla Fisher, Annabelle Wallis, Hannibal Buress, Leslie Bibb, Rashida Jones, and Jon Hamm star.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (June 22nd)
The sequel to 2015's monster-size hit that blew away expectations at the box office, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom picks up three years later, as Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) return to the devastated Isla Nublar to save the remaining dinosaurs from a massive volcano, while uncovering a mystery that affects the entire world. J.A. Bayona (The Orphanage, A Monster Calls) takes over from Colin Trevorrow, and if the trailers are any indication, Fallen Kingdom will have a much darker, sinister spin to it than its predecessor. On top of that, Jeff Goldblum returns as mathematician Ian Malcolm, giving us some hope that maybe Sam Neill and Laura Dern will return at some point too.
Under the Silver Lake (June 22nd)
David Robert Mitchell made a name for himself with It Follows, and now he returns to set his sights on a different style of genre, this time the sunshine-noir category we've seen in such titles as The Long Goodbye, The Big Lebowski, and Inherent Vice. Andrew Garfield stars as a young man who encounters a beautiful woman (Riley Keough) in his apartment building's swimming pool and spends the night with her, only to wake up the next morning and find her completely vanished, thus sending him on a convoluted journey across Los Angeles, and coming in contact with numerous unsavory characters and extreme situations. Under the Silver Lake premiered at Cannes where it was met with a very mixed response, here's hoping that it finds an audience when it is released to general audiences.
Damsel (June 22nd)
The Zellner Brothers (Kumiko the Treasure Hunter) direct this quirky pastiche of classic Westerns, starring Robert Pattinson as an affluent pioneer who travels across the American Frontier to marry the love of his life, Penelope (Mia Wasikowska). Along the way, things turn sour in more ways than one, archetypes are dismantled, and a lot of oddball antics ensue. Sure to continue Robert Pattinson's streak of working with interesting directors in compelling narratives, Damsel could emerge as one of this summer's sleeper hits.
Sicario 2: Day of the Soldado (June 29th)
This sequel to Denis Villeneuve's hit removes Emily Blunt from the equation to focus on Benicio Del Toro's hitman character Alejandro, who is called in by Josh Brolin's Matt Graver to dispose of a Mexican cartel smuggling terrorists across the border. Alejandro kidnaps the daughter of the cartel's kingpin, as tensions rise and alliances are broken. While it seemed unlikely that Sicario would become a franchise, the potential to carry things forward with Del Toro's character was unmistakable. Here's hoping it's enough of a departure from the original, while still making for an intense and pulse-pounding thriller.
What films are you looking forward to this June? Leave us a comment below or tweet at us here.
