What We Can’t Wait To Watch
Queer Eye (season two)
Who knew that the reboot of Queer Eye would become the feel-good, comfort-watching sensation of last season? The reality series is so popular, the second season is getting a sooner-than-expected release date. The Fab Five – Van Ness, Bobby Berk, Tan France, Karamo Brown, and Antoni Porowski – are back for more style, grooming and decor interventions and the show is continuing to branch out from clueless straight guys. Last season featured the first gay male subject and in season two the guys are making over Queer Eye’s first female and trans male subjects. Episode one focuses on Tammaye, a teacher and cancer survivor who is planning a homecoming service in her church. Get the Kleenex ready. June 15
The Break With Michelle Wolf
Thanks to her hosting gig at the recent White House Correspondents’ Dinner, everyone knows Michelle Wolf. (Some of us already knew her from JFL42, where she performed in 2015 and headlined in 2017, and her correspondence duties on The Daily Show.) So the stage is set for her new series, a mix of stand-up and sketch. A recent clip from the new show had her parodying films with no-nonsense, strong female leads (looking at you, Molly’s Game). More, please! June 3
The Staircase
Filmmaker Jean-Xavier de Lestrade’s 2004 true-crime series about the murder case of American business exec Kathleen Peterson is considered a classic that laid the groundwork for the podcast Serial and binge sensation Making A Murderer. The original followed the case until her novelist husband Michael Peterson, was convicted but there was a twist and he was freed in 2011. Lestrade documented that process in a 2013 sequel and now this third series is billed as the final chapter, following Peterson and his family has he grapples with professing innocence while pleading guilty in a new trial to avoid prison. If you plan on spending June bingeing, this should be in your queue. June 8
Marvel’s Luke Cage (season two)
Mike Colter returns as Harlem’s unbreakable hero, facing a new set of challenges, including a foe with similar abilities – and fewer reservations about using them. Also back: Rosario Dawson’s Claire Temple and Simone Missick’s Misty Knight, two of the most interesting people in the Marvel TV universe. Here’s hoping they each get a spotlight episode. June 22
Recovery Boys
Director Elaine McMillion Sheldon’s short documentary about the opioid epidemic in West Virginia, Heroin(e), scored an Oscar nomination earlier this year and now her foll0w-up his hitting Netflix after a short festival run. Recovery Boys, which we missed when it screened at Hot Docs, follows three men as they try to stay sober and re-integrate into society after coming out of a farming-based drug rehab program. June 29
GLOW (season two)
The Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling return for a second season of empowering body slams, questionable alliances and dangerous levels of hairspray. Come for Alison Brie’s ridiculous Russian accent as Zoya The Destroya, stay for the complexity of Betty Gilpin’s performance as Liberty Belle. Oh, and Marc Maron’s pretty good in it too. June 29
Sense8: The Series Finale
When Netflix canned the Wachowskis’ confusing and campy sci-fi soap opera, the outcry was so massive that the company issued an apology and then green-lit a two-hour finale in response. It’s departure especially hurt since it provided the mainstream with some flagrantly queer content well before Janelle Monáe had people reaching for their dictionaries to look up the word pansexual. Sense8, you were three years ahead of your time. June 8
Nostalgia
We love indie auteur Alex Ross Perry’s films Golden Exits and Queen Of Earth (also on Netflix). His deeply uncomfortable movies often take familiar scenarios and genre tropes and twist them into unexpected directions, but his latest effort seems shockingly straightforward – so we’re curious. Perry scripted this “we are all connected” drama about the elusive nature of memory with a top-notch cast that includes Jon Hamm, Catherine Keener, Patton Oswalt and Ellen Burstyn. June 16
Cooking On High
When, oh when, will Canada legalize pot? We were told July 1, but now it looks like the exact date for the federal legislation is up in the air. In the meantime, we can enjoy reality TV series Cooking On High – billed as the “first-ever competitive cannabis cooking show” – until the quasi-underground edibles market becomes an actual thing. June 22
Nailed It! (season two)
If you’ve ever wondered why food disasters make great TV, just watch a few episodes of this highly addictive reality show in which amateur bakers compete to replicate complicated cakes and desserts. Host Nicole Byer is fearless, and the segments where contestants are penalized and have to withstand Nicole Nags sessions – in which Byer bugs them for three minutes – are insanely fun. June 29
Laurie Metcalf (left) and Saoirse Ronan in Lady Bird.
Solid Bets
Lady Bird
Even if you caught Greta Gerwig’s bittersweet film about an entitled high school senior’s (Saoirse Ronan) desire to leave her middle-class Sacramento home to study in the east, it’s worth a second look. Ronan and Laurie Metcalf capture the subtle nuances of the mother-daughter bond like few films, and the way cinematographer Sam Levy photographs a California that’s not often seen in film is revelatory. Plus, two words: Beanie Feldstein. June 3
The Disaster Artist
Turn failure into fun with this mostly-probably-true story of the making of The Room. Director James Franco plays cult filmmaker Tommy Wiseau as a mystical imp who casts his impressionable actor pal Greg Sestero (James Franco) in what was supposed to be the greatest movie of all time. Spoiler: it was naaaahht. June 1
Hail, Caesar!
Set over one very eventful day in Hollywood, 1951, Joel and Ethan Coen’s comic romp casts Josh Brolin as a studio executive trying to find a missing matinée idol before the tabloid press does. It’s really just an excuse for the Coens and an all-star cast – including George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes, Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum and some kid named Alden Ehrenreich – to goof on Golden Age movies. You’ll grin through the whole thing. June 1
Sense And Sensibility
Widely considered one of the best Jane Austen screen adaptations ever, Ang Lee’s 1995 film landed star and screenwriter Emma Thompson a well-deserved Oscar for best adapted screenplay. It’s no surprise the film still holds up: what makes this Austen a standout is the way Thompson’s script gave the book’s leading male characters downright feminist outlooks, making it a nice example of mainstream Hollywood shunning the clichés of toxic masculinity. The excellent cast also includes Kate Winslet and the late, great Alan Rickman. June 1
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Rian Johnson’s ambitious follow-up to The Force Awakens will lose something on smaller screens, but the lack of scale might make you pay more attention to the character development and moral complexity simmering underneath the big set pieces. Also, you’ve spent months looking at Porgs on your phone, so they’ll be right at home. June 26
Panic Room
Fun fact: David Fincher’s 2002 home-invasion thriller has never been released on Blu-ray, which means that this will be the first time most people get to watch it in HD. So find the biggest screen you can, turn off the lights and settle in for a nail-biter as Jodie Foster and Kristen Stewart face off with Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto and a very unpredictable Dwight Yoakam. It totally holds up. June 1
Kim’s Convenience (season 2)
CBC’s best generational comedy in years grew even richer in its second season, with Paul Sun-Hyung Lee’s Appa and Simu Liu’s prodigal-son Jung tentatively moving towards a reconciliation, Andrea Bang’s Janet asserting herself by getting an apartment with her classmate Gerald (Ben Beauchemin) and Jean Yoon’s Umma trying to provide emotional support to everyone, which is a lot harder than it sounds. Get caught up before the show returns for its third season. June 19
Notting Hill
Whenever you see a list of the best ever romantic comedies, Roger Michell’s delightful 1999 film about a modest bookstore owner (Hugh Grant) who falls in love with a film star (Julia Roberts) tends to make the cut. And no wonder: Roberts’s performance as Anna Scott is all kinds of meta fun, a then-unknown Rhys Ifans steals his scenes as Grant’s shaggy roommate, and the running gag of his friend (Hugh Bonneville, long before Downton Abbey) not knowing who Anna is remains hilarious. Michell gets the absurd roundelay of the modern film junket down pat. And Roberts’s “I’m just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her” moment is justly famous. June 1
About A Boy
Make it a Hugh Grant June rom-com double bill with the Netflix appearance of this fine film about an immature man-boy (Grant) who grows up thanks to his friendship with a kid (a then unknown, and very precocious and authentic, Nicholas Hoult). Based on Nick Hornby’s (High Fidelity) novel, the film takes on some serious issues – suicide, single parenting – but there’s a lightness and heart to it that comes from the appeal of the leads. Look for performances of two songs: one’s a fictional seasonal ditty, and the other is… well, if you’ve never seen it, we don’t want to spoil the surprise. June 1
Savages
Oliver Stone’s over-the-top drug war movie wasn’t a great film, but it does have one of the greatest wig reveal scenes in recent movie memory. In fact, the big draw here is watching Salma Hayek, Benicio del Toro and John Travolta really sink into their delightfully ridiculous villain roles. Basically you forget all about the lame-brain protagonists played by Taylor Kitsch and Blake Lively as Savages turns into cinema’s most intense wig battle since Chris Rock’s Good Hair. June 1
Full list of new titles available in June, by date:
TV Shows
June 1
Busted!
The Indian Detective (season one)
Joseph Campbell And The Power Of Myth
W1A (season three)
June 3
The Break With Michelle Wolf (weekly episodes every Sunday)
June 5
Mr. D (season seven)
June 8
The Hollow (season one)
Marcella (season two)
Sense8: The Series Finale
The Staircase
Treehouse Detectives
June 15
Queer Eye (season two)
The Ranch: Part 5
Voltron: Legendary Defender (season six)
June 17
Club De Cuervos Presenta: La Balada De Hugo Sánchez
June 18
Unsolved: Tupac & Biggie
June 19
Kim’s Convenience (season two)
June 22
Cooking On High
Marvel’s Luke Cage (season two)
June 26
Secret City
June 29
Churchill’s Secret Agents: The New Recruits
GLOW (season two)
Harvey Street Kids
Kiss Me First
Nailed It! (season two)
Paquita Salas (season two)
June 30
Fate/EXTRA Last Encore: Oblitus Copernican Theory
Movies
June 1
About A Boy
Anaconda
Baby Mama
Barbie: Video Game Hero
The Bone Collector
The Boxtrolls
The Cave
Charlie Wilson’s War
Cinderella Man
The Disaster Artist
Gridiron Gang
Hail, Caesar!
Jarhead
Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels
Monster High: Electrified
Monster High: Great Scarrier Reef
Monster High: New Ghoul At School
Monster High: Scaremester Collection
The Mothman Prophecies
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2
Nick And Norah’s Infinite Playlist
Notting Hill
November 13: Attack On Paris
Panic Room
Savages
Sense And Sensibility
Stealth
Welcome To Monster High: The Origin Story
June 3
Lady Bird
June 5
Delirium
Marvel Studios’ Thor: Ragnarok
June 8
Alex Strangelove
Ali’s Wedding
All I See Is You
June 11
Lights Out
The Shallows
June 12
Champions
June 14
Marlon
June 15
Lust Stories
Maktub
Set It Up
Sunday’s Illness
June 16
Nostalgia
June 19
Hannah Gadsby: Nanette
June 22
Brain On Fire
Derren Brown: Miracle
Desolation
Kaleidoscope
Starbuck
June 24
To Each, Her Own (Les Goûts et les couleurs)
The Last Laugh
June 26
Ghostbusters
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
W. Kamau Bell: Private School Negro
June 29
Bullet Head
La Forêt
Recovery Boys
TAU
June 30
Suburbicon
Last Call
TV series and movies leaving Netflix this month.
June 1
A Little Chaos
Doctor Dolittle
Fatal Attraction
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Ice Age: Collision Course
Independence Day: Resurgence
Seventh Son
Smokin’ Aces
June 2
Sherlock: Series 3
Unlocking Sherlock
June 8
Born On The Fourth of July
Knocked Up
Monty Python’s The Meaning Of Life
Oz The Great And Powerful
Varsity Blues
June 9
The Great Outdoors
June 15
Miami Vice
Shutter Island
June 16
Marvel Studios’ Captain America: Civil War
June 22
True Grit
Uncle Buck
June 29
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
