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June 4

Undine

Cast: Paula Beer, Franz Rogowski, Maryam Zaree, Jacob Matschenz
Director: Christian Petzold
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: The latest magic trick from “Barbara” and “Phoenix” director Christian Petzold reunites stars of his previous film “Transit” as a pair that crosses paths despite diametrically opposed occupations, with Paula Beer playing a museum docent who guides people through the topography of Berlin while Franz Rogowski works underground as a welder, though something’s in the water, bringing them together. (How to Watch: In Theaters and on VOD)

Ahead of the Curve

Director: Jen Rainin
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: A biography of Franco Stevens, founder of the pioneering LGBTQ magazine Curve, made by her partner Jen Rainin becomes an intriguing consideration of its place today as a decision about whether to continue as a print publication brings up other questions about the community as a whole. (How to Watch: In Theaters and on VOD)

All Light, Everywhere

Director: Theo Anthony
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes
The Lowdown: After warming up with the ESPN doc “Subject to Review” about sports replay systems, “Rat Film” director Theo Anthony takes a look at the development of cameras and its connection to policing, exploring how deceptive images can be even without any obvious manipulation. (How to Watch: In Theaters)

The Amusement Park

Cast: Lincoln Maazel, Harry Albacker, Phyllis Casterwiler, Pete Chovan, Marion Cook, Sally Erwin
Director: George A. Romero
Points of Interest: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: Giving his specialty for the undead, leave it to George A. Romero to save one last surprise for audiences with this 1973 film recently unearthed and restored by Indie Collect. Originally commissioned by the Lutheran Society as a warning against elder abuse, it was never released when it was deemed too terrifying, making this film about a senior citizen (Lincoln Maazel) who goes on a rollercoaster of emotions before ever getting on a ride as he navigates a theme park. (How to Watch: Shudder)

The Ancient Woods

Director: Mindaugas Survila
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, trailer
The Lowdown: Filmed over a decade, Mindaugas Survila, a one-time biologist, transports audiences to Lithuania where one of Europe’s last old growth forests where life remains vibrant. An official note from its distributor insists: “The film is appropriate for children whose attention spans have not been destroyed by technology.” (How to Watch: Opening in New York at Film Forum)

Carnaval

Cast: Giovana Cordeiro, Gkay, Bruna Inocencio, Samya Pascotto, Flavia Pavanelli
Director: Leandro Neri
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, trailer
The Lowdown: A social media influencer (Giovana Cordeiro) learns on her feed that her boyfriend is cheating on her, setting her off on a vacation with her BFFs to Salvador, Bahia to party till they drop in this Brazilian musical comedy. (How to Watch: Netflix)

The Carnivores

Cast: Lindsay Burdge, Tallie Medel, Frank Mosley, Vincent James Prendergast
Director: Caleb Michael Johnson
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: An aspiring chef who still suffers through a day job in customer service (Tallie Medel) has trouble staying awake in this relationship drama that flirts with horror, with writer/director Caleb Michael Johnson imagining the vegan chef’s increasing desire for red meat as a reflection of the needs that both she and her girlfriend Bret have as they try to make things work for themselves individually within their partnership. (How to Watch: In Theaters, on VOD and on Digital)

Caveat

Cast: Ben Caplan, Jonathan French, Leila Sykes
Director: Damian McCarthy
Points of Interest: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: You won’t know who to trust in this psychological thriller about a drifter with fading memory whose travels take him to an island where he finds work caring for a woman with deep psychological instability, making every room in the house the two inhabit a potential trap. (How to Watch: Shudder)

Changing the Game

Director: Michael Barnett
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: An audience award winner at Outfest in 2019, this doc follows three transgender athletes who face considerable opposition before getting onto the field of play, chronicling the perseverance of Mack Beggs, a wrestler who won the Texas State Championship, a Connecticut track star named Andraya and a New Hampshire skier named Sarah. (How to Watch: Hulu on June 1)

Chasing Wonders

Cast: Edward James Olmos, Paz Vega, Jessica Marais, Carmen Maura
Director: Paul Meins
Points of Interest: IMDb, trailer
The Lowdown: Penned by “Babe: Pig in the City” writer Judy Morris, this fantasy film has been in production for the past five years in Australia and Spain to tell the tale of a 12-year-old in search of the mythical Emu Plains at the behest of his grandfather. (How to Watch: In Theaters and on VOD)

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It

Cast: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Julian Hilliard, Eugenie Bondurant
Director: Michael Chaves
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: After showing up in “Annabelle Comes Home,” Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) return to the mothership for the first “Conjuring” made without director James Wan, who hands things off to “Curse of La Llorona” director Michael Chaves to tell of the couple’s investigation into a murder said to be committed by a man possessed by demons. (How to Watch: In Theaters and on HBO Max)

Death in Texas

Cast: Ronnie Gene Blevins, Lara Flynn Boyle, Bruce Dern, Stephen Lang
Director: Scott Windhauser
Points of Interest: IMDb, Facebook, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: Bad news follows an ex-con (Ronnie Gene Blevins) who is released from a seven-year prison stretch only to find out his mother (Lara Flynn Boyle) is dying of cancer, leaving him to bend, if not break, some laws to get her higher up on the transplant list. (How to Watch: In Theaters and on VOD)

The Edge of the World

Cast: Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Dominic Monaghan, Josie Ho, Atiqah Hasiholan, Ralph Ineson
Director: Michael Haussman
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, trailer
The Lowdown: After Sir James Brooke’s adventures in Borneo inspired “Lord Jim” and “The Man Who Would Be King,” Jonathan Rhys Meyers gets his turn at playing the man of legend, a British adventurer who gave up his national identity in favor of starting his own kingdom in the jungle with the aim of ending piracy and slavery. (How to Watch: In Theaters and on VOD)

Grace and Grit

Cast: Mena Suvari, Stuart Townsend, Mariel Hemingway, Nick Stahl, Lydia Hearst, Frances Fisher
Director: Sebastian Siegel
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: This drama based on the memoir of Ken Wilber stars Mena Suvari and Stuart Townsend as a couple who is ripped apart and brought closer together by a cancer diagnosis.  (How to Watch: In Theaters and on Digital)

Gully

Cast: Amber Heard, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Jacob Latimore, Charlie Plummer, John Corbett, Jonathan Majors, Terrence Howard, Robin Givens
Director: Nabil Elderkin
Points of Interest: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes
The Lowdown: A premiere at Tribeca in 2019, the stars have risen considerably since for the young actors in this ensemble drama about a trio of teens getting into trouble on the streets of Los Angeles. (How to Watch: In Theaters and On Demand)

Mandibles

Cast: Grégoire Ludig, David Marsais, Adèle Exarchopoulos, India Hair
Director: Quentin Dupieux
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: The second surrealist comedy from “Rubber” director Quentin Dupieux to arrive in America this year — his other, “Keep an Eye Out” is true to its title — involves two best friends (Grégoire Ludig and David Marsais) who decide that the human-sized fly they find in their trunk might be able to make them some money if only they can train it. (How to Watch: In Theaters)

Monuments

Cast: Marguerite Moreau, David Sullivan, Joel Murray, David Pasquesi, Javier Muñoz, Shunori Ramanathan
Director: Jack C. Newell
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Facebook, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: After his wife dies, a man (David Sullivan) has to travel cross-country to give her a proper sendoff, a grieving process complicated by her unruly family in this comedy, the first release of Pittsburgh’s Row House Cinema as a distributor. (How to Watch: In theaters on June 4 and on Digital August 3rd)

The Real Thing

Cast: Win Morisaki, Kaho Tsuchimura, Kei Ishibashi, Shugo Oshinari, Akari Fukunaga, Shohei Uno
Director: Koji Fukada
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes
The Lowdown: “Harmonium” and “A Girl Missing” director Koji Fukada goes all in on widdling down his 10-hour miniseries for Japanese television to a more manageable four hours with this 2020 Cannes Official Selection about a salaryman whose relatively dull life is shaken up by a woman he rescues from a potential accident on the train tracks, putting himself in danger when he’s brought into a world of criminals. (How to Watch: In Theaters and on VOD)

Slow Machine

Cast: Stephanie Hayes, Chloë Sevigny, Scott Shepherd, Eleanor Friedberger, Ean Sheeny, Emily Tremaine
Director: Joe Denardo and Paul Felten
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Facebook
The Lowdown: A hit at last fall’s virtual New York Film Fest where one could feel the city in the frisson of its 16mm film stock, this playful mystery pairs an actress and a counterterrorism specialist whose fling ends badly, leading the former to take refuge outside the city where quiet is hard to come by with Eleanor Friedberger working on her latest album in the same house. (How to Watch: In Theaters and available in an exclusive digital engagement via Metrograph on June 4th)

Son of the White Mare

Director: Marcell Jankovics
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: Deprived of a proper theatrical or even virtual release due to the coronavirus after a triumphant premiere at Fantasia Fest 2019, this 4K restoration of the psychedelic 1981 Hungarian animated film about three brothers tasked with the rescue of a trio of princesses is being released widely – or as much as a limited edition can be – for the first time in America by the good folks at Arbelos Film on Blu-ray. (How to Watch: Blu-ray)

Spirit Untamed

Cast: Isabela Merced, Mckenna Grace, Eiza González, Walton Goggins, Jake Gyllenhaal
Director: Elaine Bogan and Ennio Torresan
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Facebook, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: Nearly two decades after “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron” first introduced audiences to the titular tiger mustang, this reboot changes perspective from the horse, previously voiced by Matt Damon, to a young girl named Lucky (Isabela Merced), who finds a new friend when she moves to the frontier town of Miradero. (How to Watch: In Theaters)

Super Frenchie

Director: Chase Ogden
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Facebook, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: BASE jumper Matthias Giraud faces a crisis of conscience in this documentary about the skier in which starting a family means being more cautious his career when he suffers a gruesome injury shortly before the birth of his first child and has to consider every time he goes out on the mountains, it’s a matter of life and death. (How to Watch: In Theaters and on Demand)

Vivo

Cast: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ynairaly Simo, Zoe Saldana
Director: Kirk DeMicco and Brandon Jeffords
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: After “The Mitchells Vs the Machines” relocated from Sony Animation to Netflix earlier this year, this Lin Manuel-Miranda-led musical penned by frequent collaborator Quiara Algeria Hudes (“In the Heights”) may be another steal for the streaming service, telling of a Cuban kinkajou who must find a way to relay a message from his owner to his former singing partner (Gloria Esteban) before her farewell concert in Miami. (How to Watch: Netflix)

June 11

Holler

Cast: Jessica Barden, Pamela Adlon, Austin Amelio, Becky Ann Baker
Director: Nicole Riegel
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: After protecting the script for nearly a decade to direct herself, Nicole Riegel makes an arresting debut with this drama somewhat inspired by her own upbringing in rural Southern Ohio, featuring Jessica Barden as a teen with a mind for mathematics that could get her into college but feels compelled to stay in her small town to take care of her brother (Gus Halper) and visit their mother (Pamela Adlon) in prison, though she could land there too when she starts making ends meet by stealing scrap metal. (How to Watch: In Theaters and on VOD)

Akilla’s Escape

Cast: Saul Williams, Thamela Mpumlwana, Donisha Rita Claire Prendergast, Vic Mensa
Director: Charles Officer
Points of Interest: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: “I love the idea of [working in] genre – the tropes of a deal gone wrong, a man’s got to get something back and what does he encounter in that way and what does he have to sacrifice in the end?” Charles Officer told us upon the premiere of this stylish noir at last fall’s Toronto Film Fest, casting “Slam” star Saul Williams as a bag man for a marijuana outfit looking to ease his way out of the business before taking an interest in a young buck (Thamela Mpumlwana) who tries to rip him off, hopefully preventing a cycle of violence from repeating itself any further. (How to Watch: In Theaters and on VOD)

Awake

Cast: Gina Rodriguez, Shamier Anderson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ariana Greenblatt, Barry Pepper
Director: Mark Raso
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: After his previous film “Kodachrome,” the father-son road trip drama with Ed Harris and Jason Sudekis, scored a deal with Netflix, Mark Raso makes his follow-up for the streamer, working from a script he wrote with his brother Joseph about a post-apocalyptic world rendered sleepless without any functional electronics where a former soldier (Gina Rodriguez) may have found a way to give herself and her daughter some much-needed shut-eye. (How to Watch: Netflix)

Censor

Cast: Niamh Algar, Michael Smiley, Nicholas Burns, Vincent Franklin
Director: Prano Bailey-Bond
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Rotten Tomatoes
The Lowdown: With her Sundance sensation, Prano Bailey-Bond comes out swinging with this truly inspired debut feature about a film board censor (Niamh Algar), driven by her sister’s death to protect the masses from violent imagery, who suddenly has her work cut out for her, tasked with assigning ratings during the wild 1980s in England where the advent of VHS tapes and the tyranny of Margaret Thatcher led to the grizzly video nasty genre. (How to Watch: In Theaters on June 11th and on demand on June 18th)

In the Heights

Cast: Anthony Ramos, Corey Hawkins, Leslie Grace, Ariana Greenblatt
Director: Jon M. Chu
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: It took a long road for Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first Broadway musical to make it out of New York, initially starting out in development at Universal with Kenny Ortega directing and eventually picked up by the Weinstein Company before scandal struck and bankruptcy commenced, but the intervening decade would afford Miranda and “Crazy Rich Asians” director Jon M. Chu the clout to do things the right way, bringing the story of a wistful bodega owner with stars in his eyes to the big screen. (How to Watch: In Theaters and on HBO Max)

La Dosis

Cast: Carlos Portaluppi, Ignacio Rogers, Lorena Vega
Director: Martin Kraut
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: You wouldn’t want to check into the hospital where this Argentinian thriller is set, where an older nurse has quietly given patients life-ending treatment should it be requested until a charismatic new hire learns of his secret and threatens to expose him. (How to Watch: In Theaters and on VOD)

Meet the Blacks 2: The House Next Door

Cast: Mike Epps, Katt Williams, Bresha Webb, Lil Duval, Zulay Henao, Tyrin Turner, Alex Henderson, Michael Blackson, Andrew Bachelor
Director: Deon Taylor
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: After leaving Chicago for Beverly Hills with a bag full of stolen cash in the 2016 comedy “Meet the Blacks,” the family is back on the move to the childhood home of patriarch Carl (Mike Epps) for this horror-tinged sequel, co-starring Katt Williams as their new neighbor who is putting out strong vampire vibes. (How to Watch: In Theaters)

The Misfits

Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Tim Roth, Hermione Corfield, Jamie Chung
Director: Renny Harlin
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: Pierce Brosnan revisits his “Thomas Crown Affair” days as a debonair thief who steals only from the well-insured, needing his biggest plan to fully get away from a maximum security prison whose warden (Tim Roth) is hellbent on putting him away for good. (How to Watch: In theaters June 11th and On Digital and On Demand June 15th)

A Perfect Enemy

Cast: Dominique Pinon, Tomasz Kot, Marta Nieto, Athena Strates
Director: Kiki Maillo
Points of Interest: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes
The Lowdown: After winning a Goya for Best New Director for his debut “Eva,” Kiki Maillo makes his English-language debut with this thriller filmed across Europe in Reus, Barcelona, Paris and Frankfurt about an encounter between architect and a chatty stranger at an airport who become increasingly intertwined over the course of a conversation that takes a turn for the illicit. (How to Watch: In Theaters)

The Power of the Kangwon Province

Cast: Oh Yunhong, Baek Jonghak
Director: Hong Sang-Soo
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes
The Lowdown: Given how Hong Sang-soo’s films have built on one another, this new 2K restoration of his second feature will offer a nice opportunity for those daunted by his prolific nature to start at the beginning, displaying a talent for toying with narrative structure as he joins a trio of friends for a vacation in which one, hoping to drown her sorrows over the end of a relationship in soju, finds history repeating itself when she winds up in a stranger’s bed. (How to Watch: In Theaters, starting with an exclusive run at Film Forum in New York)

Queen Bees

Cast: Ellen Burstyn, James Caan, Ann-Margret, Jane Curtin, Loretta Devine, Christopher Lloyd, Alec Mapa, and French Stewart
Director: Michael Lembeck
Points of Interest: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes
The Lowdown: A woman (Ellen Burstyn) finds her golden years resembling her high school years when she’s forced to move to a retirement community where she finds cliques and competition she thought she was done with long ago come back with a vengeance, although it also opens the door to potential new relationships. (How to Watch: In Theaters and on VOD)

Queen of Spades

Cast: Ava Preston, Daniel Kash, Kaelen Ohm, Eric Osborne, Jamie Bloch, Nabil Rajo, Krista Marchand
Director: Patrick White
Points of Interest: IMDb, trailer
The Lowdown: Put the Queen of Spades alongside the Candyman as someone who’s name you don’t want to mention three times in a row, though naturally a quartet of teens do and find out the consequences in this horror film. (How to Watch: In Theaters June 11 and on demand June 15)

Skater Girl

Cast: Rachel Sanchita Gupta, Shafin Pate
Director: Manjari Makijany
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site
The Lowdown: This Netflix production has already left behind a legacy in India when the production of this coming-of-age story about teenage girl (Rachel Sancta Gupta) following her dreams to compete in a skateboard competition when the Desert Dolphin Skatepark created for the film in the villages of the Khempur-Mavli was left behind for others to enjoy and be inspired. (How to Watch: Netflix)

Sublet

Cast: John Benjamin Hickey, Niv Nissim, Lihi Kornowski
Director: Eytan Fox
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes
The Lowdown: A middle-aged travel writer (John Benjamin Hickey) is on assignment in Tel Aviv when he is swept up in a romance with a younger man in this rare English language and personally written film from Israeli director Eytan Fox (“The Bubble”). (How to Watch: In Theaters)

Take Me Somewhere Nice

Cast: Sara Luna Zorić, Ernad Prnjavorac, Lazar Dragojević
Director: Ena Sendijarević
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes
The Lowdown: A Special Jury Prize Winner from Rotterdam, this comedy follows a young woman from the Netherlands to Bosnia to see her ailing father, losing both her physical luggage and hopefully her personal baggage when a series of mishaps force her to go it alone without knowing the language or having much to fall back on. (How to Watch: In Theaters and on digital)

Tove

Cast: Alma Pöysti, Krista Kosonen, Shanti Roney
Director: Zaida Bergroth
Points of Interest: IMDb, trailer
The Lowdown: Unfurling the life of the children’s book illustrator Tove Jansson, writer/director Zaida Bergroth finds a story that was far from a fairy tale in post-war Helsinki as the painter juggled a relationship with another woman she felt she had to keep private while married to a politician and please her conservative father, a sculptor from whom she gained her love of art. (How to Watch: In Theaters)

Tragic Jungle

Cast: Indira Andrewin, Gilberto Barraza, Mariano Tun Xool, Lázaro Gabino Rodríguez, Eligio Meléndez, Dale Carley
Director: Yulene Olaizola
Points of Interest: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: After a celebrated run on the fall festival circuit where it picked up awards in Venice, Warsaw and Mar del Plata, this immersive and engrossing thriller set in the Brazilian rainforest where a woman and her sister flee the clutches of a potential arranged marriage, only to fend off jaguars and other dangerous creatures in the depths of the jungle.  (How to Watch: Netflix)

12 Mighty Orphans

Cast: Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Luke Wilson
Director: Ty Roberts
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Facebook, Instagram, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: For those looking for the comfort of an inspirational sports drama, look no further than this true life tale from Texas when the Mighty Mites of Forth Worth, a football team comprised entirely of orphans during the Great Depression made their way to the state championship, capturing the imagination of the nation. Naturally, the film is starting its theatrical run in the Lone Star state. (How to Watch: In Theaters)

Under the Stadium Lights

Cast: Milo Gibson, Laurence Fishburne, Abigail Hawk, Acoryé White, Carter Redwood, Germain Arroyo, Adrian Favela, Eddie George, Glenn Morshower,  Noel G.
Director: Todd Randall
Points of Interest: IMDb, Facebook, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: Nobody believes in the Abilene Tigers, but the belief in themselves powers them to a High School Football State Championship in Texas in this true story. (How to Watch: In Theaters, on digital and on demand)

The Unhealer

Cast: Natasha Henstridge, Lance Henriksen, Adam Beach
Director: Martin Guigui
Points of Interest: IMDb, Facebook, Instagram, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: A faith healer (Lance Henriksen) has the opposite of his intended effect in this thriller where rather than curing a teen (Elijah Nelson) of the pain he’s received from being bullied at school, he gives him the ability to pass it along to others. (How to Watch: On VOD, digital and Blu-ray on June 8th)

Wish Dragon

Cast: John Cho, Jimmy O. Yang, Will Yun Lee, Constance Wu, Jimmy Wong, Bobby Lee
Director: Chris Appelhans
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes
The Lowdown: After long making kung fu films that looked like live-action cartoons, Jackie Chan serves as an executive producer on this Chinese animated comedy about a college student (John Cho) who teams up with a dragon (Jimmy O. Yang) to find a friend (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) he lost touch with long ago. (How to Watch: Netflix)

June 18

The Sparks Brothers

Director: Edgar Wright
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: While the “Baby Driver” director Edgar Wright argues not enough attention has been paid to Russell and Ron Mael, better known as the band Sparks, this epic two-and-a-half hour tribute that’s delightful in every way covers every year they’ve been active and still feels as if it’s more from the future than speaking to their past. (How to Watch: In Theaters)

The American Sector

Director: Courtney Stephens and Pacho Velez
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: A provocative and fascinating travelogue that looks at what history is consecrated with monuments and what they stand for when the context around them changes. (How to Watch: In Theaters and virtual cinemas, beginning with a run at the Metrograph)

The Birthday Cake

Cast: Shiloh Fernandez, Ewan McGregor, Val Kilmer, Lorraine Bracco, Ashley Benson, Aldis Hodge, Penn Badgley, Emory Cohen, Vincent Pastore, Jeremy Allen White
Director: Jimmy Giannopoulos
Points of Interest: IMDb
The Lowdown: A star-studded cast gathers for this mob drama that serves as the directorial debut of music producer Jimmy Giannopoulos, co-written by star Shiloh Fernandez who plays a son continuing the tradition of honoring his late father by delivering a birthday cake to his uncle, discovering the 10th time around that there are other traditions he may have to get himself involved with after learning how his dad really died. (How to Watch: In Theaters and on demand)

A Crime on the Bayou

Director: Nancy Buirski
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Facebook, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: After bringing more attention to one previously underexposed chapter of the civil rights era in “The Loving Story,” Nancy Buirski revisits another with the case of Gary Duncan, a Black teenager who was arrested for attempting to stop a racially-charged fight at his newly integrated high school in Louisiana in 1966 and his case taken up by Richard Sobol, a young Jewish attorney who used the trial to create precedent for the right to a jury trial in state criminal cases. (How to Watch: In Theaters)

Fatherhood

Cast: Kevin Hart, Alfre Woodard, Lil Rel Howery
Director: Paul Weitz
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes
The Lowdown: Showing a little more dramatic side of himself, Kevin Hart stars as a widower left to raise a young son of his own in the latest film from “About a Boy” director Paul Weitz, based on Matthew Logelin’s memoir. (How to Watch: Netflix)

Gaia

Cast: Monique Rockman, Carel Nel, Alex van Dyk, Anthony Oseyemi
Director: Jaco Bouwer
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Rotten Tomatoes
The Lowdown: Marking the first title from a new partnership between Bleecker Street and Neon known as Decal, this midnighter from SXSW brings out all the creepy crawly creatures in the forest to torment a park ranger who settles in with a pair of survivalists. (How to Watch: In Theaters)

The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard

Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Salma Hayek, Frank Grillo, Samuel L. Jackson, Antonio Banderas, Morgan Freeman, Richard E. Grant
Director: Patrick Hughes
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: There’s never a break for a hitman’s bodyguard (Ryan Reynolds) when the boss’ wife (Salma Hayek) is under attack and when not planning to carry out a mission on vacation, he is left unarmed. But we’d expect there to be guns blazing in this follow-up to the 2017 hit from “Expendables 3” director Patrick Hughes. (How to Watch: In Theaters)

How to Deter a Robber

Cast: Vanessa Marano, Chris Mulkey, Abbie Cobb, Jonah Ray, Gabrielle Carteris
Director: Maria Bissell
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Facebook, Rotten Tomatoes
The Lowdown: Despite a low-key premiere at this year’s virtual Fantastic Fest, writer/director Maria Bissell’s wily feature debut shined through with this crime comedy about a couple tormented by a pair of burglars about as ready to rob them as the couple is ready to fend them off. (How to Watch: On digital June 16th)

Jagame Thandhiram

Cast: Dhanush, Aishwarya Lekshmi, James Cosmo, Joju George
Director: Karthik Subbaraj
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, trailer
The Lowdown: Originally envisioned as an epic gangster tale set in New York, this Tamil-language drama ultimately landed in its country of origin, following a mobster whose work with an overseas crime lord results in unexpected ramifications at home. (How to Watch: Netflix)

Luca

Cast: Jacob Tremblay, Jack Dylan Grazer, Maya Rudolph
Director: Enrico Casarosa
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: After honoring his Italian roots with his Oscar-nominated short “La Luna,” Enrico Casarosa returns for his feature debut for Pixar with this tale of a pair of friends (voiced by Jacob Tremblay and Jack Dylan Grazer) who appear above ground as boys when they’ve spent much of their lives under water as sea monsters. (How to Watch: Disney+)

Les Notres

Cast: Emilie Bierre, Marianne Farley, Judith Baribeau, Paul Doucet
Director: Jeanne Leblanc
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: Director Jeanne Leblanc picked up numerous accolades from the Directors Guild of Canada to the Nashville Film Fest for this harrowing Quebecois drama about a teenager (Émilie Bierre) whose impending pregnancy sends shockwaves through her small town. (How to Watch: In Theaters)

Peter Rabbit 2

Cast: Rose Byrne, Domhnall Gleeson, David Oyelowo, James Corden, Elizabeth Debicki, Lennie James, Margot Robbie
Director: Will Gluck
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: With its first installment significantly more sophisticated than its marketing suggested, this take on Beatrix Potter’s beloved creation from “Easy A” director Will Gluck follows Peter (voiced by James Corden) leaving the farm in search of meaning, leaving the rest of the animals to create a search party to find him. (How to Watch: In Theaters)

Rise Again: Tulsa and the Red Summer

Director: Dawn Porter
Points of Interest: trailer
The Lowdown: The tireless Dawn Porter (“John Lewis: Good Trouble,” “The Way I See It”) follows Oklahoma native and Washington Post reporter DeNeen Brown as she investigates a mass grave associated with the Tulsa Massacre in 1921, looking into new evidence of the murder of hundreds of Black Americans and the devastation wrought by white mobs that invaded the city. (How to Watch: Nat Geo and streaming on Hulu on June 18th)

Rita Moreno: Just a Girl That Decided to Go For It

Director: Mariem Perez Riera
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: With no subject off-limits from the opportunities she felt she was denied as a Latina actress to her tempestuous romance with Marlon Brando, this biography of the “West Side Story” star is as irresistible as its subject, still on set at age 88, sharing on incredible story after another in between filming takes on “One Day at a Time.” (How to Watch: In Theaters)

Siberia

Cast: Willem Dafoe, Dounia Sichov, Simon McBurney
Director: Abel Ferrara
Points of Interest: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: Either you’re in or you’re out upon hearing the logline for Abel Ferrara and Willem Dafoe’s sixth collaboration in which the “Tomasso” star runs a bar in the Arctic where, being unable to communicate with the Intuit clientele and the other occasional patrons who find themselves on this end of the earth as an English speaker, lets his mind wander. Ferrara doesn’t supply subtitles for this vision quest. (How to Watch: In Theaters on June 18th and on VOD and digital on June 22nd)

Summer of ’85

Cast: Félix Lefebvre, Benjamin Voisin, Philippine Velge, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Melvil Poupaud
Director: François Ozon
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: Adapting Aidan Chambers’ “Dance on My Grave” for the screen after reading it as a teen, the “Double Lover” director François Ozon makes one of his more personal works to date with this nostalgic tale of a young man whose first love emerges from a brush with death when he is swept up by his savior from a boat accident, only for tragedy to strike again. (How to Watch: In Theaters)

Superdeep

Cast: Milena Radulovic, Sergey Ivanyuk, Nikolay Kovbas, Kirill Kovbas, Nikita Dyuvbanov
Director: Arseniy Sukhin
Points of Interest: IMDb
The Lowdown: The latest in impressive sci-fi extravaganzas from Russia following the recent “Sputnik,” Arseniy Sukhin’s film takes inspiration in the real-life research of a secret lab looking into the Kola Superdeep Borehole, with a team of scientists getting in over their head when drilling into the core of the earth. (How to Watch: Shudder)

Sweat

Cast: Magdalena Koleśnik, Julian Swiezewski, Aleksandra Konieczna, Zbigniew Zamachowski
Director: Magnus von Horn
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: Undeterred from creating buzz when it didn’t debut as planned at Cannes 2020, this second feature from Magnus von Horn after he premiered “The Here After” in Directors’ Fortnight became a word-of-mouth sensation, telling of a fitness instructor whose social media stardom brings the unwanted attention of a stalker. (How to Watch: In Theaters on June 18th and on MUBI July 23rd)

Sweet Thing

Cast: Lana Rockwell, Nico Rockwell, Jabari Watkins, M.L. Josepher, Karyn Parsons and Will Patton
Director: Alexandre Rockwell
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: After featuring his kids Lana and Nico in his last solo feature “Little Feet,” “In the Soup” director Alexandre Rockwell is bringing his whole family into the mix for this Crystal Bear winner from Berlin about a brother and sister who escape a broken household and try to create a life of their own, inspired to dream bigger by another runaway they meet along the way. (How to Watch: In Theaters)

Truman and Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation

Director: Lisa Immordino Vreeland
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Instagram, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: Jim Parsons and Zachary Quinto are brought in to give voice to Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams, respectively, in this doc that looks back at their relationship as they evolve from fledgling writers to world-renowned celebrities, restricting itself to using their own words. (How to Watch: In Theaters and Kino Marquee)

 

June 25

I Carry You With Me

Cast: Armando Espitia, Christian Vazquez, Michelle Rodríguez, Ángeles Cruz
Director: Heidi Ewing
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: The wait will be well worth it for what would’ve been the best film of last year, the solo feature debut of “Jesus Camp” and “One of Us” co-conspirator Heidi Ewing, who rises to the challenge of chronicling a remarkable romance with this doc/narrative hybrid that follows an aspiring Mexican chef who leaves the only home he’s ever known to pursue his dream of opening his own restaurant in America, making it impossible to see his family again without risking deportation. (How to Watch: In Theaters)

American Badger

Cast: Kirk Caouette, Andrea Stefancikova, Michael Kopsa, Milan Stefancik
Director: Kirk Caouette
Points of Interest: IMDb, Facebook, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: Former stuntman Kirk Caouette naturally throws himself right into the action in his third feature as a director, playing a hitman who finds companionship with a call girl after only having the connection of his handler for years, but has a crisis of conscience when she becomes a target in his next job. (How to Watch: On VOD and digital)

Asia

Cast: Shira Haas, Alena Yiv
Director: Ruthy Pribar
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: A standout among the films set to play at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival – it will be returning this year before its theatrical run — this drama marks an auspicious debut for Ruthy Pribar, netting nine Israeli Academy Awards for this story featuring “Unorthodox” star Shira Haas as a teen with a degenerative disease and Alena Yiv as her mother who grapples with not being overly protective as her daughter yearns to be a teen. (How to Watch: In Theaters, starting with an exclusive run at Film Forum in New York)

Blue Bayou

Cast: Justin Chon, Alicia Vikander, Mark O’Brien, Linh-Dan Pham, Emory Cohen
Director: Justin Chon
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Facebook, Rotten Tomatoes
The Lowdown: After scrapping together a pair of striking Sundance-approved dramas with “Gook” and “Ms. Purple,” Justin Chon makes his highest-profile directorial effort to date with this story of a family that could be upended when its patriarch, played by Chon, is threatened with deportation despite growing up in New Orleans. Alicia Vikander co-stars as his wife. (How to Watch: In Theaters)

The Evil Next Door

Cast: Jakob Fahlstedt, Janna Granström, Dilan Gwyn, Karin Holmberg
Director: Tord Danielsson and Oskar Mellander
Points of Interest: IMDb, Facebook, Twitter, Rotten Tomatoes
The Lowdown: A woman starts wondering what she married into in this Swedish thriller, hearing strange noises after her husband leaves for work and has questions about her stepson’s best friend. (How to Watch: In Theaters, on VOD and on digital)

False Positive

Cast: Ilana Glazer, Justin Theroux, Sophia Bush, Gretchen Mol, Pierce Brosnan
Director: John Lee
Points of Interest: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes
The Lowdown: After making his feature directing debut with “Pee Wee’s Big Holiday,” John Lee reunites with Illana Glazer, whom he directed on “Broad City,” for this horror film they wrote together about a woman unnerved by the doctor (Pierce Brosnan) handling her fertility treatments. (How to Watch: Hulu)

Fathom

Director: Drew Xanthopoulos
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: Drew Xanthopoulous, who directed last intrigued with the provocative 2017 doc “The Sensitives” heads to the ends of the earth quite literally to finding two scientists — Dr. Ellen Garland and Dr. Michelle Fournet — studying how hunchback whales communicate with one another, perhaps unlocking secrets for other species. (How to Watch: Apple TV+)

F9

Cast: Vin Diesel, John Cena, Michelle Rodriguez, Charlize Theron, Helen Mirren, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Jordana Brewster, Nathalie Emmanuel, Sung Kang, Cardi B
Director: Justin Lin
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: After leaving the series following “Fast and the Furious 6” – and really who could blame him after orchestrating its airport runway finale – Justin Lin is back in the driver’s seat and bringing back fan favorite Han (Sung Kang) for this latest chapter of the car franchise that sees Dom (Vin Diesel) face off against his long-lost brother (John Cena) and involves four-second scenes that took eight months to prepare. (How to Watch: In Theaters)

God Exists, Her Name is Petrunia

Cast: Zorica Nusheva, Labina Mitevska, Simeon Moni Damevski, Suad Begovski
Director: Teona Strugar Mitevska
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: A local tradition is thrown into disarray when a woman decides to dive in to retrieve a wooden cross in an event typically reserved for men, said to bring good luck to the winner in this satire from Macedonia. (How to Watch: In Theaters and in virtual cinemas)

Good on Paper

Cast: Iliza Shlesinger, Rebecca Rittenhouse, Matt McGorry, Margaret Cho
Director: Kimmy Gatewood
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site
The Lowdown: After showing range in supporting turns in other Netflix films from “Pieces of a Woman” to “Spenser Confidential,” Iliza Schlesinger is going back to basics as the lead of this raunchy romcom in a role she’s not unfamiliar with as a stand-up comedian who thinks the new guy she’s dating might be too good to be true. (How to Watch: Netflix)

The Ice Road

Cast: Liam Neeson, Laurence Fishburne, Holt McCallany, Amber Midthunder
Director: Jonathan Hensleigh
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes
The Lowdown: Instead of seeking revenge, Liam Neeson is just trying to keep his eyes on the road in this thriller set in the coldest regions Canada has to offer, playing an ice driver tasked with crossing a frozen ocean to rescue a group of stranded miners. (How to Watch: Netflix)

Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide

Director: Malia Scharf and Max Basch
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: A friend and contemporary of Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, the artist Kenny Scharf gets a proper portrait with this naturally colorful biography co-directed by his daughter Malia, charting his rise from street art to spreading out his large canvas paintings in galleries across the world. (How to Watch: In Theaters and on digital)

LFG

Director: Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes, teaser
The Lowdown: The filmmaking duo behind “Innocente” and “War/Dance” were on the ground with the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team during a transformational year for the squad as they embark on the 2019 World Cup and face unarguably even greater challenges off the field as they attempt to secure equal pay to their male counterparts. (How to Watch: HBO Max)

Lourdes

Director: Alban Teurlai and Thierry Demaiziere
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes
The Lowdown: Setting up cameras in the Pyrenees, this doc takes stock of all who make the pilgrimage to see where the Virgin Mary was said to have once spent the night, exploring the power of belief when many come seek hope for themselves. (How to Watch: Film Forum in New York)

My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To

Cast: Patrick Fugit, Ingrid Sophie Schram, Owen Campbell
Director: Jonathan Cuartas
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: A unique twist on a vampire story and a family drama, director Jonathan Cuartas makes an arresting debut with this slow burn drama about a brother (Patrick Fugit) and sister (Ingrid Sophie Schram) who find their own energy drained by their need to satisfy their younger brother’s bloodlust. (How to Watch: In Theaters, on VOD and on digital)

Sun Children

Cast: Ali Nassirian, Javad Ezati, Tannaz Tabatabaei, Roohollah Zamani
Director: Majid Majidi
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: Picked to be Iran’s official selection for this year’s Oscars, the latest from “Children of Heaven” director Majid Majidi follows a trio of street kids who stay afloat with small scams such as purloining tires to sell from fancy cars until learning of a potential treasure trove hidden underneath a school, making the only way into riches truly an education. (How to Watch: In Theaters)

Too Late

Cast: Alyssa Limperis, Ron Lynch, Will Weldon, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Fred Armisen, Jack De Sena, Billy Breed
Director: D.W. Thomas
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: A variety show host’s assistant (Alyssa Limperis) with aspirations of being a stand-up comedian hopes to get the last laugh on her boss from hell in this dark comedy about an industry prone to eating so many alive. (How to Watch: In Theaters and on VOD)

An Unquiet Grave

Cast: Jacob A. Ware, Christine Nyland
Director: Terence Krey
Points of Interest: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: A hit at last year’s inaugural Nightstream Festival, this eerie horror film involves a widower (Jacob Ware) who revisits the site of his wife’s fatal car crash with her sister (Christine Nyland) in tow to grieve, but his insistence on a ritual that’ll potentially bring her back to life is cause for concern. (How to Watch: Shudder)

Werewolves Within

Cast: Milana Vayntrub, Sam Richardson, Cheyenne Jackson, Michaela Watkins, Harvey Guillen, Michael Chernus, George Basil, Sarah Burns, Catherine Curtai, Rebecca Henderson, Glenn Fleshler
Director: Josh Ruben
Points of Interest: IMDb, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes, trailer
The Lowdown: Following the fun-filled “Scare Me” with Aya Cash, Josh Ruben finds a personal way into this adaptation of the VR game of the same name, filming near the town where he grew up for this horror comedy about a close-knit community that is squeezed even tighter when a snowstorm forces its residents into the same local inn with a werewolf thought to be on the loose. (How to Watch: In Theaters and On Demand)

Wolfgang

Director: David Gelb
Points of Interest: IMDb
The Lowdown: The “Jiro Dreams of Sushi” director and “Chef’s Table” creator David Gelb takes on one of the world’s most renowned chefs with this profile of Wolfgang Puck, charting his path from Austria to Beverly Hills where he continues to be as ubiquitous as ever in the kitchen of Cut and on television screens everywhere but questions how his professional success has impacted his personal life. (How to Watch: On Disney+)