Welcome back to a fabulous month of trailers! We have movies streaming while releasing in theaters, prestige documentaries, and an animated satire.

Streaming now on Hulu:

Changing the Game is a documentary about youth trans athletes. Hopefully the timeliness of this subject will change the minds of American bigots.

As of today you can stream all Harry Potter films on HBOMax. 

The Big Lebowski is finally back on Netflix, and I think that’s worth noting. Carnaval is also new:

An influencer learns there’s more to life than likes when she takes a girls’ trip to Bahia during Carnaval. 

Dancing Queens, a feel-good drama about a woman who joins the drag community.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal: The Movie is a two-part film about our favorite anime, Sailor Moon.

Today on the platform:

Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet, a 75-minute bummer from David Attenborough about humanity’s destruction of the planet. 

Trippin’ with the Kandasamys, a comedy about a chaotic road trip.

Xtreme

Coming to the Cineplex today, June 4, 2021:

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, which will also stream on HBOMax and is not worth $16, because I am a journalist and not a believer in “two charlatans in the 1970s swindled the American public.” Wait, what? Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson return as paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren with “one of the most sensational cases from their files.” It’s the trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson who claimed no responsibility (“the devil made me do it”) when he stabbed his landlord, who died. The judge didn’t buy it and Johnson served only five years of his 10-year sentence. 

Under the Stadium Lights, a drama starring Milo Gibson, Abigail Hawk, Acoryé White, Carter Redwood, is about a football team that finds its way thanks to God, a chaplain, and a coach.

Undine, a German-French film from 2020, follows a lecturer who has to murder the man who dumped her and return to the water. You know, like the myth.

Gully stars Jacob Latimore, Charlie Plummer, Amber Heard, and Terrence Howard. Three disaffected youths “wreak a hedonistic riot” across a dystopian Los Angeles.

Monuments is about a man determined to scatter his wife’s ashes in Chicago.

’83 is an Indian Hindi-language biographical sports drama. It’s about cricket.

Samaritan, an action-drama-sci fi-fantasy sees the return of yo’ boy, Martin Starr, and Sylvester Stallone, too. (Curious that Starr would work with Stallone.)

Hero Mode is a comedy about “a teenage coding prodigy” who finally gets to fulfill his dream of working at his parents’ gaming company. His parents are Sean Astin and Mira Sorvino.

Super Frenchie is a documentary about BASE jumper Matthias Giraud.

Spirit Untamed is an animated family film about a girl and her horse. It is based on Netflix’s Spirit Riding Free which is based on the wildly underrated Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. I think the whole franchise has lost its, um, spirit.

Saturday on Netflix:

Kitty Love: An Homage to Cats, a cute-looking documentary about cats.

And on Wednesday:

Awake stars Gina Rodriguez as “an ex-soldier with a troubled past” who “may hold the key to a cure in the form of her own daughter.” The last time Rodriguez starred as a member of the military it ended badly for her! (Annihilation)

Tragic Jungle is a Spanish-language thriller from Yulene Olaizola. Set in 1920, a group of gum workers cross paths with a mysterious woman. 

New in theaters June 11, 2021:

Asia is an Israeli drama. Asia had her teenage daughter when she was young. She yearns for real love (as opposed to whatever she has with a married colleague) but thinks she will never find it. (Is the lesson that she has it with Vika? Is this about family bonds?)

A Perfect Enemy, called “nonsensical crap” in a YouTube comment is a thriller? about a successful architect conned by a beautiful woman at the airport.

Holler stars Pamela Adlon, Jessica Barden, and Austin Amelio. A young woman in a depressed town gets into college. Jessica Barden, and director Nicole Riegel, are treasures!

Queen Bees stars Ellen Burstyn as a woman stuck with a bunch of Mean Girls in a retirement community. And then she falls in love with James Caan, who can still get it? I’m in.

Final Frequency is a thriller about a “cabal” of scientists planning to use frequencies to manipulate mind control. Oh, and earthquakes.. 

In the Heights is the film adaptation of the 2000s musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes. Hudes wrote the adaptation, Jon M. Chu directs, and Anthony Ramos, Corey Hawkins, Olga Merediz, Stephanie Beatriz, Dascha Polanco, and Jimmy Smits star. The film will also stream on HBOMax.

The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2, a follow up to 2016’s Meet the Blacks, stars Mike Epps and Katt Williams, who “face a new evil,” Republicans who refuse to open a commission on the January insurrection. Just kidding, it’s not that dangerous, it’s a vampire exploiting sex workers.

DOMINO: Battle of the Bones “ is a feel-good comedy about an elderly black man from Compton who teams up with his awkward, white step-grandson to defeat his rival in an off-the-wall, shady as hell domino tournament.” This looks it could have been good but no one was held back or reigned in. You can only do so much in post. It stars Snoop Dogg, David Arquette, and Baron Davis.

Sublet is a comedy? A columnist finds a renewed lease on life through his landlord when he sublets an apartment in Tel Aviv.

Skater Girl is new on Netflix:

This drama looks like a heart-warming drama! A young girl in India finds her passion for skateboarding, though the path to competing is difficult. (There’s a new episode of Betty the same night on HBO!)

Revolution Rent, a documentary about the musical, produced by Neil Patrick Harris, airs on HBOMax June 15. Unwind Your Mind, an interactive experience from Mindspace streams the same day on Netflix:

Playing in theaters June 16, 2021:

The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, a comedy thriller, stars Ryan Reynolds, Salma Hayek, and Samuel L. Jackson. Jackson is the hitman, Hayek is the wife, and her bodyguard is Reynolds. This might be fun?

Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway, a film for children, is finally out. The film has been delayed since 2020. James Corden returns as the Problem Child animated rabbit, and I remain beside myself in rage at this bastardization of Beatrix Potter’s masterpieces. 

Summer of 85 is like a French Call Me By Your Name? A young man capsizes and is rescued by a man who teaches him about art and loves in 1985.

The Sparks Brothers is a documentary by Edgar Wright about Ron and Russel Mael, with interviews from celebrity fans Flea, Jane Wiedlin, Beck, Jack Antonoff, Jason Schwartzman, and Neil Gaiman. (And hopefully more than one woman?)

Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It is a documentary about our queen, Rita Moreno.

A Crime on the Bayou, a documentary, “is the story of Gary Duncan, a Black teenager from Plaquemines Parish, a swampy strip of land south of New Orleans. In 1966, Duncan tries to break up an argument between white and Black teenagers outside a newly integrated school. He gently lays his hand on a white boy’s arm. The boy recoils like a snake. That night, police burst into Duncan’s trailer and arrest him for assault on a minor. A young Jewish attorney, Richard Sobol, leaves his prestigious D.C. firm to volunteer in New Orleans. With his help, Duncan bravely stands up to a racist legal system powered by a white supremacist boss to challenge his unfair arrest. Their fight goes all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and Duncan and Sobol’s lifelong friendship is forged.” (I took that from YouTube. This is a story where I don’t want to mess up the facts.)

Stalker is a “creepy thriller.” A man moves to LA and is stalked by an Uber driver.

Crack House of the Dead . 

12 Mighty Orphans is an inspirational sports drama to help Boomers sleep at night. Based on the Jim Dent’s Twelve Mighty Orphans: The Inspiring True Story of the Mighty Mites Who Ruled Texas Football, the film is a dramatization, of, well, twelve orphans who played football under the guidance of their science teacher, who is played by Luke Wilson doing his best Cameron Tucker-Pritchett.

Coming that day to Netflix:

Silver Skates, the platform’s first original film from Russia. Set in 1899, the epic romance is a retelling of the (American) fairy tale Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates.

Streaming June 18:

A Family, a Japanese drama about a man who has sworn allegiance to the yakuza, which took him in as a boy.

Fatherhood, a comedy starring Kevin Hart, who we’ve uncanceled, everyone who thinks that’s really a thing. 

Jagame Thandhiram, an Indian drama about a ruthless gangster. 

Streaming on June 23:

Good on Paper is a romantic comedy written by Iliza Shlesinger. It stars Shlesinger and Ryan Hansen. A standup comic falls for a guy that’s too good to be true.

The House of Flowers: The Movie, a film companion to the spanish-language dark comedy series La Casa de las Flores, finds the De la Mora family breaking into its family home to fulfill the wishes of its deceased matriarch: revenge against Agustín.

Murder by the Coast is a Spanish documentary film directed by Tània Balló Colell. It documents the Wanninkhof-Carabantes case.

On HBO June 24:

LFG is a documentary following the U.S. Women’s National Team as it fights for equal pay. 

Sisters on Track is a documentary about three Brooklyn girls pursuing Junior Olympics dreams. Call your sister! She misses you!

Projecting on multiplex screens June 25, 2021:

Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide is a documentary about the pop art artist.

I Carry You with Me is a Mexican romance-drama “about true love.” Two men, a chef and a teacher, fall in love in Mexico and leave for New York City. There is, presumably, suffering for love.

Werewolves Within, based on the videogame, is a horror-comedy about a smalltown overrun by a snowstorm and “a mysterious creature.” Sam Richardson stars.

Too Late is a comedy horror, starring Mary Lynn Rajskub, Fred Armisen, Jack De Sena, and Ron Lynch. An assistant to a late night variety host learns her boss is a boss in more ways than one. It’s like no one shared my Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (or the plot to The Devil Wears Prada) with her!

God Exists, Her Name Is Petrunya is a Macedonian drama. Released in 2019, a young woman enters a male-only contest and finds herself suddenly interested in equal rights.

F9 is the latest in the Fast & Furious franchise. (There’s only nine of these?) Staff a South Carolina Applebees, because these people are FAAAMILY.

Lourdes is a documentary about the French town besieged by tourists hoping to find healing in the waters where Saint Bernadette alleged she had a vision of the Virgin Mary. This trailer is grim, and after years of being forced to watch the cinematic version I just wanted to see what the pool really looks like.

Streaming on Hulu:

False Positive, a thriller, starring Ilana Glazer, Justin Theroux, and Pierce Brosnan. A couple struggling with infertility gets tied up with a sinister doctor. Glazer wrote this film with director John Lee.

Coming to Netflix:

The Ice Road, a drama starring Liam Neeson and Lawrence Fishburne as two truckers racing against time (and an ice thaw) to saved trapped miners in Canada. Or: Taken on Ice.

Coming to HBO June 29:

The Legend of the Underground is a documentary about queer youths in Nigeria fighting “rampant discrimination” and the choice to “stay or flee to live elsewhere.” 

Coming to theaters June 30, 2021:

Zola stars Taylour Paige, Riley Keough, Colman Domingo, Nicholas Braun. The drama is based on the 2015 148-tweet thread about two exotic dancers and one fateful weekend. The story has since been debunked, and I am committed to fact-based stories but like so many others I really, really, really want to see this. (I’d also like to see Riley Keough in a different type of role, please.) I’d like to see Racket adapted into a film, please.

Coming to Netflix:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu0O-q7Kf2k

America: The Motion Picture, a satirical depiction of the Revolutionary War, with voices from “America’s Sweethearts” Channing Tatum, Jason Mantzoukas, Olivia Munn, Judy Greer, Bobby Moynihan, Raoul Max Trujillo, Killer Mike, Andy Samberg, Will Forte, and Simon Pegg. Feels ten years too late.