The 10 best films out in UK cinemas and on streaming in June

Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and the other one (Martin Lawrence) return for more wisecracking buddy cop capers in a ‘Bad Boys’ fourquel that will have all concerned hoping audiences are long way past ‘The Slap’. Belgian shooters Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah are back behind the camera after shepherding ‘Bad Boys For Life’ to a franchise-best $426 million. This time out the boys are on the run and tackling Miami PD corruption from the outside. 

Out Jun 7

British conservationist Isabella Tree is a prime mover behind England’s rewilding and her bestselling book that’s now the basis of this impactful, topical doc. Produced by the team behind the Oscar-nominated ‘All That Breathes’, and with shades of the wonderful ‘The Biggest Little Farm’, it follows a couple’s efforts to unleash the power of nature on their country estate. Electronica maven Jon Hopkins co-wrote the film’s score, so expect soothing vibes.

Out Jun 14

Riley has a new emotion to contend with – Anxiety (voiced by Maya Hawke) – in this follow-up to Pixar’s 2015 classic, and honestly, we’re not sure our emotions are ready. The once all-conquering studio has had a wobbly few years, veering from pretty great (‘Turning Red’) to middling (‘Elemental’), but ‘Inside Out’ was the studio’s last masterpiece and hopes are high that this one will bottle its lightning again. Long-time Pixar storyboard artist Kelsey Mann takes over from Pete Docter as director. 

Out Jun 14

Agnieszka Holland brings her impassioned lens to a contemporary horror story: Europe’s migration crisis. ‘Green Border’ follows a family of Syrian refugees as they attempt to cross the border from Belarus and into the EU. Little do they know, they’re pawns in Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko’s cruel political machinations and end up trapped in a state of limbo in the forests of eastern Europe. With films like ‘Europa, Europa’ and ‘In Darkness’, Holland has been a powerful voice for the underdog, and her latest is another horribly gripping survival story.

Out Jun 21

Austin Butler goes from Elvis to James Dean, more or less, in director Jeff Nichols’s chronicle of a fictional 1960s motorcycle gang. Butler’s smoulder levels appear off the charts as Benny, a greaser rebel whose allegiance to Tom Hardy’s brutish leader of the pack complicates his marriage to Jodie Comer’s Kathy. The trailer gives off strong ‘The Outsiders’ vibes, but with Nichols at the helm, expect something a bit more gritty and naturalistic. 

Out Jun 21

It was unlikely enough that Jim from ‘The Office’ would end up creating a modern horror classic. Now, six years later, not only are we getting a third movie in the franchise, but a prequel involving a whole new cast of characters – and this time around, John Krasinski isn’t even directing. (Michael Sarnoski, of the excellent Nicolas Cage drama ‘Pig’, is stepping in.) ‘Day One’ goes back to the start of Earth’s invasion by a race of blind alien monsters with supersonic hearing, with Lupita Nyong’o, Djimon Hounsou and ‘Stranger Things’ Joseph Quinn figuring out in real time that perpetual silence is the key to survival.  

Out Jun 28

It’s the year of the cougar, apparently. Hot on the heels of Prime Video’s zeitgeisty ‘The Idea of You’, Netflix offers up its own romcom about a single mom mortifying her daughter by sleeping with a much younger famous guy. In this case, it’s Nicole Kidman shtupping her child’s boss, a vapid Hollywood actor played by Zac Efron. Like the aforementioned Anne Hathaway vehicle, it looks to balance comedic tension with familial tenderness – and maybe even contain an actually hot sex scene or two.

Streaming on Netflix Jun 28

We’ve barely had half a year to digest ‘Poor Things’ and are already getting another dose of strangeness from Greek maverick Yorgos Lanthimos, a three-act anthology film described as a return to the dark savagery of his earlier work – the critical word cloud so far includes ‘twisted’, ‘visceral, ‘cruel’ and ‘nasty’. Emma Stone is there, ‘natch, but coming out of Cannes, most plaudits went to Jesse Plemons, who took home a Best Actor prize for playing, alternately, an architect with a horrible boss, a cop with a missing wife and a cult member.  

Out Jun 28

A sweeping, slow-moving four-part western set during the Civil War, with a massive cast, written, directed by and starring Kevin Costner? Oh, the 90s are so back! A long-gestating passion project for Costner, he’s got a lot riding on it, considering he quit the smash-hit Yellowstone in order to finally make it happen. But if that show has proven anything, it’s that there is still a huge audience clamouring to watch Big Kev act gruff and tough against rural American landscapes. For four whole movies, though? Time will tell. 

Out Jun 28

If you could speak to a loved one you’ve lost, would you want to? This sci-fi scenario may be just round the corner, thanks to the caring and benevolence of – checks notes – ChatGPT and Big Tech. As Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck’s (‘The Cleaners’) documentary explores, a digital self can live forever or be resurrected but at what cost to the emotional health of those left behind? Sounds like a great premise for a horror movie, as well as a fascinating doc.

Out Jun 28