June’s Cultural Highlights

Kinds Of Kindness
In cinemas 28 June

You wait ages for an incredibly inventive drama and two come along at once. And so after the award-winning Poor Things, director Yorgos Lanthimos is back with his second release of 2024 in the form of Kinds Of Kindness. Which takes a different approach with this being three shorter anthology films that are all absurdly dark and hilarious. With Emma Stone returning to Yorgos’ side, along with Jesse Plemons, Hunter Schafer, Willem Dafoe (natch) among others, we follow three distinct yet connected stories that are on the edge of Lanthimos lunacy. And with Plemons winning Best Actor at this year’s Cannes Film Festival this is one you should not miss.

Bad Boys: Ride Or Die
In cinemas 5 June

The infuriatingly backwards-titled Bad Boys 4: Ride or Die continues the journey of Mike and Miles as they uncover corruption within their Miami police force. I say infuriatingly-titled, as Bad Boys 3 was titled, Bad Boys For Life, when surely Bad Boys FOUR Life makes infinitely more sense. Either way, you know what you’re signing up for with a Bad Boys film, action, silliness, bromance, and that one last job. Until this makes enough for an equally irritatingly titled Bad Boys 5.

Rosalie
In cinemas 7 June

Loosely following the life story of Clémentine Delat, the bearded woman, this historical drama was released elsewhere in the world earlier this year but is finally coming to UK cinemas this June. Starring Nadia Tereszkiewicz as the bearded lady herself, it’s set in the late 19th century as we follow Rosalie in her story of deception and not conforming to society’s norms. 

The Watched
In cinemas 14 June

The Watched is the directorial debut of M. Night Shyamalan’s daughter Ishana Night Shyamalan, with a story based around Dakota Fanning’s Mina who’s lost in a forest and being stalked by three mysterious figures. It’s also produced by M. Night Shyamalan, so having two Shyamalan’s on one project could prove either full of twists and turns, or they’ll cancel each other’s twists out. But we’re pretty sure they’ll be twists either way. 

Inside Out 2
In cinemas 14 June

The sequel to Pixar’s 2015 smash, Inside Out, this continues our journey inside Riley’s mind and looks to highlight her many, many emotions during the always exciting time in a person’s life when they start puberty. With some of the voice cast returning, and three major new ones (Anxiety being voiced by Maya Hawke, Envy – Maya Ayo Edebiri and Ennui, Adele Exarchopoulos) there are whole new areas of Riley’s psyche to explore. We’re hoping this is more Toy Story 2 than a Ralph Breaks The Internet in terms of a Disney sequel.

The Bikeriders
In cinemas 21 June

Inspired by Danny Lyons’ book of the same name, Bikeriders follows a sensationally-stacked cast in a fictional motorcycle club, and how that club evolves throughout the 1960s in Chicago. Starring Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Jodie Comer, Mike Faist, and directed by Jeff Nichols this was previously going to be released towards the end of last year but was delayed in the UK with the distributor moving from 20th Century to Universal. It’s been too long since a good project involves biker gangs and without it being set in apocalyptic Australia.

A Quiet Place: Day One
In cinemas 28 June

This prequel to the two previous Quiet Place films takes place when the sound-liking aliens invade earth. Day One follows Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn’s characters trying to silently survive the invasion in New York City. Based on a story by John Krasinski, but directed by Michael Samoski, we’re hoping for an incredibly tense, and hopefully not too noisy, time in the Big Apple.

Horizon: An America Saga Chapter One
In cinemas 28 June

The start of an epic, western, four-part saga produced by, directed by, and starring Kevin Costner, Horizon is set over a 15 year period pre and post the American Civil War with the settlement of the American West. Chapter One was shown at this yeas Cannes, to a mixed reception, so whilst the cast may be full of stars like Sam Worthington, Michael Rooker, Luke Wilson, Abbey Lee and Sienna Miller it might not stack up theatrically. But it could be the closest we get to a live-action Red Dead Redemption and we’re all here for that.

Star Wars: The Acolyte
On Disney+ from 4 June

Whilst some of the Disney+ Star Wars projects have been better than others, The Acolyte looks like a fresh take on the formula for the galaxy far, far away. Set before anything else we’ve seen on screen for Star Wars, The Acolyte follows a galactic murder mystery during the height of the Jedi’s reign. With Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, Carrie-Anne Moss and more talent from across the galaxy, we’re excited to see as many lightsabers as can fit on a screen. It looks like there’s a lot. 

The Boys S4
On Prime from 13 June

The fourth season of Amazon’s incredible The Boys is almost here, which seems to be straight after the equally brilliant Gen V. With a virus designed to kill supes having been developed, Homelander is under pressure from all sides – the hatred of the public, The Boys on his case – and opts to forgo being a worshipped superstar to become a wrathful god. Watch out!

House Of The Dragon Season 2
On Sky Atlantic from 16 June

Matt Smith, Olivia Cook and, Emma D’Arcy  return to the world of dragons, and with House Of The Dragon Season 1 reigniting people’s love of all things Westeros, we have high expectations for Season 2. Thankfully, even with just the glimpses seen in the trailer, it looks like Westeros is in unsafe hands once again. With the Duel of the Dragons incoming, the fear of the Targaryen dynasty continues to be one of TV’s greatest series. We just hope there’s an almighty battle to rival Battle of the Bastards.

Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree
DLC releases on 21 June

It’s finally almost time for more Elden Ring in our lives. Shadow Of The Erdtree is the one and only DLC we’re going to get for Elden Ring, and it looks sensational. New locations, new weapons, new foes, even more confusing lore that doesn’t really make sense but we all pretend it does, what more could you want? As someone who has definitely not spent hundreds of hours endlessly dying to Radahn or Malenia, I’m glad to have more reasons to continue putting off our bedtime.