Happy June, Polygon readers. The weather is getting warmer, the sun is shining brighter and you are probably spending more time outside. Good for you! But there’s still plenty of reason to crash on the couch, turn on the air conditioning, pop some corn and watch some great movies.
Every month we round up the best new movies in streaming on Netflix, Hulu, Max, Prime and more. In June it is a good group. We recently got an underrated John Carpenter thriller on the Criterion Channel, two standout early works from directors with major releases this summer, and more.
Here are the new streaming service movies you should watch this month.
Editor’s Choice: Attack on District 13
Image: Turtle Release Organization
Where to watch: Criterion channel
Genre: Action thriller
Director: Johannes Timmerman
Form: Austin Stoker, Darwin Joston, Laurie Zimmer
Often imitated but never surpassed, John Carpenter’s 1976 crime thriller is one of the most thrilling 91 minutes ever put to screen, and is now available on the Criterion Channel as part of the ‘Synth Soundtracks’ collection. Carpenter’s second feature film (next Dark starand just two years earlier Halloween everything changed), the film follows a police officer (Austin Stoker) and a convicted murderer (Darwin Joston) who team up to defend the titular district from a heavily armed street gang.
Made on a shoestring budget of about $100,000, the original Attack on District 13 is a masterclass in efficient filmmaking, making maximum use of the film’s closed setting in building tension and staging action scenes. It’s also a taste of many of the skills that would make Carpenter one of the great masters of genre filmmaking. —Piet Volk
New on Netflix
Mandarine
Image: Magnolia Photos
Genre: Dramadie
Director: Sean Baker
Form: Kitana Kiki Rodriguez, Mya Taylor, James Ransone
Director Sean Baker just became the first American to do so win the Palme d’Or since Terrence Malick won The tree of life in 2011. Baker’s new film, Anora, follows a sex worker (Mikey Madison) in a troubled relationship with a Russian oligarch. It doesn’t have a US release date yet, but that big price gain is a good reason to revisit one of Baker’s early projects, Mandarine – another story about sex workers, but in a completely different style.
Shot with three iPhone 5S phones, Mandarine follows two trans sex workers in Los Angeles who are best friends. One has just come out of a short stint in prison and has heard that her boyfriend is cheating on her. The two try to find him and get to the bottom of this mystery in a raw and funny drama that looks beautiful despite the technological limitations of the equipment. If you liked Baker’s later films – The Florida Project And Red Rocket — or look forward to winning the Palme d’Or Anorabut didn’t make time for it Mandarine, now is your moment. —PV
New on Hulu
Working girl
Image: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Genre: Romantic comedy
Director: Mike Nichols
Form: Sigourney Weaver, Harrison Ford and Melanie Griffith
Mike Nichols'(The graduate) The 1988 rom-com classic was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and acting nominations for Melanie Griffith, Sigourney Weaver and Joan Cusack. A class comedy about a secretary who fills in for her injured boss, but the boss tries to take credit for her hard work. This is a light-hearted comedy with an excellent cast that also serves as a kind of time capsule for the late eighties. York City, and makes an excellent companion piece 9 to 5.
Working girl also inspired a particularly funny episode of Bob’s Burgers: the season 5 premiere ‘Work Hard or Die Trying, Girl’, a mashup of Working girl And That hard. —PV
New on Max
Minari
Image: Sundance Institute
Genre: Drama
Director: Lee Isaac Chung
Form: Steven Yeun, Han Ye-ri, Alan Kim
Lee Isaac Chung Minari is an American story in the purest sense of the word: Jacob (Steven Yeun), a Korean-American father with dreams of a better life for himself and his children, moves his family from California to Arkansas to pursue his dream of becoming a farmer become. As they endure the challenges and hardships this strange new life in the Ozarks brings, he and his family discover the true meaning of what it takes to build a home. From our list of the best movies of 2020:
Romantic and warmly rendered, Minari is a drama about everyday life and remembering the gifts of what is right in front of you. And the perspective comes from a top-tier cast: Along with Yeun, who plays a piercing patriarch, Han Yeri delivers a moving performance as a mother who clings to her wayward loved ones, newcomers Noel Cho and Alan S. Kim who defy any bad style embrace. play crazy and sweet kids, and famed Korean actress Yuh-Jung Youn cements her legacy in an all-American film.
Next step for Chung: the mega-blockbuster Twisters, coming to theaters this summer. —Toussaint Egan
New on Prime Video
Koyaanisqatsi
Image: The Criterion Collection
Genre: Documentary
Director: Godfrey Reggio
Consists mainly of time-lapse images of cities and natural environments, Koyaanisqatsi is a fascinating time capsule of 20th-century society on the eve of the new millennium, which asks audiences to consider the symbiotic relationship between humans and the Earth and whether, as the English translation of the film’s title suggests , life when we know it is out of balance.
Since its premiere in 1982, the film has been referenced and parodied numerous times, including in the 2007 announcement trailer for Grand Theft Auto 4, featuring a song from Philip Glass’s iconic score for the film. Take your time to admire this monolith of majestic, introspective films. -AT