16 Good Movies to Watch on Netflix in June 2015

Paramount Pictures

Look out the window. June is a beautiful month. The sun is out, birds are singing. You don’t care about any of that though, because there are people outside, and people are the worst. You want to stay inside watching movies on Netflix, away from them, where it’s safe. Understandable. To help you out, here are a list of new additions to their streaming service that are worth checking out. As always, click on the film’s titles to be taken to their Netflix pages.

Pick of the Month: Harold and Maude (1971)

Hal Ashby is probably the best and most talented director from the 70s who isn’t constantly talked about as being one of the true greats these days. Hardcore film fans love him, but he’s fallen through the cracks as far as recognition from the mainstream goes. Despite that injustice, Harold and Maude still gets a lot of play, probably because Wes Anderson has name-dropped it as an influence and it got a mention in There’s Something About Mary, which everyone in the world saw at least twice. The movie deserves the recognition though, especially if all of the kind words still haven’t convinced you to watch it. Bud Cort is memorable as the angst-ridden teen, Harold, Ruth Gordon is magnetic as the elderly free-spirit he develops a relationship with, Maude, and all of the quirk and intelligence and stylish filmmaking that Ashby puts into every one of his movies is present as well, making Harold and Maude one of the best, smartest, and most charming movies of the 70s. If you haven’t yet delved into Ashby’s catalogue, consider this your entryway into it. I assure you, the rest of us envy you for the journey of discovery you’re about to go on.

Big Trouble in Little China (1986)

Of all the strange, ridiculous, completely over the top movies that John Carpenter made in the 80s, Big Trouble in Little China might be the most strange, ridiculous, and over the top. It stars Kurt Russell as a rough and tumble, all-American trucker named Jack Burton who inadvertently gets involved in the gangland kidnapping of a green-eyed Chinese girl, which leads to him having to help rescue her by doing battle with various monsters and mystical forces all while using only his wits, swagger, some machine guns, and a ton of good ol’ fashioned American ass-kicking. The cast of this one includes martial arts movie legends like James Hong and Victor Wong, plenty of the practical special effects that Carpenter’s movies have become famous for, and more memorable quotes than you could wear out in a lifetime of nerd party conversations. Come on, bust out a few of them now. I know you’ve got them chambered. It’s all in the reflexes.

Blue Velvet (1986)

There are people in the world who like the abstract weirdness of David Lynch movies and then there are people who don’t really go for it. If you’ve liked things that he’s made in the past and haven’t seen Blue Velvet yet, then you’re really doing yourself a disservice, because it’s probably the most beloved thing he’s done this side of Twin Peaks. And heck, if you’ve seen a couple of his other things and didn’t really like them, but haven’t seen Blue Velvet, you still might want to give it a chance. While it’s awful disturbing and strange, it’s not quite as abstract and vague as some of his other work, and it features a great performance from a young Laura Dern as well as a completely unhinged performance from an at-his-peak Dennis Hopper. I’m not much of a Lynch fanatic, but even I can recognize how much interesting filmmaking is on display here. Give it a chance. After you watch it, it’s guaranteed you’ll never drink another Heineken for the rest of your life.

The Boxtrolls (2014)

The Boxtrolls is the latest movie from Laika, the studio behind other stop-motion animation projects like Coraline and Paranorman. Much like those films, this one is full of charm, heart, and a ridiculous amount of detailed design and animation work. The worlds in Laika’s movies are always so well-realized and so much fun to look at that you could watch them several times in a row just to try and catch as many little background details as possible and never get bored. The story here is about a boy (Isaac Hempstead-Wright), raised by a group of subterranean trolls, who has to go above ground and commune with his birth race after an evil exterminator (Ben Kingsley) begins scheming to wipe his adopted family out.

The film delivers a worthwhile message of inclusion and tolerance, all while featuring the voices of big acting names like Jared Harris, Nick Frost, Richard Ayoade, Tracy Morgan, and Elle Fanning, so there’s really no reason why you shouldn’t give it a chance. There’s enough personality on display that you’ll be able to get into it even if you don’t have a kid.

The Weinstein Co.

Dirty Girl (2010)

Some movies are made with enough stylistic swagger that they pop off of the screen and grab your attention immediately. On the other side of the fence, first time feature director Abe Sylvia directs his debut feature, Dirty Girl, with so much swagger that you can’t help but roll your eyes at how heavy his hand is. That doesn’t mean Dirty Girl doesn’t have things to offer though. For one thing, it stars Juno Temple, who’s just amazing, and who takes a character who’s kind of a caricature of obstinate teenage rebellion and makes her completely human and relatable. Jeremy Dozier, who plays her gay best friend, is pretty dang charming and relatable too, so much so that he makes the fact that the female protagonist has a gay best friend feel like it’s not even much of a cliché. In addition to the great acting, there’s a lot of singing and dancing in here too, so you really get a bang for your buck with this one. It’s a good choice if you like teen movies.

The Exorcist (1973)

Is The Exorcist the most respected and beloved horror movie that’s ever been made? If it isn’t, there can’t be too many other movies that are also in the discussion. Maybe two or three. This many years later, the success of this movie has spawned so many possession-themed imitators that it might seem like a chore to revisit the originator. Or, maybe there are even people out there who feel like they’ve seen so many possession movies that there’s no point in ever watching the big one.

If either of those cases sound like you, fire up Netflix and watch The Exorcist now. It’s a masterclass in building tension and creating mood, and it may just be the best movie that William Friedkin directed in a long and storied career. Plus, it’s just always a good time to listen to adorable little Linda Blair say some of the most horrible things you could ever imagine a little girl saying while simultaneously puking up pea soup. Good times, indeed.

Girlhood (2014)

The internet movie community has been dying for a new movie that looks at women’s issues with insight and intelligence for a long while now. It’s the hot topic. Anytime something new gets released that doesn’t treat women so well, it gets shamed, and anytime something new gets released that includes the slightest bit of girl power, it gets praised to the heavens. I still hadn’t felt like I’d seen anything that really tackled issues like domestic and sexual violence while simultaneously making me understand the female experience on a deep level in a very long time though.

Until I watched Girlhood, which is a coming of age story that explores what it means to be a young woman in modern society just as thoroughly as it explains the struggles that come from growing up in a place where you’re born with limited options. The thing is, Girlhood is a French movie and not one that was made by the Hollywood system, so any praise that it’s getting is likely only hitting a niche audience. That’s why people aren’t hearing about it. If you’ve been itching for a feminist story that’s well-written, well-acted, and well-made, then this just might be the movie you’ve been waiting for.

Grizzly Man (2005)

Werner Herzog could probably point his camera at any boring old thing and find a way to make an interesting documentary out of it thanks to his unique perspective, defeatist monologuing, and profoundly charming accent, so when he’s pointing his camera at a subject as completely off the rails and insane as grizzly bear enthusiast Timothy Treadwell, it’s essentially a guarantee that what he comes up with is going to be interesting and awesome. Treadwell considered himself to be some sort of nature activist, and spent quite a bit of his life illegally living amongst and documenting a bunch of grizzly bears who he considered to be family, which made him a prime subject for documenting.

We speak of him in the past tense because, of course, grizzly bears aren’t family, so eventually his wilderness roommates attacked him and ate him and his girlfriend (which is probably one of the main reasons it’s illegal to live amongst them), which makes Herzog’s movie get real bleak and real disturbing real quick. Listening to that German madman chew on material as meaty as this is just too good an opportunity to pass up.

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