Last year June was a ridiculously sparse month due to the World Cup. This time round, with the exception of a certain Jurassic adventure there aren’t any big franchise pictures to hang your hat on. But, as the picks below the listings show, there’s plenty here to pique the interest of the more discerning film-goer. For more on some of these, listen to our latest May/June podcast.

5 June 2015

• Spy
• Insidious: Chapter 3
• Survivor
• Listen Up Philip
• Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films
• Fortune’s Wheel
• Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
• Gascoigne

8 June 2015

• We Are Many

9 June 2015

• London Road

11 June 2015

• Jurassic World

12 June 2015

• Shooting for Socrates
• Black Coal, Thin Ice
• West
• The Misfits (1961)
• Freaks (1932)
• The Look of Silence
• Queen and Country
• Let us Prey

19 June 2015

• The Longest Ride
• Entourage
• Mr. Holmes
• Accidental Love
• Les Combattants (Love at First Sight)
• The Burning (El Ador)
• The Long Good Friday (1980)

23 June 2015

• The Terminator (1984)

26 June 2015

• Minions
• Slow West
• The Wrecking Crew (2008)
• The Third Man (1949)
• Station to Station
• She’s Funny That Way
• The Hallow
• Everly

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These films are all receiving general or limited releases in Ireland this month, no festival or one-off showings are included. Let us know what we’ve missed – contact@spoooool.ie.

#1 – Listen Up Philip

June 5th

I saw this back at JDIFF and while I wasn’t bowled over by it then (it got a respectable ★★★½), it is a film that has stuck with me and may now be ripe for a second viewing.

Alex Ross Perry paid such close attention to the look and feel of a 1970s film (or a Philip Roth novel) through his use of props, camera stock and costumes, so even if the story doesn’t grab you, you’ll be sucked in by the visual style of Listen up Philip. 

Aside from a fun performance from Jason Schwartzman, we also get a rare on-screen appearance from Mad Men’s now-unemployed pseudo creative director Peggy Olson (Elizabeth Moss), much more from her to come I hope.

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#2 – Jurassic World

June 11th

There was a lot of goodwill for this film until a Joss Whedon tweet from early April ripped the film’s possible gender depictions apart, he later regretted it, but it seemed like Universal was now on the backfoot with a lot of work to do to win over the snarky internet critics again. Whether anyone had ever championed the original Jurassic Park for its feminist lure or not is kind of irrelevant, as it seems modern blockbusters are subject to much tighter criticism in this internet age.

The 10-year-old boy in me is still excited.

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#3 – The Look of Silence

June 12th

Joshua Oppenheimer’s follow-up to the stunning and sickening The Act of Killing. This time an Indonesian family of genocide survivors discovers how their son was murdered – and the identity of the men who murdered him. Uncomfortable and dangerous confrontations follow…

Winner of a ridiculous amount of awards following its premiere at last year’s Venice Film Festival, this is one of those films destined to end up on Buzzfeed “documentaries you need to see now before you die” listicles.

There’s a satellite Q&A in the Light House Cinema on Sunday 14th June with Joshua Oppenheimer, hosted by Louis Theroux if you’re into that kind of “oh it’s like we’re there with them, but not really” thing.

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#4 – Let Us Prey

June 12th

Liam Cunningham lets his hair down in the Scottish/Irish horror co-production which sees a mysterious stranger takes over the minds and souls of everyone inside a remote police station.

Let us Prey has been doing the rounds since last year when it debuted at Cannes, so it’s nice to see it finally show up on the screens that helped fund it.  Reviews have been positive so far and the director Brian O’Malley seems like a good guy judging by any interviews I’ve read, here’s hoping it brings in a few quid and helps debunk that myth that Irish genre films don’t work.

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#5 – Slow West

June 26th

A Fassbender western! Hooray!

(more on Slow West in our most recent podcast.)

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*** ONE TO AVOID ***
Accidental Love

June 19th

David O Russell has a new film! It’s got a stellar cast made up of Jessica Biel, Jake Gyllenhaal, Catherine Keener, James Marsden, Tracy Morgan and James Brolin! Surely this will be great!

Sadly not. Russell started the film in 2008 and everything collapsed around 2010 when financial difficulties forced him to leave the project. Missing scenes were shot without his involvement and a “film” was cobbled together, now credited to director “Stephen Greene”. Here’s what Russell had to say when leaving the projects.

This has been a painful process for me. The multiple production delays and stoppages, which were caused by David Bergstein and preceded Ron Tutor’s direct involvement with me, have now spanned two years, and the circumstances under which the film would now be completed are much different on several fundamental levels than when we embarked several years ago. I, unfortunately, am no longer involved in the project and cannot call it ‘my’ film.

It came out on a limited release in the US earlier this year and now holds a stinking 6% on Rotten Tomatoes. Hard to know whether it’s even showing in Irish cinemas as it’s destined to be one of those films that just tricks people in to seeing based on the star power on the poster.

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The post What’s Worth Watching – June 2015 appeared first on Spooool.ie.