June Films

Movies I loved, movies that made me laugh and one movie that pissed me the fuck off

Hello! June was actually a slow movie month for me, in spite of all the great releases lately.

1. I had a cold which left me quarantined in my apartment for about five days.

2. It was so fucking hot I couldn’t stomach the venture to my local AMC.

3. Love Island USA.

Any way, here’s a couple movies I loved this month, a couple that made me laugh and one that pissed me off.

The Phoenician Scheme (Wes Anderson 2025)

I’m sorry there is no room for Wes Anderson hatred here. I think people that generally enjoy his movies aren’t going in hoping to be shaken or changed. I really do not hold space here for people to tell me that all his movies are the same or that they’re trying too hard to be deep. That’s kind of the whole point, for ME. They’re fun, predictable, lighthearted, visually beautiful. Like I know what I’m going in for when I go see one of his films.

Okay, now that we got this out of the way… I loved Michael Cera in this he was hilarious and awkwardly charming. A wonderful addition to the Anderson universe. I also loved nepo baby Mia Threapleton, (her mom is Kate Winslet!) she was fantastic in this. She was captivating and her character Sister Liesl was endearing and relatable. I mean we can only be as good as we’re allowed to be right? Loved the subtle use of color in her costuming - the red lip, blue/green eyeshadow, the green tights. The bedazzled tobacco pipe. Ugh. Loved it all. I also have a soft spot for movies about complicated relationships between fathers and daughters, only because I think they usually have more in common than they think.

Battle Royale (Kinji Fukasaku, 2000)

I don’t think I would have ever came across this movie on my own, my sweet beautiful Konrad brought it back from England as an addition to our blu-ray collection (ask him about it next time you see him). Anyway, he described this movie as a cool but cheesy, Japanese version of what the Hunger Games ripped off. I thought it was much better. I’m never quite sure what to expect from these types of movies but I found myself, thrilled, delighted and also pretty moved. Above all, it was nice seeing kids being played by kids it added an additional layer of compassion for the characters. Also, it’s always nice to see how creative film makers can be without putting damn CGI in things.

Materialists (Celine Song, 2025)

(spoiler alert! Skip ahead now)

Okay, this might be a hot take but I loved this movie. I think that if Past Lives taught us anything is that Celine Song can tell a story subtly and doesn’t need a whole lot of exposition to do it. The main criticism I heard about this movie was that this was broke man propaganda, which admittedly made laugh BUT if I may humbly interject my opposition to this idea, I would say they didn’t get the point of the movie? I know, it’s hard to think of any world where a woman would pick broke ass Chris Evans over 12 million dollar Tribeca penthouse Pedro Pascal, but I think if you’ve ever been in love, you would know! Anyway, I think the movie did pose an important question and its whether you think love is more important than your quality of life? The soundtrack was delightful, I listened to it on my walk to the subway and all the way home. Rom Coms are sooo fucking back.

Magic Farm (Amalia Ulman, 2025)

Okay so I had higher hopes for this movie because Ulman also directed El Planeta, which I watched earlier this year and loved and while I didn’t love this, it still made me laugh pretty hard. I think maybe it’s the story that was missing something and I can’t quite place my finger on what. The characters are all ridiculous (intentionally, I think?) and honestly, Chloë Sevigny and Alex Wolf really carried this film to the finish line. I will say this, I think this movie is perfect on a Thursday night, with a phat fucking blunt, and someone that doesn’t take things too seriously.

Now honestly, I take a strong stance against talking shit about movies I don’t like because I know usually I’m just not the target audience but the following review is me being a little bitch about the whole experience and is mainly just a big, fat, rant. Proceed with caution.

Parthenope (Paolo Sorrentino, 2024)

Okay, before I begin I have to tell you, I watched this movie on June 6th, it’s been exactly twenty days since I saw this as I type to you today. I’ve had time to go down the reddit rabbit holes, I’ve had time to digest, to reflect and I am still angry at this movie. I had to think about why this angered me so much and I think its because of all the potential this movie had to be amazing?

I mean this movie had beautiful scenes, fantastical elements, grotesque and unlikable characters, and yet the main character and overall story were nothing short of vapid, lifeless and their motivations were unclear. For the record, I don’t think this is the actress’ fault. She did what she could, I mean really her only job was to be so beautiful that everyone, including her brother wanted to fuck her. While I love stories about beautiful women and their struggles with how they’re perceived, this wasn’t exactly that. Parthenope was supposed to be something above her beauty but the script and the choices failed her.

There were moments in this film that made me think, wait do I like this? No, it was just one beautiful scene. Yes, I read about the Naples thing (Parthenope= The city of Naples) and even then, what the fuck are you saying??? Is Naples just so beautiful that everyone wants to fuck it??? Call me dense, but I think all the tools were there and they were just not utilized. This movie is what I imagine it would feel like if you won an all expenses paid vacation to Italy and upon arrival you realized it was just big painted backdrops of Italy held up by popsicle sticks. I will never forgive him.

If you made it this far, thanks so much for reading. If you want the full list of everything I watched, you can check out my/follow me on Letterboxd .

New essay dropping on the 5th yo.