Sense8 - season one, 5 June
“Eight people. Eight cities. One mind.”
The Wachowskis make their TV debut with this globe-trotting sci-fi about a bunch of people spread around the planet who find themselves connecting in surprising ways. Peppered with stars such as Daryl Hannah, Lost’s Naveen Andrews and Cloud Atlas’s Doona Bae, all 12 episodes are ready for your next binge.
Orange is the New Black – season three, 12 June
After a downbeat, but still satisfying second season, we return to Litchfield, where the inmates are adjusting to changes in the prison. With newcomer Stella (Ruby Rose) and Alex (Laura Prepon) back full time, will there be more comedy in the mix this time?
What Happened, Miss Simone?, 26 June
New documentary about the jazz legend.
“There’s an insurance clause with some documentaries. If your subject is sufficiently electrifying and the bulk of the picture consists of archival footage, you pretty much can’t lose. Liz Garbus, the Bobby Fischer Against the World documentarian whose style can politely be called unobtrusive, hit the motherlode with Nina Simone.” – Sundance 2015 first look review: What Happened, Miss Simone? – a remarkable life, painted by numbers
DreamWorks Dragons: Race to the Edge, 26 June
A spinoff series from the How to Train Your Dragon franchise, with Hiccup and Toothless back and mucking about with the Dragon Eye, “an ancient artefact that unlocks secrets”. But soon after the friends are targeted by hunters, who will stop at nothing to steal their treasure.
Sons of Anarchy: Season seven, 30 June
The final season for Charlie Hunnam’s biker gang.
Documentaries
All This Mayhem (“A skateboarding documentary with a meaty story to tell – though sometimes it strays suspiciously far from objectivity. It is the extraordinary and tragic tale of the Pappas brothers, Tas and Ben, two teenagers from suburban white Australia who travelled to the US in the 1990s with the purpose of conquering the vertical skateboard scene.”)
We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks, 7 June (“Alex Gibney is at his forensic best in fairly and lucidly telling the story of how the infinitely devious Julian Assange became the world’s most famous whistleblower through his revelation on WikiLeaks of American state secrets …”)
Films
Now showing
Obvious Child (“Adapted by Gillian Robespierre from her own 2009 short, this Kickstarter-assisted indie drew enthusiastic applause from Sundance audiences and outrage from conservative anti-abortionists who declared: “If America laughs at this, America is beyond redemption.”)
Half Nelson (“A central factor of Dunne’s waywardness becomes crystal clear after he’s caught smoking crack in the girls’ toilets.”)
Wish I Was Here (“A Manic Pixie Dream Movie. It’s got a Manic Pixie Dream Guy, a Manic Pixie Dream Brother, a Manic Pixie Dream Wife, some Manic Pixie Dream Kids and a Manic Pixie Dream Grumpy Grandpa.”)
Wet Hot American Summer (“Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Elizabeth Banks and Bradley Cooper still needed to use their full names when Wet Hot American Summer came out 14 years ago.”)
Coming soon
The Expendables 3 8 June (“They’re back, and there’s more of them than ever … perhaps the fourth film will also include Tom Berenger, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dennis Waterman, Danny Dyer and Simon Russell Beale.”)
Best Laid Plans 10 June (“A promising cast and some good intentions are put to waste in this unconvincing Brit flick about small-time crooks.”)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest 12 June (“The good news is that this followup does recapture some of the high-seas, high spirits of the first movie, but it requires an awful lot of momentum-gathering to get there.”)
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For 15 June
Palo Alto 16 June (“Despite the junior star entitlement and teen-angst cliches, the film is unexpectedly engaging.”)
The Purge 21 June (“The tension is well sustained and the film is an effective, predictable cross between Assault on Precinct 13 and Funny Games.”)
The Mechanic 24 June (“This upgrade of the 1972 Charles Bronson hitman caper is slick, silly and oddly enjoyable, while Jason Statham proves effortlessly assured as the lonesome samurai who first bumps off his mentor (Donald Sutherland, coasting in a wheelchair) and then in turn starts mentoring his victim’s loose-cannon son, played with a pleasing, wonky intensity by Ben Foster.”)
Yours, Mine and Ours 24 June (“This bad apple off the Hollywood family tree plays idiot cousin to The Parent Trap and a kind of snickering younger sibling to Cheaper By the Dozen 2.”)
All is by my Side 26 June (“A strong performance by André Benjamin, who captures the speech, stance and guitar-wielding mannerisms of Jimi Hendrix to a tee.”)
The Guest 29 June (“Downton Abbey’s Dan Stevens sheds the tweeds as dazzling US soldier David, returning from the Middle East to turn his clearly cracked special ops charm on the family of a deceased veteran with whom he served.”)
