It’s a new month, which means a new Netflix — well, sort of. The streaming service typically has an influx of new titles arriving on the first of every month, with additional (and often newer) releases turning up as the month goes on, often dictated by a particular release date (for Netflix originals) or licensing agreements (for new releases coming over from theaters or other streamers).
As such, Netflix has plenty of good older stuff on tap for June, including the complete Rocky and Creed series, as well as Vin Diesel’s Riddick saga. But if you want to try to keep up with new releases, or relatively recent movies that may have gotten lost in the shuffle, here are five movies you can watch on Netflix right this instant, for all manners of audiences. No waiting, no endless scrolling; just five new movies to throw on as soon as possible!
-
In this reality-based thriller set in 1977, Tony Kiritsis (Bill Skarsgård) takes a bank manager hostage, demanding justice for a financial deal that left him high and dry. It’s reminiscent of gritty thrillers from the time period where it’s set, most obviously Dog Day Afternoon; Al Pacino even appears in a small but instantly compelling role, as the head of the bank (and Tony’s actual target, unavailable because he’s on vacation, naturally). There are notes both comic and highly tense in Van Sant’s retelling of the story, another stylistic swerve from one of the least predictable indie directors of our time.
Stream Dead Man’s Wire on netflix
-
©Sony Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection Sony Animation is on a hot streak: They produced the unexpected animated smash of last year with KPop Demon Hunters, slaying Disney at their own game, despite the feature being sold off to Netflix. For GOAT, the studio seems to have learned their lesson, releasing this basketball-themed cartoon to theaters ,where it made a robust $100 million in North America alone. Though it feels kind of like a JV Zootopia, this animated comedy-drama about a little goat who gets an unexpected shot at playing professional basketball is made with some of the zippy high style that informed the studio’s Spider-Verse movies as well as Demon Hunters. The movie’s colorful antics have already left it ascending the Netflix charts as a go-to family choice.
Stream GOAT on Netflix
-
Photo: ©Focus Features/Courtesy Everett Collection Maybe put the kids to bed before checking out Bugonia, even if they wanted to pretend Bugonia is chasing them. Emma Stone gives an Oscar-nominated performance as Bugo– er, Michelle, a big pharma CEO kidnapped by Teddy (Jesse Plemons), a conspiracy-minded man who believes she’s actually an alien attempting to destroy the Earth from within. It’s a real Death and the Maiden situation, only one of the opponents appears to be delusionally impossible to reason with. Though he didn’t receive a nomination to match Stone’s, Plemons is every bit as good in the latest from Yorgos Lanthimos, an unsettling, tense, and sometimes darkly funny face-off.
Stream Bugonia on Netflix
-
Photo: ©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection Comedy mainstay Billy Eichner co-wrote and co-starred in this major cinematic milestone: Bros was the first mainstream wide-release big-studio rom-com to feature gay men. Somehow, this took all the way until 2022 — so while this new-to-Netflix movie isn’t fresh from theaters, it still arrives surprisingly (maybe vexingly) fresh. Moreover, not that many people saw it; unfortunately, this Judd Apatow production bombed in its theatrical release, a victim of poor timing in a post-covid environment that saw vanishingly few big comedies break out. (This is a time when a hilarious and likable comedy could feature a naked Jennifer Lawrence and still just do OK.) The movie has some of Apatow’s trademark narrative rambling, where it sometimes feels more like an extended pilot than a punchy rom-com. But Eichner and Luke Macfarlane make an appealing couple in a movie worth revisiting just in time for Pride Month!
Stream Bros on netflix
-
Everett Collection OK, this isn’t the new Timothée Chalamet movie. That’s Marty Supreme, and it’s over on HBO Max for the moment. It’s not even the previous new Timothée Chalamet movie. This is a decidedly non-Oscar-nominated movie from Chalamet’s even-younger days, shot in 2015 and not released until 2017, with the future aspiring great playing a kid from Cape Cod who gets mixed up with some crime drama involving the tourists and their kids. Fellow indie darling Maika Monroe, then not too far off her work in It Follows and The Guest, plays his love interest. It may not be as awards-courting as Chalamet’s more recent work, but it’s a neat glimpse into Chalamet’s pre-superstardom past. Besides, it’s a long-standing tradition to drag out curios from a major movie star’s past once they reach a certain level of fame. Netflix obliges.
Stream Hot Summer Nights on Netflix
Jesse Hassenger (@rockmarooned) is a writer living in Brooklyn. In addition to contributing at Decider, his work also appears regularly at The A.V. Club, The Guardian, and GQ, among others. He podcasts at www.sportsalcohol.com, too.
