Disclosure Day to Office Romance: 10 of the best films to watch this June

From Spielberg's epic alien drama to J-Lo in an office romcom and the return of Toy Story, these are the films to watch at the cinema and stream at home this month.

"By the power of Grayskull! I – have – the power!" Readers of a certain age may remember that booming battle cry: it rang out every week in a 1980s cartoon series, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, when Prince Adam of Eternia transformed into a super-strong (and identical) warrior named He-Man. A live-action film followed in 1987, starring Dolph Lundgren and a pre-Friends Courteney Cox. Now the sci-fi / fantasy franchise returns, with Nicholas Galitzine (Red, White & Royal Blue) as He-Man, Idris Elba as his mentor, Man-At-Arms, and Jared Leto and Alison Brie as the villains, Skeletor and Evil-Lyn. "It's a peculiar thing, being in a miniskirt and harness while everyone's fully dressed in puffer jackets and whatnot," said Galitzine about the shoot in Entertainment Weekly. But as long as the resulting film is better than the Lundgren version, it might be worth it.

Released on 3, 4 and 5 June internationally

The Scary Movie franchise got started in 2000, mainly as a way of spoofing Scream (1996) and its imitators. (Fun fact: the working title of Scream was Scary Movie). Now that the Scream series is up and running again, it makes sense that Scary Movie is back, too. In the franchise's sixth instalment, its original stars, Anna Faris and Regina Hall, are on duty again for the first time in 20 years, as are the Wayans brothers, who wrote and directed the first couple of Scary Movies. The good news is that horror films are a bigger deal than ever, and so the likes of Sinners, Weapons, Get Out and The Substance will all be parodied. The not-so-good news is that Marlon Wayans has said that he will be taking potshots at "woke" and "cancel culture", a comedy idea that seems outdated already. As Teresia Gray says in The Mary Sue, "Scary Movie 6 looks to add another entry of 'Oh, these progressive kids are annoying' to an already roaring fire." 

Released on 4 and 5 June internationally

The reigning queen of the romantic comedy, Jennifer Lopez is back with a Netflix film that puts the premise right in the title. In Office Romance, Lopez plays the CEO of an airline who gets together with a corporate lawyer played by Brett Goldstein (Roy Kent from Ted Lasso). But if any of their colleagues find out, her job will be in jeopardy. The film is directed by Ol Parker, who made another starry rom-com, Ticket to Paradise, with Julia Roberts and George Clooney. And it's written by Joe Kelly and Goldstein himself. "It's easy to write a rom-com when you have JLo in mind," Goldstein said in People. "She's the best at this stuff. We just wanted to write something funny and smart enough to be worthy of her saying yes."

Released on 5 June on Netflix internationally

Steven Spielberg may be the master of every conceivable genre, but he is especially keen on films about alien visitors. They appeared in Firelight, the film he made as a teenager in 1964, and he has returned to the subject in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, War of the Worlds, and Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (What do you mean those were "interdimensional beings"? That still counts!) More than six decades on from Firelight, he has made Disclosure Day, an epic drama starring Josh O'Connor, Emily Blunt, Colin Firth and Colman Domingo. Along with screenwriter David Koepp, he imagines a scenario in which aliens have already made contact with humans, but the world's governments have kept that contact secret – until now. "The question has always remained for me: are we alone on our own planet?" Spielberg said in Empire. "That question has not only haunted me, but it has inspired me. But, I think, it has now resolved itself to my satisfaction in Disclosure Day."

Released on 10, 11 and 12 June internationally

The first Toy Story introduced the world to computer-animated feature films back in 1995, but, luckily, toys don't age, and neither do cartoon characters. And so it is that, seven years on from Toy Story 4, Pixar's signature franchise continues, featuring Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), and their plastic pals. The intriguing thing about this Toy Story is that it acknowledges that times have changed since the original film. The issue is no longer that one favourite toy might be superseded by another. The issue now is that all toys might be put aside by children: they've got electronic tablets to play with instead. "It's a very, very clever story," said Allen in Collider. "Had they not come up with a brilliant script, they wouldn't have done it and they wouldn't have called me and Tom."

Released on 17, 18 and 19 June internationally

Hugh Jackman stars as Robin Hood – so expect lots of swashbuckling larks with the merry men of Sherwood Forest. Actually, don't expect that at all. Directed by Michael Sarnoski (A Quiet Place: Day One), The Death of Robin Hood is a dark and gritty revisionist take on the legend, with a shaggy-bearded guerrilla warrior looking back at his life of savage deeds. "He was this murderous outlaw who did a lot of terrible things, and was kind of monstrous," said Sarnoski in Entertainment Weekly. "But he's lived long enough to see this folklore get created about him. He's figuring out how he feels about that, about being portrayed as a hero when he knows what he really was." Jodie Comer and Bill Skarsgård also star.

Released on 19 June in the US and Canada

Maddie Ralph makes the leap from kitchen assistant to social-media superstar when her charming chats about her favourite recipes go viral. Her husband (Eric Rahill) and best friend (Kate Berlant) are thrilled by Maddie's success – what they don't realise is that she is struggling with bulimia. Maddie's Secret, then, is a classic Hollywood melodrama, except with one small difference: its heroine is played by its male writer-director, John Early. His debut film is a delicious camp comedy. "But what is most immediately striking about the film is its straightforward sincerity," wrote Sam Bodrojan in IndieWire. "Early never makes fun of Maddie, never lets the audience snicker at the screen… It is a film of real kindness, an extremely accomplished debut and one of the boldest American movies I have seen in years."

Released on 19 June in the US

A year on from the release of Superman, the second film in James Gunn's new DC Universe is flying into cinemas. But Supergirl is going her own way. While Superman (David Corenswet) himself was proudly noble, his cousin Kara Zor-El (Milly Alcock) is jaded and hedonistic, so it's promising that the film is directed by Craig Gillespie, the director of I, Tonya and Cruella. "This is really an anti-hero story," Gillespie said in Nerdist. "Supergirl's got a lot of baggage and a lot of demons coming into this, which is very different than where Superman is in his life." Speaking of anti-heroes, Jason Momoa plays a gleefully violent alien bounty hunter, Lobo – so try to forget that Momoa played another DC character, Aquaman, just three years ago.

Released on 24, 25 and 26 June internationally

Most Hollywood stunt performers impress you with their athleticism and skill. In the case of Johnny Knoxville and the Jackass gang, what impresses you – and sometimes disgusts you – is their willingness to put themselves in horribly dangerous and painful situations, then laugh about them afterwards. After a series on MTV, they made a film in 2002, and ever since then they've let themselves be charged by bulls and flung into the air by catapults. It's probably for the best that their fifth film will be their final one, so that the 55-year-old Knoxville doesn't have to break any more bones. He said in Rolling Stone that Jackass: Best and Last "never was a good idea! It was just fun. You know how you have ideas that are terrible but are fun? This would be that."

Released on 25 and 26 June internationally

Imagine if Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton lived upstairs from you, and they invited you to have sex with them. It's probably not very likely, but that's the premise of The Invite, which is directed by Olivia Wilde (Booksmart, Don't Worry Darling), scripted by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack, and loosely based on a Spanish film, The People Upstairs (2022). Wilde stars alongside Seth Rogen as a married couple who are frustrated with their careers and each other. When their cool and confident neighbours (Cruz and Norton) come over for dinner, they offer to spice up the couple's lives in unexpected ways. Owen Gleiberman says in Variety that this "marvellously entertaining" comedy is "so original, so brimming with surprise, so fresh and up-to-the-minute in its perceptions of how relationships work (or don't), that you watch it in a state of rapt immersion and delight".

Released on 26 June in the US

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