The hours spent scrolling through the catalog of your streaming platforms while dinner gets cold, that’s terminado. Do It In Paris makes your life easier with a selection aux petits oignons of the best movie releases of the month of June on Apple TV, Netflix, Prime Video, Canal+ or even Arte.
Echo Valley
The pitch. Kate (Julianne Moore), a lonely horse breeder on a farm in Echo Valley, Pennsylvania, struggles to find peace in her relationship with her daughter Claire (Sydney Sweeney). A situation that becomes even more complex when the daughter shows up at her mother’s place one night, hysterical and covered in blood that isn’t hers. Ready to do anything to protect her beloved daughter, Kate gets entangled out of love for her offspring in dark secrets.
Why you’re going to love it? Barely glimpsed in the Netflix series Sirens, the stunning Julianne Moore (Still Alice, May December…) takes on a hot mom role in this Apple production. By her side, a five-star cast: Sydney Sweeney(Euphoria, Anyone But You…) as her troubled, drug-addicted daughter, Domhnall Gleeson (About Time, Ex Machina…) as a blackmailer and even our favorite Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks, Sex & The City…) to play a distinctly more distant father. Because in this breathless thriller that will satisfy fans of the genre, it’s the mother who, out of loyalty, love, and sacrifice, crosses many lines to hide her child’s secret. How far is she willing to go? A chilling atmosphere in a detective novel setting, a dark plot, all produced by the genius Ridley Scott (Gladiator, Alien…): all the ingredients are there for a successful suspense film.
Echo Valley, available June 13 on Apple TV.
trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KyOwLahGc4
Deep Cover
The pitch. Kat (Bryce Dallas Howard), an improv teacher who starts to doubt her talent, gets spotted by an undercover cop (Sean Bean) who offers her the role of a lifetime: play a dangerous criminal to infiltrate London gangs. Without a second thought, she recruits two of her students (Orlando Bloom, Nick Mohammed) in this adventure that becomes their best and hardest acting exercise ever. Because if they want to survive, they’ll have to master improv to perfection.
Why you’re going to love it? Because British humor is obviously the best, the director of the hilarious sitcom Ghosts, Tom Kingsley, is making a brand-new feature film with, in the cast, the charming Orlando Bloom (Pirates of the Caribbean, The Lord of the Rings), Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic World, The Help…) and Nick Mohammed(Intelligence, Ted Lasso…) in lead roles! But we especially love seeing Sean Bean (Ned Stark from Game of Thrones) in the role of the cop who thought he was recruiting improv pros. The crime film finds its humor in absurdity, with these slightly quirky and professionally struggling actors who end up playing real tough guys, amidst drugs, crime, and constant danger. In this mission that seems serious and harmful, the three protagonists mostly take advantage of the improbable gig to perfect their craft—at their own risk. An explosive action comedy, produced by the same company as Men In Black… Not so surprising.
Deep Cover, on Prime Video June 12.
trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x--MaHsbEc
Becoming Madonna
The pitch. Madonna worked hard to become the global pop icon she is today. Arriving in New York in 1978 with almost nothing, she slowly and painfully climbed the steps to success. Through archives, testimonials from close ones and collaborators, and recently uncovered audio tapes, this fascinating documentary reviews the rise of the most glamorous and provocative of pop stars. From 1978 to 1992, the release year of her book Sex, a visual look back at the path of the Madone, which wasn’t always rosy...
Why you’re going to love it? She said it herself: she refuses to let a film about her life be made by "misogynistic men" #queen. So, while waiting for a biopic on Madonna, we delight in this documentary that paints the portrait of this female figure who fought against the conservative establishment of her time to shake up pop culture and the whole world. Guilty: we’ve all caught ourselves humming the global hits of the Material girl. But this doc reveals more about the woman who shaped the icon. Beyond being the ultimate queen of pop music, the Michigan native turns out to be more vulnerable, more committed, and stronger than we might think. Without sugarcoating her complex journey, this doc goes back over the singer’s personal tragedies and struggles: the loss of her mother, her arrival in NY with $35 in her pocket, the AIDS years, numerous controversies around the star... with completely exclusive footage and testimonials. Personal dramas that shaped her professional career, allowing her to affirm that Bitch, she IS Madonna. But psst… we recommend fans stay tuned: it’s whispered that Netflix could take over for a mini-series style biopic, supervised by Madonna herself… To be continued.
Becoming Madonna, on Canal+ Docs June 2 at 9 p.m.
trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qXLodx6nuM
La Crise
The pitch. Legal advisor and devoted father of two, Victor wakes up one fine morning and discovers, stunned, that his wife has left without explanation, leaving him alone and bewildered. One problem leading to another, he barely arrives at work before getting fired. In his quest to find a listening ear among his relatives, themselves too busy managing their own problems, the executive meets Michou, a homeless man who seems to be the only one giving him any attention…
Why you’re going to love it? A powerful and intelligent social satire, in La Crise, everyone and everything gets their fair share of critique. This theatrical staging of a series of economic, social, and human crises paints a portrait of a French society already on edge. Through the wandering of Victor and Michou, two diametrically opposed losers played by Vincent Lindon and Patrick Timsit, we laugh, we think, we put things into perspective. And above all, we realize that this sociological snapshot hasn’t aged so badly… Between social disparities, nervous breakdowns, (barely) caricatured individualism, all backed by delightful humor, the script perfectly delivers its deep message. Among some iconic scenes, who could forget the tirade launched by Victor’s sister, played by Zabou Breitman, hilariously feminist and visibly girl power, or Maria Pacôme as a somewhat liberated mother? A classic of French cinema with rapid-fire dialogue and blunt humor, which earned director Coline Serreau (whose work is featured in a special Arte cycle in June) a César for best original screenplay. A must-(re)watch!
La Crise, on Arte June 25 at 8:55 p.m., then available on replay, as part of the Coline Serreau cycle.
trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOCaN0U-1-M
Titan: The OceanGate Disaster
The pitch. On June 18, 2023, the whole world held its breath: the Titan, a small submarine that set out to explore the wreck of the Titanic, stopped sending signals after just 2 hours. On board the submersible, designed by the American company OceanGate: 4 passengers including the Frenchman Paul-Henri Nargeolet, who came to witness the legendary shipwreck live. But their dream of seeing the wreck turned into tragedy. On the surface, panic too: the news outlets report the passengers have more or less 3 days of oxygen before dying. Their fate turns out to be much more sudden than a slow death: a few days later, the world learns the vessel suffered a catastrophic implosion.
Why you’re going to love it? Flashback to 2023. It’s the start of summer but you’re glued to your phone, endlessly scrolling to know hour by hour what’s happening to the passengers of the Titan, possibly still alive. The story fascinated the entire planet: no more contact from the Titan submarine, invented by OceanGate to grow tourism around the Titanic. A concept, admittedly, that made boat lovers and Leonardo DiCaprio fans dream. But this shocking documentary presents all the excesses of this crazy project. Director Mark Monroe explores for almost 2 hours how the project was, basically, doomed to fail. The company’s CEO, Stockton Rush, considered by colleagues to be a narcissistic and stubborn psychopath, was also deaf to all warnings about the risks, notably from David Lochridge, head of operations who was fired for expressing concerns. A gripping doc that relives those 4 anxious days and explains as clearly as possible the flaws in a tourism industry known to be dangerous before this deadly odyssey even began.
Titan: The OceanGate Disaster, on Netflix June 11.
trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CplcmrxZMyo
Also, check out April's must-watch series or our favorite spots around Hôtel de Ville!
