5 Films I Enjoyed Discovering in June 2025
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Welcome to the midpoint of 2025. Wow, it's hard to believe that the year is already halfway over. I kicked off this blog just after the start of the new year when it was chilly and icy outside, and now here we are in the dog days of summer (believe me it's been HOT in the Chicago area recently). My complaints about cooler weather in May were answered in full force and who knows if it's going to cool down anytime soon. Such is the unpredictable nature of Illinois weather.
But you didn't come hear to listen to me blab about the weather; no, you're here for some film discussion. In June, I didn't get to the theater nearly as much as I had hoped, and as a result I'm way behind on catching up with several new releases. However, I did have two truly great theatrical experiences that are highlights of the year so far. The Gene Siskel Film Center is doing a Robert Altman retrospective throughout the summer, and I was fortunate to catch a screening of McCabe and Mrs. Miller - a film I've always loved but one that truly became an all-time favorite after seeing it in 35mm on the big screen. The other experience I'll be writing about here shortly - it involves a certain New England amateur filmmaker who I admire - so stay tuned. And even though my trips to the theater were somewhat slim, I still managed to squeeze in plenty of older titles at home and have come up with some fun and unique films to recommend here today.
This was a rich month of discovery for me, and I feel bad that I'm not going to elaborate further about great films like The Big Clock, The Narrow Margin, Simone Barbès or Virtue, and Cotton Comes to Harlem, but that's the way it goes when I limit myself to five slots. I always mention that my 5 discoveries of the month don't correlate with the 5 "best movies" I saw, and that's especially true here in June - I included some films that are deeply flawed, but they were ultimately too interesting for me not to discuss them further at length. Let's dig into my 5 June discoveries now.
La Cérémonie (1995)directed by Claude Chabrol
Claude Chabrol is a director whose name I'm familiar with but whose films had eluded me for some time. I'm happy to report that his 1995 classic La Cérémonie served as not just a great introduction to his cinematic world, but it's easily one of the best things I've seen all year. It's a perfectly structured slow-burn thriller that knocked me out and I'm eager to dive further in to see what other films Chabrol has to offer.
The term "Hitchcockian" gets thrown around a lot, but it's perfectly apt for La Cérémonie when describing not just the structure and the pacing of the plot and its details, but also the framing and blocking and the way the film looks itself. There's very careful camera movements and the filming locations - including the elaborate mansion in Brittany where much of the film takes place - perfectly accentuate everything that's going on. I don't want to reveal too much about the plot since I think it's ideal to go into a story like this knowing as little as possible, but the premise involves a woman who becomes a maid for a wealthy family who also befriends a postal clerk in the nearby town. Slowly secrets are shared and while the "setup" may seem to take up the bulk of the film, all is clearly revealed by the end.
Certainly one of the key advantages that La Cérémonie has going for it is an all-timer cast filled with some true acting legends. Sandrine Bonnaire, who is great in films like Vagabond and À Nos Amours, plays the main character maid here, an introverted and sometimes awkward woman who we discover is holding a secret herself from the family that she probably should have shared at the beginning but didn't, and now finds herself in a more stressful situation than anticipated. French legend Isabelle Huppert is the postal clerk, and it's definitely an interesting role for her. Huppert has the range to play anything, and this outgoing and friendly character with an allegedly dark past who slowly may be developing more and more of an influence over Bonnaire, is among her best performances. The rest of the cast includes Jacqueline Bisset and Jean-Pierre Cassel, two veteran actors who have worked on many projects in multiple countries (including both on Murder on the Orient Express), as the mother and father of the family, and a new-to-me actress Virginie Ledoyen who really impressed me as the daughter.
I will say it's possible to see the ending of the film coming - the way everything is slowly coming to the surface, you figured things were bound to boil over one way or another - but I found the ending so strong that I don't think this is to the film's detriment at all. In fact, the movie was based on a true story that had some notoriety to it, so many original audience members may have known the ending before it started. I'd say if you like films like Parasite or The Servant, this is playing in a similar ballpark, with the tension-building of something like Jeanne Dielman in the way that it feels like one small alteration in the proceedings could have a drastic effect on everyone's life, and the look of an 80s-90s French film (Rohmer films came to mind for me). For fans of slow-burn thrillers, I can't recommend it highly enough!
Glen or Glenda (1953)directed by Edward D. Wood Jr.
What is one of the most notoriously "so bad it's good" movies from the so-called "worst filmmaker of all time" Ed Wood doing on my favorite discoveries list? Because when I finally caught up with Glen or Glenda this past month, I found it absolutely fascinating - not a flawless masterpiece, for sure, but a film that feels like nothing else (especially from 1953) that is made with so much passion and empathy for its subject matter. It won't work for everyone, and I certainly understand its detractors, but count me among the cult following of people who find Glen or Glenda to be a compelling and interesting work of outsider art.
I feel the need to push back on the narrative of Wood as this inept director whose films only provide value as objects of mockery. Yes, it's true that they're far from polished works, and I haven't seen a ton of his filmography - many of his other films may truly be unwatchable, for all I know - but when it comes to his two most famous titles, I think they're far more worthwhile than they often get credit for being. I've long been a fan of Plan 9 from Outer Space if for no other reason than I think it holds up as an object of entertainment much better than the majority of 1950s sci-fi movies. With Glen or Glenda, I don't even think it exists in the same world as typical "objects of entertainment" - it truly feels like an unclassifiable mix of so many things. It's part exploitation film, part pseudo-government PSA, part horror film, part autobiographical essay film, and part avant-garde surreal art piece - and even that doesn't feel like it truly covers it.
Like La Cérémonie, Glen or Glenda was based on a true story - the story of Christine Jorgensen, the first person widely known to undergo sex reassignment surgery, which became a front page headline at the time. Ed Wood was tasked with making an exploitation film capitalizing on those headlines, but where Wood differs from most directors was his personal connection to the subject matter. Wood was known to enjoy dressing in clothing traditionally worn by women and while I don't claim to know anything about his personal life and identity, the film seems to show that Wood cared deeply about the trans and gender nonconforming community, and the resulting film is filled with an empathy that rises above its flaws and creates a film that it truly feels like no one else would have made at that time.
I do need to acknowledge some of the film's issues, and there are many. It's incredibly dated - nobody would ever mistake it for a modern film. Many outdated terms and scientific descriptions are used, and the film has this conclusion that gender nonconformity is "wrong" and "can be cured" as shown in its "happy" ending. I perfectly understand dismissing the film on those terms. But while the film is trapped in the American societal views of the 1950s, Wood's voice manages to escape in a few moments that I found pretty transcendent and powerful. There's a scene where Wood takes down religious fundamentalists by reminding us that these people once thought automobiles and airplanes were against God's will. There's a "water cooler" scene where audio of two coworkers having a very frank conversation about societal acceptance of those outside societal norms plays over some stock footage. And the highlight of the film has to be the surreal nightmare sequence, which feels extremely raw and personal. Even the goofy Bela Lugosi moments - which seem so out of place at the start - started affecting me as I became haunted by visions of green dragons and puppy dog tails and the phrase "Pull the string!"
Is this a case of me overthinking a movie? Possibly. Maybe Wood had no idea what the hell he was doing and just threw this all together without a care in the world. But I just found it too fascinating and unique and ahead of its time to ignore, and I'm so happy I caught up with it.
Shot (1973)
directed by Mitch Brown
I learned about the existence of Mitch Brown's film Shot on the final day of May. What made me want to watch it immediately the next month? One reason - its filming location. Shot, an entertaining crime action movie clearly drawing from stuff like The French Connection, was a student film shot in Champaign, Illinois. As a graduate of the University of Illinois, I spent several years in and around Champaign-Urbana, and discovering that there was a low budget 1970s regional film made there felt like a dream come true.
Let's get the filming location out of the way first. I'll need to watch this again to try to pinpoint specific spots, which is something I will definitely go out of my way to do, as someone with an interest in Illinois film history (and especially a part of the state I'm so familiar with). There's no doubt that the community locations have changed significantly since 1973 - heck, parts of the UIUC campus feel almost unrecognizable now compared to just a few years ago when I graduated - so it's extra hard for someone like me who wasn't close to alive at the time piecing together where stuff was. That said, there's lots of exterior street shots and aerial shots here (they had a helicopter!) which allows the film to function as a time capsule of the area. It's a good mix between locations in the city proper and campus area and locations closer to the outskirts in the rural surrounding areas. I did spot the Altgeld Hall bell tower, and there's a pretty key scene in a parking garage on Sixth St. which I believe is still standing. And I looked up some of the restaurants the characters go to and discovered they were on Green St. (the key "Campustown" street for local restaurants and other businesses).
Okay, that's enough geeking out about Champaign filming locations. Even if you have no ties to Champaign yourself, I think this is still a pretty fun flick, with entertaining characters and snappy, funny dialogue. Is it the most polished product out there? Far from it, but if you have any interest in low-budget regional filmmaking and/or the aesthetic of '70s crime thrillers, it's worth checking out. The plot essentially revolves around several confrontations between police officers and local drug pushers. The cops are a little corrupt and possess a "shoot to kill" mentality, and the drug dealers are... a little inept, as they keep screwing up and putting themselves in worse positions to achieve their goals throughout the film. The main drug lord "politely" ripping into his companions is something I found particularly entertaining.
Also of note - while most of the names and faces here are unrecognizable, there is one actor who went on to have a notable career. Chuck Russell - yes, that Chuck Russell, who directed The Mask, The Blob remake, and A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors - has a prominent role as one of the police officers.
The coming-of-age nostalgia piece Summer of '42 was actually a massive hit when it came out - it was based on a novel and was one of the most popular films of 1971. These days, however, it has faded into relatively obscurity, and hardly ever comes up when discussing great teen coming-of-age titles. I'm now on a mission to change that and spread the word, because I found Summer of '42 to be incredibly moving and emotional, infusing a dreamlike memory-piece quality into your typical tale of horny teens discovering what the world is like.
The story follows a group of three boys vacationing on Nantucket Island for the summer, and focuses on one boy in particular named Hermie who develops a friendship and a crush on a woman he meets at the beach, whose husband has gone off to fight in World War II. The boys hang out at the beach, go to the movies, meet other girls, and what not, but in addition to that Hermie keeps sneaking over to this woman's house to help her with household projects and spend time with her. The film is structured as a memoir from the perspective of an older Hermie recounting the impact that this relationship had on his life, and it makes the ending feel that much more devastating.
You do have to be willing to put up with annoyingly horny and sometimes mean teen boys in Summer of '42, which may be a turn-off for some (and it's not exactly a draw for me either). And don't be mistaken that the film is devoid of self-discovery sexual humor - there's an extended scene at a drugstore that feels like the blueprint for many a scene in your '80s teen sex comedies. But viewed from Hermie's perspective, I felt for him trying to break free of these knuckleheads and trying to explore a more meaningful connection, truly growing up in front of all of them.
I don't want to spoil too much about the ending, but it destroyed me. The final 25 minutes or so conveys so much with so little dialogue. The film has a very dreamy feel to me that I also found really appealing. Certainly the memoir approach to the structure adds to that, but the Nantucket location is a major contributor too, as the beachfront setting gives off fun summer vibes but the loneliness of the ocean feels ready to creep up and drift you away from reality into your inner thoughts. It's a beautifully shot film from a director I'm relatively unfamiliar with (the classic To Kill a Mockingbird is the only other Mulligan film I've seen) and the Michel Legrand score conveys all the highs and lows of the film in appropriate fashion.
Nostalgia pieces are a given with coming-of-age films - look no further than classics like American Graffiti and Dazed and Confused as well as recent titles like Snack Shack, and I found Summer of '42 to be a more than worthy entry to that canon.
Where do I even start when trying to describe What's Up Connection, the crazy film from Masashi Yamamoto that packs so much into two hours while somehow maintaining an almost tranquil feel to the proceedings? I suppose I'll start from the beginning, where we're introduced to a Hong Kong family who have each won trips to various locations around Asia. Their teenage son has won a trip to Japan, starting in Osaka, and when he wants to follow the itinerary rather than go shopping with his girlfriend, she refuses to go on the trip and he ends up there all by himself. He then meets his tour guide, who is new on the job and humorously struggles to show him around Osaka and Kyoto. His stuff then gets stolen, they befriend the thief and head to Tokyo to try to make some money there so he can go back to Hong Kong with a profit.
That sounds like an interesting enough road movie to explore in a feature length runtime, but it's only the opening act of the proceedings. Once we return to Hong Kong, we discover his family is being bullied into selling their property for a new multinational building venture. Just when it looks like the family is going to cave in, they work up the courage to stand up to the greedy businessmen and expose their scheme, and the little kids (!) suddenly turn into con artists, trying to scam these billionaires out of a good chunk of their fortune through a credit card scam.
Got all that? In addition to all of these plot elements, the film sometimes functions as a documentary, with occasional street interviews that directly address the person holding the camera. I'm sure there's still no shortage of stuff I'm leaving out, because What's Up Connection goes in so many crazy directions. It's a Japanese film that's fused with the energy of bonkers Hong Kong titles and somehow makes a road trip hangout movie turned underdog found family drama turned con artist movie work wonderfully. These characters are one-of-a-kind, with the unpredictably loony father and the gender nonconforming thief among the highlights. The colors pop, the music is fun, and the locations are a joy to behold (especially the Japan spots early in the film, some of which I had the pleasure of visiting during my trip there last year).
I have so many favorite moments in here, and indeed the hardest I laughed was during an early scene in a capsule hotel (which feels like a comedic moment straight out of a Tsai Ming-liang film). Other highlights include the trip to Hanayashiki, the oldest amusement park in Japan which plays like a knockoff Disneyland in the context of the film, the grandpa's "inspirational speech" moment, the dad's pirate costume (a true WTF moment) and the aforementioned credit card heist. My only regret is that I didn't watch this sooner, since it's now left the Criterion Channel and I have no idea if it's available anywhere else to watch or own. If you feel like putting in the effort to seek it out however, I'd highly recommend it, and think that at the very least you're in for a one-of-a-kind experience.
And with that, we close the book on June and move onwards and upwards to the month of July. My schedule is already looking busy with lots of fun coming up here in July, so who knows how many films I'll get a chance to experience, but hopefully I'll find enough new-to-me titles worth writing about again in a month's time. As always, stay tuned!
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