Coming to Netflix in June 2019

From “Batman Begins,” the final season of Marvel’s “Jessica Jones,” a newAdam Sandlerfilm the Sundance Film Festival sci-fi drama “I Am Mother” and on to theNeon Genesis Evangelion Japanese mecha anime franchise, there’s plenty to look forward to in June if you fancy spending a couple of hours out of the heat. 

Here’s Netflix’s sizzle reel for the first half of the month.

Spain’s former monarch, Juan Carlos I, says he wants to completely retire from public life on June 2, five years after abdicating the throne.

The king emeritus said in a letter published Monday on the Spanish royals’ website and addressed to his son, King Felipe VI, that “I think the moment has arrived to turn a page over in my life and complete my retirement from public life.”

Juan Carlos added that he began thinking about fully retiring when he turned 80 last year and was honored in the Spanish parliament. That event coincided with the anniversary of the country’s 1978 constitution, which marked Spain’s transition from dictatorship to democratic rule.

Despite health problems, Juan Carlos had maintained a busy public agenda since stepping down.

And here’s a look at seven catalog titles that caught my attention.

A film about a 27-year-old man discovering he has cancer and a 50/50 chance of surviving it is hardly the traditional setup for a comedy, but that’s the foundation for “50/50.” Fortunately director Jonathan Levine, screenwriter Will Reiser and cast members Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen and Anna Kendrick pull off the trick marvelously by making a film that is as funny as it is moving. 

A.I. Artificial Intelligence

After several years of developing the story, legendary director Stanley Kubrick, believing that he wasn’t the right director for the project, asked Steven Spielberg to take over “A.I. Artificial Intelligence.” This story of a android child (Haley Joel Osment) who wants more than anything to be a real boy so that the human mother he loves will return his affection is a heartbreaking journey that explores what it means to be human. Some have accused Spielberg of giving the film a happy ending. I couldn’t disagree more. 

Cabaret

Though radically different from the Broadway play, “Cabaret” is nonetheless an extremely effective meditation on the rise of Nazism in Germany in the 1930s. The film won eight Academy Awards including Best Actress forLiza Minnelli and Best Director forBob Fosse. 

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

All is not well for the Politt family as they gather for the sixty-fifth birthday of “Big Daddy” Politt. Tensions, fueled by family disagreements and the ill health of their patriarch, boil over. Released in 1958, Richard Brooks‘s adaptation of Tennessee Williams‘s isn’t quite the film it should have been as various themes from the play were watered down for the masses, but it still features some fantastic performances from Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman. 

Cop Car

Before he directed “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” director Jon Watts impressed with this story about two ten-year-old kids who find an unattended cop car and decide to take it for a joyride. 

Network

When Howard Beale, longtime anchor for a once-lucrative television station, is told that he’ll be forced out due to poor ratings he goes to great lengths to become the breaking news story that the network desires. Paddy Chayefsky‘s dark take on television news features a phenomenal cast that includes Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finchand Robert Duvall. Directed by Sidney Lumet (“12 Angry Men“), “Network” was shocking in 1976 and feels just as timely now. 

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

It’s rare that a film seemingly comes out of nowhere and completely blows me away. Up until I saw “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” I was certain “Isle of Dogs” was the best animated film of 2018 and that “Black Panther” was the best superhero film. Turns out that neither assumption was true. “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” is an incredibly fun, intelligent and unique slice of cinema and one of the best superhero films ever made as Miles Morales takes up the role Spider-Man from an aging Peter Parker as the lines between the various dimensions of reality collide.

A complete list of titles coming to Netflix in May.

Undated

Marvel’s Jessica Jones: Season 3 — NETFLIX ORIGINAL
When Jessica (Krysten Ritter) crosses paths with a highly intelligent psychopath, she and Trish (Rachael Taylor) must repair their fractured relationship and team up to take him down. But a devastating loss reveals their conflicting ideas of heroism, and sets them on a collision course that will forever change them both.

Trinkets — NETFLIX ORIGINAL
When three teenage girls from different corners of the high school cafeteria find themselves in the same mandated Shoplifter’s Anonymous meeting, an unlikely friendship forms. Elodie — the grieving misfit, Moe — the mysterious outsider, and Tabitha — the imperfect picture of perfection, will find strength in each other as they negotiate family issues, high school drama and the complicated dilemma of trying to fit in while longing to break out.