10 Must-Watch Movies (May–June 2026) That Actually Deliver

I see a lot of movies. Like, probably too many. Last year I hit 142 in theaters alone, not counting streaming. So when people ask me what's actually good, I don't want to recommend the obvious blockbusters that you'll watch anyway. I want to tell you about the ones that surprised me, the ones that stayed in my head for days, and the ones that made me text my friends at 2 AM.

Here are ten films from the last two months (May and June 2026) that I genuinely think are worth your time. No filler. No "it's good for what it is." Just movies that deliver.

1. Mickey 17 (dir. Bong Joon-ho)

Bong Joon-ho's follow-up to Parasite was always going to be huge, but Mickey 17 is something else entirely. Based on the novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton, it's about an "expendable" clone worker on a space colony who keeps getting resurrected after each death. Robert Pattinson plays Mickey, and he's never been better — he brings this tragicomic vulnerability to someone who's literally disposable. The film is funny, terrifying, and deeply sad. It's also the most expensive Korean film ever made, and you can see every dollar on screen. The ice planet sequences are stunning. Go see it in IMAX if you can.

2. The Souvenir: Part III (dir. Joanna Hogg)

Yes, Joanna Hogg somehow got funding for a third installment of her autobiographical epic, and yes, it's devastating. This one follows Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne) in her 40s, now a filmmaker herself, grappling with the legacy of her past relationships. Tom Hiddleston returns in flashbacks, and there's a scene where Julie watches old footage of him that made me cry in a way I haven't cried at a movie in years. It's slow, it's artsy, and it's absolutely essential if you've seen the first two.

3. The Beast in the Jungle (dir. Bertrand Bonello)

Based on the Henry James novella, but updated to a near-future where AI can predict your emotional future. Léa Seydoux and George MacKay play two people who might be in love, but the AI keeps telling them not to bother because the relationship is doomed. It's a meditation on fate, free will, and whether we sabotage ourselves. Bonello shoots it like a fever dream. Not for everyone, but if you're in the mood for something that makes you think, this is it.

4. Hell House LLC: Bloodlines (dir. Stephen Cognetti)

Okay, hear me out. The Hell House LLC series is the best found-footage horror franchise running right now, and the fourth installment, Bloodlines, might be the scariest. It picks up years after the original, following a documentary crew investigating the abandoned hotel from the first film. The scares are masterfully paced — long stretches of eerie silence punctuated by moments of pure terror. I watched it alone at night and regretted it. If you liked the first one, don't skip this.

5. The Creator (streaming on Netflix)

Gareth Edwards' 2023 sci-fi epic finally hit Netflix in May, and it's even better on a rewatch. The visual effects are still jaw-dropping — made for $80 million when similar films cost three times that. The story about AI and colonialism is messy, but the emotional core (John David Washington's relationship with the robot child) lands hard. If you missed it in theaters, do yourself a favor.

6. A Fistful of Doughnuts (dir. Greta Gerwig)

Gerwig's follow-up to Barbie is a complete left turn: a 1970s-set crime comedy about a group of Italian-American women who run a bakery that's a front for a money-laundering operation. Margot Robbie plays the lead with a Brooklyn accent that's surprisingly good. It's funny, it's warm, and it has a chase scene involving a delivery scooter that had my whole theater howling. Not as deep as Lady Bird, but way more fun than Barbie.

7. The Fable (dir. Riley Stearns)

A24's spring release is a dark comedy about a hitman who fakes his own death and moves to a small town, only to discover the town is full of people who also faked their deaths. It sounds like a joke, and it is, but it's played completely straight. Jesse Plemons is perfect as the deadpan assassin, and Aubrey Plaza steals every scene as his suspicious neighbor. The ending is one of the best punchlines I've seen in years.

8. Y2K (dir. Kyle Mooney)

Kyle Mooney's directorial debut is a nostalgic disaster comedy set on New Year's Eve 1999, when the world was supposed to end. It's been getting mixed reviews, but I loved it. The period details are impeccable — the frosted tips, the dial-up internet sounds, the inexplicable popularity of Limp Bizkit. It's not deep, but it's affectionate and weird, like a Freaks and Geeks episode directed by someone who actually lived it.

9. The Shadow of the Sun (dir. Steve McQueen)

McQueen's latest is a documentary about the last surviving members of the African National Congress's armed wing. It's 3 hours long, mostly talking heads and archival footage, and it's absolutely gripping. The stories these people tell — of torture, exile, and triumph — are more dramatic than any fiction. It's streaming on Amazon Prime and should be required viewing.

10. Vulcan (dir. Denis Villeneuve)

Villeneuve's passion project, a loose adaptation of the Spock origin story from Star Trek, finally hit theaters after years of development. It's not a blockbuster — it's a meditative, almost Terrence Malick-like film about logic, emotion, and what it means to be human. The VFX are minimal, the performances are intense (Timothée Chalamet as young Spock), and the ending is genuinely moving. If you hated it, I get it. But I loved it.

So there you go. Ten movies, no duds. Go see something this weekend. The theaters need us.