Special movie screenings happening in Miami this June

June means blockbusters galore are hitting theaters for the summer movie season. If you’re looking for something a little more specialized than “Supergirl” or “Toy Story 5,” Miami’s arthouse cinemas are showing comedy classics, avant-garde thrillers, and films that are perfect for commemorating Juneteenth. Here are our picks for the best special film screenings in Miami this month.

“The Python Hunt” at O Cinema

As many native Floridians know, the Everglades face a menacing existential threat: big ol’ snakes. Thanks to the exotic pet trade, hundreds of pythons released into the South Florida wilderness by regretful owners are now wreaking havoc on the delicate ecosystem, outcompeting even the mighty gator as apex predators. “The Python Hunt,” a new documentary from local director Xander Robin, follows the state government’s old-fashioned pest-control solution: a yearly snake-hunting season that becomes a magnet for eco-hardliners, gun nuts, and other weirdos from within and outside the state, turning the whole thing into a bit of a circus. The film features a score by Broward-born electronic musician Nick León, and Robin will stop in for a Q&A at the second Saturday showing. Friday, June 19, through Tuesday, June 23, at O Cinema South Beach, 1130 Washington Ave., Miami Beach; 786-471-3269. Tickets cost $12.50 via o-cinema.org.

“Moonlight” 10th Anniversary Screening at Coral Gables Art Cinema

Has it really been 10 years? Coral Gables Art Cinema will host an anniversary screening of “Moonlight,” the Miami-shot Academy Award winner for Best Picture, on June 16. 

Our Take: Even a decade after it shocked the world by winning the Oscar for Best Picture in one of the greatest upsets the Academy Awards have ever seen, Liberty City native Barry Jenkins’ sensitive drama about a gay Black boy in search of himself amid rough circumstances remains one of the best films ever made in Miami. “Moonlight” sent shockwaves into the film industry, defining the “A24 aesthetic” by introducing new stylistic influences from foreign auteurs like Wong Kar-wai and Claire Denis and sparking a wave of interest in films about Black lives. But what really comes through for a local view is Jenkins’ painstaking efforts at faithfully depicting his hometown, shooting on location everywhere from Crandon Park Beach to the now-demolished Liberty Square housing projects (and, of course, Jimmy’s Eastside Diner). Rarely do films like “Moonlight” come along that depict Miami not as a lurid fantasyland of sex, drugs, and vice, but as a place where regular people lead their lives, grow up, and perhaps even learn to love and care for each other. 9 p.m. Friday, June 19, at Coral Gables Art Cinema, 260 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables; 786-472-2249; gablescinema.com. Tickets cost $10 to $11.75.

“Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” at Coral Gables Art Cinema

Coral Gables Art Cinema is celebrating Father’s Day with a BBQ reception and a screening of what may be the ultimate dad movie, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Whether you’re looking to celebrate dad or simply in the mood for more Spielberg after the release of his latest film, Disclosure Day, this is a great way to unlock a perfect Sunday. 

Our Take: Is it controversial to say that this is the best “Indiana Jones” movie? Sure, the setpieces aren’t quite as iconic as that of the temple escape sequence in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” or the heart-stopping Kali cult ritual of “Temple of Doom.” But thanks to its European setting, the film is also slightly less, uh, racist than the other two. Instead of oogling at brown-skinned, loincloth-wearing natives, we’re chasing Nazis around Venice and Germany and delving into ancient Near Eastern ruins in search of the Holy Grail. And while Harrison Ford’s Indy is as tough and tenacious as ever, he has an unforgettable sidekick in the form of Sean Connery as his dear old dad. The scene where he scares a flock of seagulls into crashing a Nazi fighter plane (“I suddenly remembered my Charlemagne”) is as memorable and clever as anything in the series, as is the climactic sequence in which Indy beats the three trials of the grail’s hidden sanctum. It’s the pinnacle of the franchise, the film where every part of Spielberg and producer George Lucas’ pulp-adventure machine, from script to performances to editing, hums along smoothly and skillfully. 11 a.m. Sunday, June 21, at Coral Gables Art Cinema, 260 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables; 786-472-2249. Tickets cost $10 to $11.75 via gablescinema.com.

Past June screenings:

“Point Blank” at Coral Gables Art Cinema

Books & Books founder Mitchell Kaplan curated this screening of the experimental, influential 1967 Lee Marvin thriller “Point Blank” at Coral Gables Art Cinema. 

Our Take: Nobody ever said an action thriller starring famed Hollywood tough guy Lee Marvin had to be as bold and experimental as “Point Blank.” Adapting a noirish novel about a mob enforcer who ruthlessly, singlemindedly exacts revenge on the crime syndicate that left him for dead, director John Boorman used techniques from the French New Wave — disrupting continuity in the edit and stripping away details and dialogue — to create a stark, alienating thriller that still feels challenging. Future Hollywood auteurs such as Steven Soderbergh have taken the film’s influence and run with it in films like “The Limey” and “Out of Sight,” while critics have wondered whether Lee Marvin’s assassin, Walker, is in fact a ghost or if the film is a dying man’s dream. Decide for yourself when you see it. Noon Sunday, June 7, at Coral Gables Art Cinema, 260 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables; 786-472-2249; gablescinema.com. Tickets cost $10 to $11.75. 

“Young Frankenstein” at Coral Gables Art Cinema

Commemorating the upcoming 100th birthday of comedy legend Mel Brooks — who is, remarkably, still alive to celebrate it — as well as the 93rd birthday of the late Gene Wilder, Coral Gables Art Cinema is showing the pair’s great collaboration “Young Frankenstein” on June 11. It’s a great film to tide yourself over with as the wait for “Spaceballs: The New One” continues. 

Our Take: Most people have probably not seen the film that “Young Frankenstein” is making fun of. And yet, because Mel Brooks is such a skilled comedy storyteller, and because Gene Wilder is such a formidable comedy actor, the film still remains a laugh riot. Parodying the classic Universal “Frankenstein” movies directed by James Whale (very loosely adapted from Mary Shelley’s novel), the film depicts Frederick “Fronkensteen” (Wilder), an uptight stick-in-the-mud, as he reluctantly travels to Transylvania to inherit the castle of his famous corpse-reviving ancestor. Yet soon enough he comes to embrace the mad scientist’s legacy and begins building a monster of his own. Strong supporting performances and a deeply quotable script make the film successful, but it’s the core of Wilder’s emphatic, fully-committed performance that makes it a classic. 8 p.m. Thursday, June 11, at Coral Gables Art Cinema, 260 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables; 786-472-2249; gablescinema.com. Tickets cost $10 to $11.75.

“BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions” at O Cinema

One of the best, most undefinable films of the past year is getting a local screening at O Cinema courtesy of the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami. Do not sleep on this screening of director Kahlil Joseph’s incredible project “BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions” on Thursday, June 11. 

Our Take: Techno bangers, viral dance videos, Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. DuBois, a hover cruise liner sailing to Africa — it’s easier to describe the individual parts that make up “BLKNWS” than it is to define it as a whole, and that’s to its benefit. Kahlil Joseph’s film is nothing short of a wide-spanning treatise on Black thought and Blackness as a condition of being, accomplished through the blending of documentary, Afro-futurist sci-fi, historical fiction, and more, framed within the conceptual news network that gives the film its title. It’s an utterly unique experience that some viewers will find challenging and others fascinating. If there’s one thing that’s clear about the film, it’s that you’ll walk away from it secure in the knowledge that you’ve never seen anything like “BLKNWS” before — because nothing like it has ever been made. 7 p.m. Thursday, June 11, at O Cinema South Beach, 1130 Washington Ave., Miami Beach; 786-471-3269; o-cinema.org. Admission is free with RSVP at mocanomi.org.