June and John is Luc being Besson with a smartphone
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by Blender Dumbass
Aka: J.Y. Amihud. A Jewish by blood, multifaceted artist with experience in film-making, visual effects, programming, game development, music and more. A philosopher at heart. An activist for freedom and privacy. Anti-Paternalist. A user of Libre Software. Speaking at least 3 human languages. The writer and director of the 2023 film "Moria's Race" and the lead developer of it's game sequel "Dani's Race".
It was nice to take a short break from the grind of trying to make CGI stuff all day long and watch a movie. And who could be a better film-maker to casually enjoy, but Luc Besson, who after all these reviews I did of his films, I start to feel like I understand, similarly to how a therapist might understand his client? His 2025 low budget film June and John is undeniably Luc Besson, even if the fact that the film was largely shot on a smartphone makes it look kind of weird and slightly amateurish. ↩ Reply
![[embedded image]](/pictures/user_upload/blenderdumbass/luc_besson_with_a_smartphone.jpg "Luc Besson shoots a scene holding a smartphone")
It was funny to imagine Luc Besson standing there in front of the actors the entire time, holding a phone in his hands. An yeah, the film does look at times like a video from a phone. It is kind of like the first thing that jumps out at you as you start watching it. Something about the picture quality is weird. But strangely enough, Luc's eye takes this phone picture and does something extremely beautiful with it. Like at times the shots are stupidly good looking, even though they feel a little unconventional. There is at one point a very orange looking lens flare then the sun hits the lens. I've never seen something like this before. But it looks very cool. ↩ Reply
Script-wise I both love and hate what Luc did here. In a way what he did is fascinating, because he managed to do the cardinal scene of an amateur film-maker, while also making a rather nice piece of cinema. I'll tell you that: the film becomes better the longer it goes. And so therefor, the start is kind of weak. ↩ Reply
In a way structurally it reminds the story of 2025 Dan Berk and Robert Olsen co-directed film Novocaine. It starts on boring life of a bank worker, who meets a bank-robbing lady, with whom they form a romantic relationship. The first half an hour of both films are there to be contrasted to with the adventure that eventually will come next. So in way, the opening is meant to be boring. In both films. ↩ Reply
Now, there is an example of a movie that does this very thing very fucking good actually. And it is 2008 Timur Bekmambetov film Wanted. Both Wanted and June and John have a miserable, kind of, boring, sort of protagonist, with anxiety issues who takes anxiety pills and stuff. And who has an abusive boss. That is until he meets a sexy lady with a gun that changes his live and frees him from his misery. ↩ Reply
Something kind of similar happens also in Novocaine, but the protagonist there has a "superpower" of sorts ( actually a real disease that people suffer from ) that makes him unable to feel pain, which makes the boring section in the beginning at least conceptually interesting to watch. It is not the exiting action stuff we are being promised by the trailer, but it is still kind of interesting. June and John and Wanted do not have this. ↩ Reply
What saves Wanted is a complete directorial bad-assery of Bekmambetov. It is not "a miserable life in an office with an abusive boss and a best friend who has sex with your girlfriend", but "a fucking nihilistic joke of a fucked up existence with a bitch of a boss and a fucking, so called, asshole friend, who fucks your cheating fucking girlfriend!!!". See the difference? ↩ Reply
Luc Besson goes for a strange, sort of, almost surreal, middle-ground. He knows he can't get away with basic bullshit, so he builds tension. The tension is built from the miserable existence of the main character. It is effective at inducing some sort of anxiety, which makes the opening of the film interesting to see, but it is lacking something, which the rest of film isn't. ↩ Reply
In a way, the film starts with a guy brushing his teeth, getting ready and going to work. Which is, if you seen any amateur film, is kind of a cliche of exactly what not to do as your opening. But maybe this is a sort of self-aware wink at the audience? I mean the guy wrote like a lot of films. Both those he directed and for other people. So he knows how to craft a good screenplay. This has to be a deliberate joke of some kind. And the fact that film is shot on a smartphone ( which is also a sort of thing amateur filmmakers tent to do ) maybe the one, just sort of, poetically made sense to go with another. And the miserableness of the opening is just a kind of self-aware 4th wall breaking joke. ↩ Reply
This is why I think this is a surreal film. It feels extremely strange. If you ever seen Besson's Le Grande Bleu you know what I'm talking about. It's this technically real life setting, but also it has this absolute disregard to the realism in the same time, in a kind of poetic kind of strange, surreal way, which makes you confused at first, until you just give up trying to understand it and simply let Luc craft an emotion for you. ↩ Reply
Also June and John has a mandatory conversation about Dolphins. c:0 ↩ Reply
The romance in the film is utterly insane. So the main character gets his car toed because he parked in a wrong spot and so he needs to use a subway. What Luc Besson does with it? Well he rips off Tony Scott! ↩ Reply
In 2004 Tony Scott made a short film for Amazon called "Agent Orange" ( which you can find on youtube ) about a guy meeting a girl on a subway. It is a little surrealistic silent film, full of Tony Scott's technique in full display. So when our protagonist in June and John, John ( Luke Stanton ) goes into the subway to take a train, he sees June ( Matilda Price ) who immediately flirts with him through the window of the train, which has a similar vibe to the entirety of "Agent Orange", except this one is shut on a smartphone by Besson, not on film by Scott. ↩ Reply
They fall in love absolutely immediately. They see each other through the glass and he immediately forgets about all his anxiety. He is in love now. And he is willing to do anything for it. Logic was flushed down the toilettes. Which makes the movie a surrealistic piece of modern art. Then she meets him at his work the next day ( very weird of her ) and immediately proceeds to rob the damn bank he works at. But he loves her ( even though they just met ) so he goes with her on an adventure of lawlessness. What the fuck, Luc? But here is the strange thing. The movie all of a sudden becomes kind of good. Yes it is absolutely and utterly insane, but I kind of like it. ↩ Reply
Now here is a thing. I cannot review a Luc Besson movie without digging into him psycho-sexually. At this stage it is kind of a tradition on this website. So let's do a little bit of investigating. ↩ Reply
In the office section of the film, the film goes briefly into discussing matters of sexual harassment in the work environment. The film was shot in the early 2020's during the height of the pandemic ( as far I know ) so the script was written probably roughly right after the #MeToo allegations against Besson by the actress Sand Van Roy. ↩ Reply
It almost seems like when June ends up at the workplace of John and they are visibly flirting with each other, which prompts the entire work place to start gathering around them in a sort of protest against sexual harassment, that Luc is kind of making fun of the whole #MeToo for a little bit. And then the whole stupidly quickly progressing relationship ( they end up having sex like 5 minutes after she robs the bank, on the street, near the bank itself ), is a sort of kind of rebellious way Besson sees freedom. ↩ Reply
In a way this movie mirrors his 1985 film Subway where the whole film is set around a group of Punks living in the underground tunnels below Paris. And the various mischievous adventures those Punks do. In interviews he sometimes tells stories of people coming to him to this day thanking him for making Subway because it defined them as Punks. The way Besson was dressed back in those days, the hair he had when he was making his movies in the 80s, suggest that Besson himself identified ( and probably still identifies ) as a sort of underground Punk type of guy. ↩ Reply
This also coincidentally sort of explains his relationship with Maïwenn Le Besco. The age difference and the dubious legality of it all probably felt to Besson as the ultimate middle finger to the establishment. Which brings us to a movie he made with Maïwenn, about the relationship with her Leon: The Professional. ↩ Reply
When I watching June and John one strange detail jumped out at me. June, at one point of the movie, dresses up to seduce John ( or to impress him or whatever ). Where whatever she look like in the end supposed to look sexy. So because Luc Besson was the director of the film we can sort of see through it, what Besson finds sexy. Here is a detail: when John sees her, he spits out. That is a very specific thing. It mirrors the way Leon spits out when Matilda ( the little girl in love with him in the film ) tells him that she loves him. What does June look like when she is sexy? Well she looks like Matilda from Leon. c:0 ↩ Reply
And now to the stupid part. June was played by a girl who's name is Matilda Price. While John is played by Luke Stanton. ↩ Reply
I gonna leave you with two things: This image of Luc Besson with Natalie Portman ( who played Matilda )... ↩ Reply
![[embedded image]](/pictures/user_upload/blenderdumbass/luc_besson_natalie_portman.jpg "Luc Besson is hugging with Natalie Portman.")
... And with fact that Natalie Portman played in a film called May December, where the whole concept is her trying to understand Luc Besson. ↩ Reply
Happy Hacking!!! ↩ Reply
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c:0 Also June and John has a mandatory conversation about Dolphins.
⤴ ViewWere the movie not have any mention of Luc Besson, this simple fact would be a dead give-away.
What does June look like when she is sexy? Well she looks like Matilda from Leon.
⤴ ViewOh... my...
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