11 of the best films to watch in May
Including the latest Mad Max and Planet of the Apes films and Jerry Seinfeld’s comedy about Pop-Tarts – this month’s unmissable movies to watch and stream.
1. IF
What if children’s imaginary friends weren’t actually imaginary? What if they were real creatures who had to hang around in limbo after the children who used to play with them had grown up? That’s the premise of IF, a family comedy written and directed by John Krasinski. Ryan Reynolds and Cailey Fleming star as two of the only people in the world who can see these obsolete IFs; Krasinki’s old co-star from the office, Steve Carell, provides the voice of a giant furry IF called Blue. Krasinski has said that he was inspired by his two daughters’ games, but also by his wife, Emily Blunt, who was pleased to see him move on from the doom and gloom of his directorial debut, A Quiet Place. “I remember Emily saying to me, ‘I’m really glad that you’re doing this,'” Krasinski said in Entertainment Weekly. “And I said, ‘Why?’ And she’s like, ‘Because living in that dark, dark place is really tough for too long.’ And coming from Mary Poppins, I thought, she must know what she’s talking about.”
On general release from 17 May
2. Robot Dreams
Pablo Berger’s Oscar-nominated Spanish-French cartoon, adapted from Sara Varon’s graphic novel, tells the delightful tale of a dog named Dog who lives alone in 1980s New York. His life changes when he buys a mail-order robot named Robot, and discovers how fun it is to have a best friend. But then the rusty Robot gets stuck on a beach, behind locked gates. Can Dog manage without him? Robot Dreams is packed with sparkling jokes, ingenious ideas and touching truths, and yet it’s all done with no dialogue. It is “one of the finest animations of recent years,” says Wendy Ide in The Observer. “There’s such tenderness to the storytelling, such empathy and emotional depth, that it broadens the film’s potential audience from kids, who will respond to the cute characters and gentle wit, to adolescents and adults, who will recognise the angst and awkwardness of trying to function alone.”
Released on 9 May in Germany and 31 May in the U
3. The Garfield Movie
One of the funniest moments in Zombieland comes when the mortally wounded Bill Murray, playing himself, is asked if he has any regrets. With his dying breath, he replies, “Garfield, maybe.” Murray may not have been a fan of the two live-action Garfield films in which he voiced the CGI cat, but the new film is a different kettle of lasagne. Directed by Mark Dindal (The Emperor’s New Groove), The Garfield Movie is an action-packed cartoon. Chris Pratt voices Garfield, although, considering that he also voices the main characters in The Lego Movie and The Super Mario Bros. Movie, that’s not the most imaginative casting choice for a cartoon with the word “movie” in the title. Samuel L Jackson voices Garfield’s father, Vic; Nicholas Hoult is his owner, Jon; and Snoop Dogg plays a character called, yes, Snoop Catt. “There’s a physicality and curiosity and playfulness, a mischief at [Garfield’s] core,” said Pratt. “I lost myself in that. I literally just ate and napped, and the doctors were concerned… But I did make an authentic connection. I’m pretty sure audiences are going to feel it. And the Academy.”
On general release from 24 May
4. Back to Black
Amy Winehouse was one of the most important singer-songwriters of her generation, but she died in 2011 when she was only 27, after years of battling addictions and dodging tabloid photographers. In 2015, Asif Kapadia turned her life story into a heartwrenching documentary, Amy. Now comes the inevitable biopic, Back to Black, directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson and written by Matt Greenhalgh, the makers of a drama about John Lennon’s early years, Nowhere Boy. Marisa Abela stars as Winehouse alongside Jack O’Connell as her husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, and Eddie Marsan as her father, Mitch Winehouse. Taylor-Johnson’s “gentle, forgiving film” is “easily her best work so far”, says Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. “There’s a thoroughly engaging and sweet-natured performance from Marisa Abela as Amy [that] conveys her tenderness, and perhaps most poignantly of all her youth, so tellingly at odds with that tough image and eerily mature voice.”
Released on 17 May in the US and Canada
5. The Fall Guy
At this year’s Oscars, Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt introduced a video tribute to Hollywood’s stunt performers. As sincere as they might well have been, the actors had an ulterior motive: their new film is an action comedy that just happens to be about Hollywood’s stunt performers. Based on the 1980s television series, and directed by David Leitch (Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2), The Fall Guy features Gosling as Colt Seavers, a stuntman who is recruited by his ex (Blunt) when a movie star (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) goes missing. “I truly had a massive grin on my face from start to finish watching The Fall Guy,” says Perri Nemiroff at Collider. “It’s an extremely well-crafted action movie that’s absolutely buzzing with energy and charm for all 125 minutes of its running time… Yes, it’s a crowd-pleasing romantic comedy thriller, but first and foremost, it’s one big-hearted ode to the artists responsible for movie magic.”
On general release from 3 May
6. Unfrosted
In the last year, we’ve had films about the development of Air Jordan shoes, BlackBerry phones, Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and Beanie Baby toys – and now we have a film about the development of Pop-Tarts. But don’t worry if that sounds like a ridiculous idea: it’s supposed to be. A gleefully parodic comedy with almost no connection to the true story, Unfrosted is directed and co-written by Jerry Seinfeld, who also stars as an executive at Kellogg’s. When the company’s rival, Post, launches a dehydrated breakfast pastry in 1964, Kellogg’s races to make their own version. Seinfeld’s co-stars include Melissa McCarthy, Amy Schumer, Peter Dinklage and James Marsden, along with Hugh Grant as a frustrated Shakespearean actor who plays Tony the Tiger in the adverts for Frosted Flakes. “I don’t think anybody’s done this before,” Seinfeld said in Total Film magazine. “I feel like we’re ready for a colourful, dumb, silly comedy.”
7. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
It’s been 45 years since the release of the first Mad Max film, and nine years since George Miller brought his post-apocalyptic series roaring back to life with 2015’s high-octane action extravaganza, Mad Max: Fury Road. But the 79-year-old director isn’t finished yet. His latest film is a prequel to Fury Road featuring Anya Taylor-Joy as Furiosa, the one-armed, shaven-headed heroine played by Charlize Theron in the previous film. “It’s different,” said Miller, as reported in IndieWire. “You don’t want a film to be a repetition of what you’ve just done, it has to be uniquely familiar, as I like to say.” The uniquely familiar villain is played by Chris Hemsworth, who is covered by so much prosthetic make-up that he is almost unrecognisable as the actor who played the mighty Thor.
On general release from 24 May
8. Kidnapped
Marco Bellocchio’s lavish period drama tells the appalling true story of Edgardo Mortara, a six-year-old Jewish boy who was snatched from his home by the authorities one night in Bologna in 1858. His parents (Fausto Russo Alesi, Barbara Ronchi) are informed that when Edgardo was a baby, he was secretly taken by a maid to be baptised, and so he must now be raised as a Catholic. Pope Pius IX (Paolo Pierobon) keeps brushing aside the family’s efforts to rescue Edgardo, but, as the years pass, the scandal threatens to bring about the Pope’s political downfall. “Marco Bellocchio is the last man standing of a golden generation of Italian filmmakers,” says Jason Solomons in The New European. “What’s most remarkable about this career is not just its longevity or its continued productivity, but that his films are simply getting better and better. Kidnapped is beautifully and grippingly told, bursting with all the dark drama and human detail of one of those vast Renaissance canvasses you get in the great galleries, a Titian or a Caravaggio or a Tintoretto.”
Released on 24 May in the US
9. Ezra
The always-excellent Bobby Cannavale gets a rare leading role in this sincere comedy drama, directed by Tony Goldwyn. Cannavale plays a New Jersey stand-up comedian who raises his autistic 11-year-old son, Ezra (William A Fitzgerald), with the help of his father (Robert De Niro). His ex-wife (Cannavale’s real-life partner, Rose Byrne) wants the boy to attend a school for children with special needs, but when the comedian is offered a slot on a high-profile talk show in Los Angeles, he decides to take Ezra on a road trip across the US instead. “Cannavale knows he’s landed a great role and really runs with it,” says Michael Rechtshaffen in The Hollywood Reporter. “[But] the superb ensemble and sensitive direction never get in the way of a tender screenplay by Tony Spiridakis, informed by the challenges of rearing his own neurodivergent son.”
Release on 31 May in the US
10. Kingdom of the Planet of The Apes
It can be tricky to keep track of the Planet of the Apes franchise. The first film came out in 1968, and was followed by four sequels. Tim Burton made an iffy attempt at a reboot in 2001. And then the series was revived in 2011 with a trilogy of prequels, concluding with War of the Planet of the Apes in 2017. But now it’s time for some more monkey business. In the latest Ape-isode, directed by Wes Ball, intelligent chimps and orangutans have ruled the Earth for 300 years, and humans who can speak are a rarity. “We are a new chapter in this long legacy of movies since 1968, but still honour what came before us,” Ball said in ScreenRant. “We are an extension, a continuation of [the previous trilogy], but we have our own new characters and story, and it opens up new opportunities.”
On general release from 9 May
11. The Beach Boys
The Beatles: Get Back, Peter Jackson’s three-part documentary series about the Fab Four, has been on Disney+ since 2021, and Jackson has since overseen the restoration of a classic Beatles documentary, 1970’s Let It Be, which will appear on the streaming service on 8 May. But what of The Beatles’ US peers, The Beach Boys? A new documentary dives into the history of the pop pioneers founded by three Californian brothers, Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson. Brian was the musical genius of the family, but he was traumatised by his abusive father, Murry Wilson, who was also the band’s first manager. “I’m super happy with the way the documentary turned out, they did an amazing job,” says Brian Wilson. “It really brought me back to those days with the boys, the fun and the music. And of course those incredible harmonies.”
Released on 24 May on Disney+