The Movie Waffler 10 Movies You Must See In May | The Movie Waffler

10 Movies You Must See In May

apples
Our guide to the most intriguing movies coming to UK/ROI screens this May.

UK cinemas may be reopening their doors on May 17th but our monthly preview continues to be dominated by streaming as VOD as we wait for distributors to begin filling the big screen again. We do have a few theatrical releases in our list, featuring stars of the calibre of Angelina Jolie and Isabelle Huppert, while another big female star, Amy Adams, finds her long delayed thriller heading for Netflix.

Here are the 10 UK/ROI May releases we're most excited for...



Threshold

Threshold – May 3rd, Arrow
For their second feature, Threshold, co-directors Powell Robinson and Patrick R Young embarked on a 12-day road trip with a crew of just three and shot their movie on iPhones. The film stars Joey Millin as Leo, who receives a phone call from his estranged sister Virginia (Madison West). While Leo believes Virginia has become addicted to drugs once again, she claims her ill health stems from a psychological hold the cult she was taken in by have over here. The two siblings take off on a road trip to find the answer to Virginia's condition and reconnect along the way.




apples

Apples – May 7th, Curzon
One of several accidentally relevant movies to emerge during the pandemic is this Greek black comedy from writer-director Christos Nikou. Drawing comparisons with the work of Charlie Kaufman, Apples is a surreal sci-fi satire set in a world where a pandemic has resulted in memory loss for those afflicted. Assigned a series of tasks, one such victim attempts to reestablish his life.




Cowboys

Cowboys – May 7th, VOD
Director Anna Kerrigan's frontier drama sees Steve Zahn play a wastrel father who makes for the Canadian border and a new life for his transgender son (Sasha Knight). Kerrigan's film plays out its nuanced human drama against a glorious natural backdrop.




Once Upon a River

Once Upon a River – May 7th, VOD
Writer/director Haroula Rose adapts Bonnie Jo Campbell's 1970s set novel Once Upon a River with first time performer Kenadi DelaCerna in the lead role of Native American teenager Margo Crane. Following cumulative tragedies, Margo ventures along Michigan's Stark River in search of her mother. Along the way she meets a variety of characters while encountering challenges and dangers.




Oxygen

Oxygen – May 12th, Netflix
French horror filmmaker Alexandre Aja (Piranha 3D, Crawl) directs this sci-fi survival thriller. In similar fashion to the Ryan Reynolds vehicle Buried, it's a claustrophobic thriller starring Melanie Laurent as a woman who wakes up locked inside a cryogenic chamber with no memory of how she got there. Can she escape before her limited oxygen supply runs out?






The Woman in the Window

The Woman in the Window – May 14th, Netflix
No it's not a remake of Fritz Lang's 1944 noir classic. Rather director Joe Wright's long delayed The Woman in the Window is adapted from the novel by author AJ FinnAmy Adams stars as Anna, an agoraphobic alcoholic who claims to witness the murder of a neighbour, Jane (Julianne Moore), only to have her sanity questioned by the victim's husband (Gary Oldman) and a woman (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who now claims to be Jane.




Those Who Wish Me Dead

Those Who Wish Me Dead – May 17th, Cinemas
Having burst onto the scene with his screenplays for Sicario and Hell or High Water, Taylor Sheridan turned to directing with 2017's Wind River. For his second wielding of the megaphone he's enlisted Angelina Jolie. Those Who Wish Me Dead sees Jolie play a Montana forest fire-fighter who stumbles across a young boy on the run from assassins after witnessing a murder. The pair must escape the men who want to silence the boy while negotiating a raging forest fire.




PG: Psycho Goreman

PG: Psycho Goreman – May 20th, Shudder
This whacky looking horror-comedy from director Steven Kostanski (The Void) has a striking premise. A pair of young kids resurrect an entombed alien overlord and using a magic amulet, take him under their control. But the alien, whom they nickname Psycho Goreman, has enemies who arrive to wreak havoc in smalltown suburbia.




Earwig and the Witch

Earwig and the Witch – May 28th, Cinemas
Studio Ghibli enter the world of CG animation with director Goro Miyazaki's Earwig and the Witch. Adapted from the book by Diana Wynne Jones, the film tells the story of a courageous young orphan forced to live with a selfish witch. Can Ghibli transfer the charm of their beloved traditional 2D animated features to the now standard CG animation?




Frankie

Frankie – May 28th, Cinemas
With movies like Little Men and Love is Strange, Ira Sachs has established himself as one of the finest purveyors of intimate character studies working today. His latest stars Isabelle Huppert as the matriarch of a family that gathers for a shared holiday in Portugal. Over the course of a summer day the bonds of family will be tested.