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 – 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 – 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 – 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 – 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 – 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 – 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 Finn. Amy 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 – 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 – 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 – 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 – 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.