May Movie Preview

Welcome to our monthly movie preview. Here, we will count down our top choices for films opening in the month of May. It’s a big month at the movies too. Some of the year’s most eagerly anticipated titles are approaching, kicking off the summer movie season. 2015 is a major year for tentpoles and several of the biggest, loudest, and in some cases, riskiest are set to debut in the month of May. Join us as we cut through all the noise – be it in the form of earthquakes, post-apocalyptic sparring, a cappella rehearsals, or wreckage from the Hulk – that well dominate the cinematic conversation next month as well as point out some of the quieter options opening at the art house that might be worth keeping an eye on. It’s a busy month at the movies, so let’s get started.

10) THE D TRAIN

Jack Black (Bernie) and James Marsden (Enchanted) form an unlikely bromance in this new indie comedy from Andrew Mogel and Jarrad Paul (two of the screenwriters behind of the 2004 Jim Carrey comedy Yes Man, making their directorial debuts here). The D Train casts Black as Dan Landsman, an affable nerdy-type who is organizing an upcoming high school reunion. In order to spur interest he enlists the help of the most popular guy in school, Oliver Lawless (Marsden), now a stud in a national commercial. The top-drawer supporting cast includes Kathryn Hahn (Afternoon Delight), Mike White (School of Rock), and Jeffrey Tambor (recent Golden Globe winner for the Amazon series Transparent).

Buzzometer: 3/10 – The D Train gained notoriety at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival (where the film had its world premiere) for a particular sequence involving Black and Marsden that might just turn the “bromance” comedy sub-genre on its head for good. No spoilers here, but while “gay panic” has been a common punchline in everything from the Judd Apatow films to The Hangover series, The D Train may be the genre’s headiest deconstruction yet. Curiosity alone may be able to help IFC Films turn a small mint here as may Marsden’s performance, which many critics out of Sundance have said is the film’s saving grace.

Release Date: May 8th (limited)

 

9) ALOHA

A new romantic dramedy from writer/director Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous, Jerry Maguire) stars Bradley Cooper (American Sniper) as military contractor stationed in Hawaii. Over time, he reconnects with a former flame (Rachel McAdams, A Most Wanted Man) and unexpectedly falls for the Air Force watchdog (Emma Stone, Birdman) assigned to oversee the stop of a satellite launch. John Krasinski (Promised Land), Jay Baruchel (This Is the End), Danny McBride (Your Highness), Alec Baldwin (Still Alice) and Bill Murray (St. Vincent) co-star.

Buzzometer: 4/10 – For a while, it seemed a treat when Crowe, who won an Oscar for penning the semi-autobiographical Almost Famous, came out with a new film. Jerry Maguire, Say Anything and Almost Famous all deftly matched observant dialogue with emotionally nuanced performances and great soundtracks. Then, well, came Vanilla Sky (2001) and Elizabethtown (2005) and We Bought a Zoo (2011), all of which were met with less-than-favorable reviews and audience apathy. Aloha hopes to change the recent course in Crowe’s filmography. While the film has already faced a few challenged along the way (including a never encouraging release date delay), it sure has a terrific ensemble and might serve as a frothy bit of counter-programming to the bigger guns of the summer movie season.

Release Date: May 29th

 

8) FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD

This Victorian-era adaptation of the classic novel by Thomas Hardy stars Carey Mulligan (An Education) as the headstrong Bathsheba Everdene torn between three vastly different suitors played by Matthias Schoenaerts (Rust and Bone), Tom Sturridge (On the Road), and Michael Sheen (Midnight in Paris). This marks the fourth filmed outing for the Hardy novel and director Thomas Vinterberg’s follow-up to his acclaimed, Oscar-nominated Danish film The Hunt. The film was written by David Nichols (One Day), who previously adapted Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles for television in 2008.

Buzzometer: 4/10 – With its Tony pedigree and revered source material, Far From the Madding Crowd is the classy, literary choice for the month of May. Even if it seemingly may only excite the grandmothers and English lit majors the world, don’t be surprised if this period romantic drama has unexpectedly strong summer legs at the box office. Early reviews have been fairly strong and distributor Fox Searchlight has a decent track record at opening smart, polished counter-programming for grown-ups during the summer (last year, the racial period drama Belle opened at the same time and made a pretty penny).

Release Date: May 1st (limited)

 

7)  WELCOME TO ME

In likely the quirkiest offering of the month of May, SNL alum Kristen Wiig (a former Oscar nominee for co-writing the 2011 blockbuster Bridesmaids) plays Alice Klieg, an woman with borderline personality disorder. After winning the lottery, Alice decides to spend her millions creating her very own talk show. With an assist from Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s Gary Sanchez Productions, Welcome to Me was directed by Shira Piven (Fully Loaded) from script by Eliot Laurence (The Big Gay Sketch Show). James Marsden (The Best of Me), Jennifer Jason Leigh (Margot at the Wedding), Linda Cardellini (Mad Men), Wes Bentley (The Hunger Games), Loretta Devine (For Colored Girls), Joan Cusack (Friends with Money), and Oscar winner Tim Robbins (Mystic River) co-star. The film made its world premiere at the 2014 Toronto Film Festival.

Buzzometer: 5/10 – Since making her mark on Saturday Night Live and being the driving force behind Bridesmaids, Wiig has been making incredibly interesting career choices. Moving back and forth between the indie world (The Skeleton Twins) and the more mainstream (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty), and between broad comedy (Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues) and more dramatic work (Hateship Loveship), as a performer it feels like we’ve only the very surface of her talents. Welcome to Me seems like a dose of Wiig the Clown meeting Wiig the Actress. Early reviews seem to suggest the actress elevates the nutty premise.

Release Date: May 1st (limited)

 

6) SAN ANDREAS

While California awaits “the big one” in reality, the movies  look forward to the carnage in the Dwayne Johnson disaster flick San Andreas. Directed by Brad Peyton (Journey 2: The Mysterious Island) and written by Carlton Cuse (Lost) with story credits to Andre Fabrizio and Jeremy Passmore, San Andreas looks at the aftermath of massive earthquake that’s destroyed most of California and the perilous mission for chopper pilot (Johnson) to rescue his estranged daughter. Paul Giamatti (Sideways), Carla Gugino (Watchmen), Archie Panjabi (The Good Wife), Ioan Gruffudd (Fantasic Four) and Alexandra Daddario (True Detective) co-star.

Buzzometer: 6/10 – The dialogue in the trailers sounds terrible (“The Earth will literally crack and you will feel it on the East Coast”), but finely crafted writing is not the main attraction for San Andreas; that would be the visual effects running amok destroying the fine state of California. San Andreas might be the kind of dumb fun to settle all of us for the very noisy, effects-driven summer ahead of us. Plus, having The Rock in your movie has been pretty valuable lately.

Release Date: May 29th

 

5) PITCH PERFECT 2

Anna Kendrick (Into the Woods) and her fellow Barden Bellas return for the sequel to the surprise 2012 sleeper musical hit Pitch Perfect. In the last film, Kendrick’s Beca found an unexpected sisterhood with her quirky cappella team members and won the national competition. In the process, the film became a quiet sensation with its tongue and cheek humor, quotable lines (“horizontal running”), and musical mash-ups. In the second outing, the Bellas enter an international competition, one that no American team has ever won before. Actress Elizabeth Banks (a producer of the first film) takes the reins, marking her feature directorial debut from a script by Kay Cannon. Anna Camp (The Help), Brittany Snow (Hairspray), Rebel Wilson (Pain and Gain) and Skylar Astin (21 and Over) return as the second film welcomes new faces including Hailee Steinfeld (Begin Again) and Katey Segal (Sons of Anarchy).

Buzzometer: 6/10 – Kendrick (a former Oscar nominee for her work in the 2009 drama Up in the Air) has seemingly been keeping the musical genre afloat on her shoulders the last few years (Pitch Perfect, Into the Woods, The Last Five Years) and her beguiling presence elevated the original film into a serious moneymaker. That’s terrific, and it’s a wonderful thing for the industry to try and tackle more franchises catered around talented woman (in front of and behind the camera); still, Pitch Perfect, with its slim premise and heavy re-watch-ability, may not the worthiest entry of an expanded cinematic universe. If the sequel is sub-par, will it shrink the frothy pleasures of the first outing? Even the television show Glee, an obvious comp, fairly quickly wore out its welcome.

Release Date: May 15th

 

4) WHEN MARNIE WAS THERE (OMOIDE NO MANI)

The latest (and potentially last) animated piece of enchantment from Studio Ghibli (Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service, The Wind Rises) is this poignant coming-of-age drama based on the novel by Joan G. Robinson. Anna, young girl sent to country for health reasons, is charmed by a spirited young blonde named Marnie. As their friendship deepens, a mystery uniting the two girls starts to unravel. Directed and co-written by Hiromasa Yonebayashi (The Secret World of Arrietty), When Marnie Was There may be our last chance to revel in the gorgeous animation and endless imagination that has proved the legacy of Studio Ghibli. The English dub includes the voices of Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit), Kiernan Shipka (Mad Men), and Geena Davis (Thelma and Louise).

Buzzometer: 7/10 – Perhaps overselling the buzz just slightly, but its for the good, I promise. And without question, a Studio Ghibli offering is high on the list of many a cinephile (considering there’s the very real possibility they will close up shop with Marnie, it might be an even higher priority to some). While shrugged off in its native Japan when released last summer, glowing reviews and a push from Gkids, distributing the title in the United States, might make When Marnie Was There a surprise on the specialty circuit.

Release Date: May 22nd (limited)

 

3) MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

Distinguished Aussie filmmaker George Miller returns to the franchise that started his career. Mad Max: Fury Road is the fourth post-apocalyptic vision in the franchise that debuted in 1979 – the very one that spurred the career of then-nobody Mel Gibson. Tom Hardy (Warrior) takes the reins here as “Mad Max” Rockatansky, a warrior stuck in this Australian outback fighting for the death. In this iteration, Max meets up with the mysterious Furiousa (a virtually unrecognizable Charlize Theron) in order the try and survive. Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: Days of Future Past), Rosie-Huntington-Whiteley (Transformers: Dark of the Moon), Zoe Kravitz (Divergent), and Riley Keough (Magic Mike) co-star.

Buzzometer: 8/10 – No one will question Miller’s almost otherworldly talent. Aside from the three previous Mad Max installments, the filmmaker’s decidedly quirky filmography includes Babe: Pig in the City (1998), the camp classic The Witches of Eastwick (1987), the poignant family melodrama Lorenzo’s Oil (1992) and the two Happy Feet films (this first of which won Miller an Oscar for Best Animated Feature). With all of that said, it’s sure  that Mad Max: Fury Road will be a treat for the senses (even if it includes many scenes that are positively revolting), yet there’s a deeper question on the playability of a franchise whose last entry was released thirty years ago.

Release Date: May 15th

 

2) TOMORROWLAND

Not just theme land at Disneyland any longer. That sounds cynical, but one of the most eagerly anticipated features this month (and the entire year) is Tomorrowland, an original science fiction adventure from director Brad Bird. In the film, Oscar winner George Clooney portrays a former boy genius and newcomer Britt Robertson (The Longest Ride) plays an inquisitive teenage girl who join forces to unravel the mystery of an enigmatic place somewhere in time and space known as “Tomorrowland.” Bird wrote the screenplay alongside Lost alum Damen Lindelof from story by Bird, Lindelof and Entertainment Weekly writer Jeff Jensen. Judy Greer (13 Going on 30), Hugh Laurie (House), and Kathryn Hahn (Our Idiot Brother) co-star.

Buzzometer: 9/10 – The confidently composed trailers have certainly raised awareness to Tomorrowland, a property that was eagerly anticipated since the moment it was announced. Yet, with that promise comes a certain degree of nitpicking – Robertson’s character, a budding scientific thinker by the name of Casey Newton seems designated “the one,” which reads as a retread of seemingly thousands of origin stories. Yet truthfully, there’s enough trust in the visionary powers of Bird at the helm – the two-time Oscar winning animation titan behind The Incredibles and Ratatouille (not to mention the 1999 cult film The Iron Giant) previously revamped the Mission: Impossible franchise with 2011’s Ghost Protocol, his live action debut.

Release Date: May 22nd

 

1) AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON

Well, of course. It wouldn’t be May without massive superhero-sized tentpole to kick-start the season. Director Joss Whedon is back in charge of Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron as our squabbling superheros must once unite to save the world from an infinite danger known as Ultron (voiced and performed via motion capture by James Spader). Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) all return. Newcomers include Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass) as Quicksilver and Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene) as Scarlet Witch.

Buzzometer: 10/10 – Many have already purchased their tickets for opening weekend which renders any sort of thoughtful analysis here completely unnecessary. When The Avengers opened in May 2012, box office records were broken and Marvel’s stake in the movie business was solidified. Three years later, the films’ after effects charged massive sales and (mostly) positive audience response to Thor: The Dark World (2013), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and spurred on a quirky underdog sensation with last summer’s outlier Guardians of the Galaxy. In short, this is Marvel’s time and their (seemingly never-ending) supply will only begin to fall when audiences start to shrug them off. While Avengers: Age of Ultron will make a killing a half (outside of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, it’s the biggest film of the year), history dictates that all franchises must come to an end at some point. Could fatigue set in now?

Release Date: May 1st

 

ALSO OPENING IN MAY:

• FIVE FLIGHTS UP- Drama starring Oscar winners Diane Keaton and Morgan Freeman as a longtime married couple overwhelmed by New York real estate.  (May 8th – limited)
• ALOFT- Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly stars in this drama about a woman encountering the child she abandoned twenty years earlier.  (May 22nd – limited)
• THE CONNECTION- Oscar winner Jean Dujardin plays a French detective on the hunt of a powerful drug ring.  (May 15th- limited)
• EVERY SECRET THING- Mystery starring Diane Lane, Elizabeth Banks and Dakota Fanning from Oscar nominated documentarian Amy Berg (West of Memphis).  (May 15th – limited)
• GOOD KILL- Ethan Hawke plays a man questioning the morals of drone warfare.  (May 15th – limited)
• HOT PURSUIT- Police woman Reese Witherspoon is assigned to protect charge Sofia Vergara in this new comedy.  (May 8th)
• I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS- Blythe Danner earned raves at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival in this comedy-drama about a 70-something widow confronting her past.  (May 15th – limited)
• MAGGIE- New zombie thriller starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Abigal Breslin.  (May 8th – limited)
• POLTERGEIST- Update of the ’80s classic with Sam Rockwell and Rosemarie Dewitt.  (May 8th)
• RESULTS- Guy Pearce and Cobie Smulders headline gym-based romantic comedy.  (May 29th- limited)
• SAINT LAURENT- Provocative bio of designer Yves Saint Laurent from auteur Bertrand Bonello.  (May 8th – limited)