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May movies swerve from a knowing octopus to Ozempic horror. Get in on this month’s film highlights.
Sentient sea life, conniving con artists and demonic diet pills hit screens
With the real world defined by inequality and rapid technological change, it’s no surprise that filmmakers are offering critiques of both. This month’s new releases include a body horror film that takes aim at the GLP-1 dieting craze, a communist multiverse adventure and a character study about high-level art forgery. Oh, and escapism, in the form of a human-like octopus who helps lost souls find each other. Whatever brings you to the movies, there’s a proper destination for you in May.
‘Remarkably Bright Creatures’
Remarkably Bright Creatures | Official Trailer | Netflix - YouTube
Director Olivia Newman (“Where the Crawdads Sing”) helms Netflix’s adaptation of Shelby Van Pelt’s 2022 novel about Tova (Sally Field) a grieving aquarium custodian in the Pacific Northwest who befriends a sentient Giant Pacific octopus named Marcellus (voiced by Alfred Molina). When she is forced to take time off after a fall, she helps train an aimless young man, Cameron (Lewis Pullman), in the niceties of the job.
Marcellus, facing his imminent death, helps Cameron and Tova find the truth about their pasts. The novel’s “popularity has always given the project a built-in audience, and the film’s ensemble only adds to the appeal,” said The Playlist. (May 8 on Netflix)
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Writer-director Aleshea Harris adapts her own Obie-winning 2018 play “Is God Is” for the screen in what is being described as a mashup of spaghetti western, hip-hop and Greek tragedy. Sterling K. Brown (“Paradise”) plays “The Monster,” whose daughters, Racine (Kara Young) and Anaia (Mallori Johnson), are sent to kill him by their dying mother, Ruby the God (Vivica A. Fox).
The three women all bear scars, both physical and emotional, from a fire that he set when the girls were children. “Make your Daddy dead,” she tells them from her deathbed, dispatching them on a dizzying cross-country expedition. “Is God Is” is a “riveting revenge tale and exploration of the varied impacts of family trauma that’s packed with powerhouse performances,” said Collider’s Perri Nemiroff on X. (in theaters May 15)
‘Forge’
Forge | Official Trailer | Utopia/Circle Collective - YouTube
Brother and sister Coco (Andie Ju) and Raymond Zhang (Brandon Soo Hoo) run a sophisticated and successful Miami-based art forgery ring in director Jing Ai Ng’s understated thriller. They are hired by Holden (Edmund Donovan) to recreate a large, hurricane-damaged art collection that belongs to his grandfather.
Meanwhile, FBI Agent Emily Lee (Kelly Marie Tran) starts to close in on the lot as the siblings navigate a fraught relationship with their immigrant parents. “Forge” is a “top-shelf crime thriller” that’s “all about subverting appearances and how the have-nots can use people’s biases towards them to swindle and get ahead,” said Zachary Lee at Roger Ebert. (in theaters May 22)
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‘I Love Boosters’
I LOVE BOOSTERS - Official Trailer - Only In Theaters May 22 - YouTube
Writer-director Boots Riley (“Sorry to Bother You”) returns with his first feature film in eight years, and it’s a doozy. Corvette (Keke Palmer), Sade (Naomi Ackie) and Mariah (Taylour Paige) are a team of “boosters” who operate an organized shoplifting ring in a deliciously stylized alternate-reality Bay Area.
Things get wild when Jianhu (Poppy Liu) shows up with what she calls a “situational accelerator” that uses teleportation to target unhinged fashion maven Christie Smith (Demi Moore). “I Love Boosters” is the “first socialist stoner movie of the Trump era,” featuring a “conspiracy so insane that it’s about one molecule away from adrenochrome,” said Ryan Lattanzio at IndieWire. (in theaters May 22)
‘Saccharine’
Saccharine | Official Trailer | Independent Film Company & Shudder - YouTube
The parade of movies taking aim at contemporary Ozempic-driven dieting trends continues with this body horror entry from director Natalie Erika James (“Relic”). Hana (Midori Francis) is a medical student who tries to kick-start a weight loss regimen by reverse engineering a mysterious diet pill she gets from an old friend.
The main ingredient: human ashes, which she obtains illicitly from a research cadaver. Unfortunately, her swift weight loss comes with a side of being haunted by the body’s ghost. The film shows that the “horror of one’s own body is the most insidious kind of body horror at play here,” said Guy Lodge at Variety. (in theaters May 22)
David Faris is a professor of political science at Roosevelt University and the author of "It's Time to Fight Dirty: How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics." He's a frequent contributor to Newsweek and Slate, and his work has appeared in The Washington Post, The New Republic and The Nation, among others.
