I'm Beginning to See the Light (May 2nd)
It seems like the literalism of the name would turn me off. Guy's family dies when he drives them into a lighthouse lens and then he...uh, stalks the lens and lives in the lighthouse with it.
This is a romance by the way, but not with the lighthouse lens. Might have been more interesting because it's a romance with a lady and I couldn't care less if the isolated man in his darkest hour who reaches out to other isolated men in their darkest hour puts his dick in a lady.
Also, I have to laugh that Yahtzee's man who "takes one too many lingering looks at his sexy wife and smacks straight into a truck" is the literal plot for this movie.
The Surfer (May 2nd)
Between this and The Rule of Jenny Pen, I do wonder what I find intriguing about these films. The ephemeral nature of male efficacy and how our accomplishments are deceptively narrow? How the civilized, linear accomplishments of power and money aren't anything next to the primitive connections between humans with a small amount of power who can concoct their own self-serving reality? How scary John Lithgow would be if he ever played an Australian?
It looks like Nicholas Cage at his best, most-Nick Cagey-ness.
Bring Her Back (May 30th)
I make this in part because people are always saying that Hollywood doesn't make anything original when the fact of the matter is that rooted to your seat in front of your computer or TV or TV/phone, the only movies offered up to you by the churn of the marketing engine are remakes and reboots.
Inevitably, one of my friends say, "A24 makes good stuff, but they don't make that many movies." I call bullshit; A24 makes a lot of movies, like this shitty and obvious horror movie."
Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning (May 23rd)
I'm also surprised that the one big release movie I'm highlighting ISN'T Thunderbolts*.
I saw the first Mission Impossible movie in theaters, which makes me...old. I haven't watched the subsequent ones because they just didn't catch my interest. I felt like they were Tom Cruise-centric action films with one or two espionage setpieces.
So I have very little idea which of those clips are from old movies and which are from the new one. I recognized a few from the first films. The music kinda hits.
I'm not watching this one either, but I'd probably watch any of them if they were already on in the room that I was already in.
The Phoenician Scheme (May 30th)
Directed by Wes Anderson? NOOOOOOOOOOOO... It couldn't be. It's got all those pastel palettes and the absolutely flat angles with an early 20th Century aesthetic. It couldn't possibly be Wes Anderson!
It looks good.
Friendship (May 23rd)
I'm not a huge fan of I Think You Should Leave, Tim Robinson's sketch comedy show. But I'm intrigued at him making a weird movie about male loneliness and friendship.
When I put these together, I pull all of the trailers I can find, slap them into a schedule and then post and punch-up the ones for this month. Pulling all the trailers for this month, I'm seeing a real trend about male isolation.
Friendship, obviously, as well as I'm Beginning to See the Light and to some extent The Surfer.
Fight or Flight (May 9th)
No offense to Josh Hartnett, but this seems like a fun idea executed with zero charm in a trailer that gives the entire movie away. You know what movie had charm? Bullet Train.
Clown in a Cornfield (May 9th)
Final Destination: Bloodlines and A Breed Apart didn't make the cut, but looking at them, why are there so many horror movies in May?
Would be interesting except for the "gen Z can't use rotary phones" bit, which is maybe funny, I'm just to poisoned by internet people shitting on previous generations to enjoy it.
AND the "Gen-Z can't drive stick" bit? If that's where the creators' heads were at...I'm glad I didn't invest in this.
Tornado (May 30th)
I'm not as interested in martial arts or general Eastern media as much as my friends. I don't really see the samurai/western genre intersections that a lot of other people do, so none of that is a selling point for me.
It just looks like a good execution on both genres. Not high art, but a good watch.
I'm also a big fan of Tim Roth, so...yeah.
Fountain of Youth
I don't need to cover the straight-to-apple-TV-starring-John-Krasinski-indana-jones-uncharted-laura-croft-davinci-code-they-blow-up-the-fountain-in-the-end movie.
That's not even the trailer, that is David Attenborough narrating a video with millipedes, centipedes, and scorpions. It gets straight under my skin and it's worth more our time than that trailer.
Honorable Mentions
Murderbot
I read the books and I found them charming. I wouldn't have cast the Murderbot as the traditionally handsome Alexander Skarsgård, but if he can do it, why not?
Invisible Boys
Why am I sharing an Australian series on a network called "Stan"? It looks okay and for more than the obvious reasons, too.
