Kristen Wiig surprises us with a movie that’s funny and smart, while the story of Marie Heurtin—a young girl born blind and deaf in 19th Century France—tugs at the heartstrings: these and more of May’s best new movies.
Welcome To Me
Director: Shira Piven
Starring: Kristen Wiig, James Marsden, Linda Cardellini
Opens May 1st
In one of the most refreshing movie surprises of the year, Kristen Wiig cranks the dial to 11 and delivers a powerhouse performance that is, at once, detached yet affecting, and entirely on point. As a lonely and unbalanced woman who hits the lottery jackpot, Wiig’s character reinvents herself as a host of a talk show in which she chooses to discuss only herself, or in her own words, “what I like to eat, my relationships with animals and who I think is a c—t.” A media satire on the surface, though much more beneath it, Welcome To Me reveals a thumping heart as a movie with brains, wit and heartbreak.
The Connection
Director: Cédric Jimenez
Starring: Jean Dujardin, Gilles Lellouche, Céline Sallette
Opens May 15
Academy Award winner Jean Dujardin stars as French police magistrate Pierre Michel, who gets cast as part of a six-year operation to bring down the kingpin of a major drug ring. Cédric Jimenez’ movie—with its quick cuts, jerky camerawork and frenetic montages—pays tribute to William Friedkin’s 1971 cult classic The French Connection while remaining entirely its own: shot on 35 mm film with a stylized throwback to the 70s, Jimenez’ Connection is a throwback with its own modern-era backbone.
Slow West
Director: John MacLean
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Ben Mendelsohn, Rory McCann
Opens May 15
For his directorial debut, John MacLean goes back to the 19th century to stage a love story centered around 17-year old Jay Cavendish (Kodi Smit-McPhee) who has travelled from Scotland to Colorado to be reunited with the woman he loves. Confronted with the dangers of the West, he teams up with a wandered names Silas (Michael Fassbender), who agrees to protect him for cash. Described as an American Western with European sensibilities, Slow West imbues into the venerable genre dark humor, love and greed for an end result that is refreshingly coherent and engaging. Slow West won the World Cinema Jury Prize at the 2015 Sundance festival.
Marie’s Story
Director: Jean-Pierre Améris
Starring: Isabelle Carré, Ariana Rivoire, Brigitte Catillon
Opens May 1st
Marie Heurtin was born blind and deaf. Sensible, delicate without being overly melodramatic, Marie’s Story tells the tale of Marie Heurtin (played by newcomer Ariana Rivoire, who is deaf though not blind) as she gets admitted to—though initially rejected from—a convent that teaches deaf girls sign language. The intimate tone highlights the movie’s emotional voice, respectfully capped by the central unobtrusive, affective performances.
Sunshine Superman
Director: Marah Strauch
Starring: John B. Macaulay, Marah Strauch, John Long
Opens May 22nd
Unreasonable insanity to some, thrill sport to others. Base jumping (the act of leaping from buildings, antennas, bridges and cliffs before saving your life with a parachute) is celebrated in Marah Strauch’s documentary, a movie that is, in essence, about ultimate freedom, and what it feels like, for a moment, to defy gravity.