Get to the cinema: The 10 most essential movies being released in May 2024
Unless you see a movie poster stretched over the side of a bus or you’re forced to watch a ten-second snippet of a film before your YouTube video, it can sometimes be difficult to know exactly what cinema is coming up in the following months. This is your whistle-stop tour that answers this question, preventing you from needing 20 different reminders on your phone that notify you of an upcoming release.
May marks the beginning of Hollywood’s summer movie season, but the most notable thing about the forthcoming months of releases is the sheer lack of big-budget flicks. The biggest of the bunch is, no doubt, George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road prequel Furiosa, starring Anya Taylor-Joy, but aside from this, movie lovers hoping for a bombastic start to the summer may be disappointed.
Such may be a harsh point of view, however, as there are some big studio flicks on the horizon, such as Fall Guy, starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, the long-awaited sequel Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes and the animated comedy If, featuring the beloved voice of Ryan Reynolds. Still, while these films may get some people excited, they’re not the kind of flicks that have us giddy.
Instead, May is dominated by some long-awaited arthouse releases from the likes of Rose Glass and Alice Rohrwacher, as well as a bunch of exciting re-releases.
The 10 most essential movie releases of May 2024:
Love Lies Bleeding (Rose Glass) – May 3rd
Five years after the release of her wondrous A24 horror film Saint Maud, British filmmaker Rose Glass is back with Love Lies Bleeding, a drama cut from a very different cloth. Telling the story of a gym manager who falls in love with a bodybuilder, the crime flick stars the likes of Kristen Stewart, Katy O’Brian and Dave Franco and has already made a significant splash at the Berlin Film Festival.
In our four-star review of the forthcoming film, we wrote: “Tense, hilarious, bleak, gruesome, passionate, nail-biting, and excruciating at points – often in the space of a single scene – Love Lies Bleeding is an audaciously exhilarating feature”.
Made In England: The Films Of Powell & Pressburger (David Hinton) – May 10th
Educate yourself with some essential film history this May and head to the cinema to watch David Hinton’s new documentary about the movies of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Known as two of the very best British directors of all time, the film will go into exactly why the directors were so revered, using unseen archive footage from the production of the duo’s movies.
Not only this, but as the trailer teases, the film will also feature considerable commentary from the great Martin Scorsese. Speaking about the influence of Powell in particular, Scorsese once stated: “I still find it extraordinary that I knew Michael Powell personally for 16 years — and, throughout that time, he was not only a support, but a guide, pushing me along, giving me confidence, keeping me bold in my own work”.
La Chimera (Alice Rohrwacher) – May 10th
You may have already heard about Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera, and this is because it has taken quite a while for it to be picked up by British distributors, having premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this time last year. Starring Josh O’Connor, whose profile has recently been elevated following the release of Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers, the timely film follows the curious story of archaeologists trading in black market relics.
Rohrwacher is a seasoned pro of European cinema, and her most recent film is yet another triumph, being included in our list of the 50 greatest movies of 2023. A unique and bold piece of filmmaking, La Chimera leaves you with a profound outlook on the meaning of life itself.
Shallow Grave (30th Anniversary) (Danny Boyle) – May 10th
These days, the British director Danny Boyle is championed as one of the very best filmmakers out there, but this certainly wasn’t the case back in 1994 when he released his feature film debut, Shallow Grave. Giving the director the necessary foundations to build his celebrated career, the form and style present in Shallow Grave would give him the confidence to make Trainspotting and The Beach in the following years.
Starring the likes of Ewan McGregor, Christopher Eccleston and Kerry Fox, the movie, which tells the story of three friends who discover a bounty of cash alongside the corpse of their deceased buddy, is receiving a re-release in British cinemas for its 30th anniversary.
Hoard (Luna Carmoon) – May 17th
Luna Carmoon’s Hoard reeks of the kind of movie that will be a bolt from the blue, capturing the attention of British film lovers across the country. Featuring Joseph Quinn, who made a name for himself in Netflix’s Stranger Things, and industry star Hayley Squires, the film follows a teenager who revisits her troubled childhood memories, which consisted of her mother’s struggles as a hoarder.
Hoard marks the debut of the screenwriter and director Luna Carmoon, with the creative having only previously released one short film to date. With British cinema currently fostering some excellent industry talents, Carmoon could, indeed, join the crew.
Rome, Open City (Re-release) (Roberto Rossellini) – May 17th
If you really want to educate yourself on the history of cinema, May is clearly quite a good month to do so, with Roberto Rossellini’s Rome, Open City returning to cinemas merely one week after the release of Made In England: The Films Of Powell & Pressburger. Rossellini’s classic represents one of the finest works of Italian neorealism, a post-war cinematic movement that defied generations of artistic oppression.
Far Out has been collaborating with the BFI for this season’s roll-out, with the curator Giulia Saccogna telling us about the movie: “It was a transitional film for a society coming out of 20 years of fascism, an essential testimony of the German occupation of the capital made at a time when Germans still occupied the North of Italy. In the film, based on actual events, four parallel stories are interwoven into a sort of fresco, where the reality of the devastation of war is presented in all its dynamism”.
Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg (Alexis Bloom, Svetlana Zill) – May 17th
Documentary cinema has thrived in recent years, partly due to the sheer dedication and commitment of the film distribution company Dogwoof. Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg is one of many exciting releases they’re getting ready to release this year, with the film following the Italian rock and roll star who grabbed hold of popular culture in the 1970s and 1980s.
Changing the style of The Rolling Stones, Pallenberg was an iconic figure. The documentary is sure to delve into her remarkable influence on the world of 20th-century music and her brief film career, which included appearances in Barbarella with Jane Fonda and Performance with Mick Jagger.
Furiosa (George Miller) – May 24th
While this list has focused on some exciting arthouse releases, everyone and their grandma is surely excited to see George Miller return to the world of Mad Max in all its insane glory. Coming a decade after the release of one of modern cinema’s greatest-ever action movies, Mad Max: Fury Road, Furiosa focuses on the titular character who played a key role in the 2014 reboot alongside Tom Hardy’s protagonist.
Originally played by Charlize Theron, this time, Anya Taylor-Joy will play a younger Furiosa, with the new movie delving into her fiery origins. With much more expectation on its shoulders, a lot is riding on the success of Furiosa, including the fate of this year’s summer movie season.
The Beast (Bertrand Bonello) – May 31st
If you’re a fan of Black Mirror but miss its dystopian sci-fi visions, then Bertrand Bonello’s Beast may be the perfect film for you to check out before May blows its final breeze. With a spectacular lead duo of Léa Seydoux and George MacKay, the story is set in a near future where AI has seized control of almost every single aspect of daily life, even suppressing emotions to the point of violence.
A sprawling drama set over several time periods, Bonello’s film looks like an inspiring piece of cinema. With modern movies so starved of originality, make sure you give Bonello and The Beast the time of day before May is through.
Gasoline Rainbow (Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross) – May 31st
The Ross brothers may have passed you by back in 2020 with the release of Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets, one of the year’s finest documentaries that didn’t receive the credit it deserved, thanks, partially, to that pesky Covid-19 pandemic. Their documentary is worth catching up on quickly, too, with their new film Gasoline Rainbow due to hit cinemas on May 31st.
Distributed by Mubi, their new movie is a road trip coming-of-age flick that tells the story of five teenagers who venture to the Pacific coast to celebrate their departure from high school. There’s certainly nothing like a springtime road movie to warm your cockles for summer.