May Screening Picks (NY)
Miyazaki in 35mm, the perfect Mother's Day screening, Christian Petzold's first feature & a ton of new releases...
Just when I’m about to cancel my Metrograph membership they reel me back in…
This month’s picks are exclusively from Metrograph and BAM in part because that’s where I have memberships and my movie watching budget last month was obscene — but also because they have a lot of special screenings this month I’m dying to see, okay??
New releases (& limited re-releases) to catch in theaters this month: Magic Farm, Vulcanizadora, Friendship, Blue Sun Palace, Bonjour Tristesse (2025), The Surfer, Caught by the Tides, Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, The Phoenician Scheme, Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (!!!)
5/9, 3:30PM - Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives @ Metrograph - I missed Uncle Boonmee in theaters when it came out and have only ever watched it at home in fragments, which feels wrong. I’m stoked to see Sayombhu Mukdeeprom’s beautiful cinematography on the big screen. Dare I pair it for a diabolical/stacked Metrograph triple feature with Atlantics and Caché?? (Also screening 5/10, 5/16, 5/17)
5/11, 12PM - Imitation of Life @ Metrograph - A really good piece of Mother’s Day programming from Metrograph. Maybe my favorite Sirk movie, and one of my favorite explorations of motherhood this side of Almodóvar. Screening in 4K! Lush! (Also screening 5/9)
5/16, 5/18 - La Sentinelle @ Metrograph - I’ve never seen this but I did a double take when I saw that it’s A) directed by Arnaud Desplechin whose film A Christmas Tale is a fave and B) an espionage thriller. Don’t really need more than that. Metrograph’s blurb reads: “An espionage film unlike any you’ve ever seen, Desplechin’s knotty, outré thriller stars Emmanuel Salinger as a 25-year-old raised in the company of ambassadors and diplomats who, on arriving in Paris to continue his studies in forensic medicine, discovers a shrunken human head in his baggage, an inexplicable occurrence which draws him into a labyrinthine conspiracy haunted by the specters of the Cold War.”
5/17, 7PM - Malcolm X @ BAM - With Spike Lee’s new film Highest 2 Lowest (yes, a “reinterpretation” of Kurosawa’s seminal High and Low, starring Denzel Washington — their first collab since Inside Man) premiering at Cannes this month, it feels like a great time to revisit one of my favorite Lee movies + Denzel performances. Screening as part of BAM & Alfreda’s Cinema’s Malcolm X at 100, The Moving Image festival.
5/23, 7:15PM - Cries & Whispers @ Metrograph - I’m in the middle of a love affair with Bergman’s prose writing and am trying to rewatch as many of his films as I can in theaters. I famously had a movie club with some friends during Covid and one of us picked Cries & Whispers and then we never met again. Absolutely brutal emotionally and beautifully shot. (Also screening the night of Sunday 5/18 but that feels like it would send me into an existential tailspin for the rest of the next week so I’m going to catch it on a Friday and ruin my weekend instead.)
5/24, 11AM - My Neighbor Totoro (35mm) @ Metrograph - A 35mm matinee of Totoro?? I can’t think of a better way to spend a Saturday morning. I haven’t seen Totoro since I was little, when it was one of my absolute favorite movies. Can’t wait to see it surrounded by the chicest kiddos in NY. Miyazaki’s note while he was preparing the film just made me cry: “My Neighbor Totoro aims to be a happy and heartwarming film, a film that lets the audience go home with pleasant, glad feelings. Lovers will feel each other to be more precious, parents will fondly recall their childhoods, and children will start exploring the thickets behind shrines and climbing trees to try to find a Totoro. This is the kind of film I want to make.” Gah! (Also screening 5/26 & 5/30)
5/24, 1PM - The State I Am In @ Metrograph - I guess I’m spending this Saturday at Metrograph. Said “oh shit!!!” out loud when I saw this listed — Christian Petzold’s first feature that is very difficult to see in the US. My love for his filmmaking is well documented on Never Cursed. An absolute treat to see a new-to-me Petzold feature in theaters. (Also screening 5/26)
5/24, 5/26 - The Innocents @ Metrograph - I don’t know why Metrograph keeps programming my dream triple features but here we are. My writer’s group has been trying to get me to see this gothic horror classic for over a year. I promise I’ll see it this month.
5/25, 1:30PM - Hanami @ BAM - I’ve been wanting to see Denise Fernandes’s Hanami since it won the Best Emerging Director Award and a special mention for First Feature Awards Locarno last year. It’s screening as part of FilmAfrica 2025 along with an amazing larger program. BAM’s description reads: “On a remote volcanic island that everyone wants to leave, Nana has learned to stay. Her mother, Nia, who suffers from a mysterious illness, left the island soon after her birth. When Nana comes down with a high fever, she is sent to the foot of a volcano for treatment—and encounters a world suspended between dreams and reality. Years later, when Nana is a teenager, Nia returns.”
xoH