May
A young social outcast goes to great measures to find the perfect friend in this debut horror feature from director Lucky McKee. Set apart from her peers as a child due to her lazy eye, May's only friend and confidant was a delicate doll encased in glass. Though as a young adult May has learned to control her lazy eye with glasses and contacts, her introverted tendencies always seem to hinder her search for the perfect friend. Walking down the street one day, May happens across a young man tenderly caressing the damage of a wrecked car and falls in love with his seemingly perfect hands. As May and Adam (Jeremy Sisto) begin to spend more time together, the quirky couple seem to have much in common, and May believes that she might have finally happened across the perfect boy. Her deep-rooted psychological problems slowly surface, however, and Adam is gradually driven away, leaving the vulnerable May in the company of amorous co-worker Polly (Anna Faris). It soon becomes obvious to May that, though various acquaintances seem to have perfect traits, they never add up to a perfect whole -- leading the creative and demented young girl to her own unique method of creating the perfect friend. more..
Director: Lucky McKee
Starring: Angela Bettis, Jeremy Sisto, Anna Faris, James Duval, Nichole Hiltz
The movie subtly darkens its tone until, when the horrifying ending arrives, we can see how we got there. There is a final shot that would get laughs in another kind of film, but May earns the right to it, and it works, and we understand it.
McKee, like Amenabar, knows how to position his film against type -- which ultimately makes May a refreshing, macabre tale.
Though ultimately too waterlogged with student-film self-seriousness to revel fully in its low-rent joie de cleaver -- nevertheless taps into a furious atavistic energy that reflects well on the filmmaker and his fully committed cast.
Writer-director McKee's arch comic dialogue (i.e., "We'll hang out and eat some melons or something") is out of synch with the creepy horror he wields.
Satisfyingly, May also turns out to be lowdown genre fun, a film that nearly makes up in slacker wit and high-spirited gore what it lacks in budget and elegance.
Best DVD Release
Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films (2004)
Angela Bettis
Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film (2003)
Best Actress
Fangoria Chainsaw Awards (2004)
Lucky McKee
Gérardmer Film Festival (2003)
Angela Bettis
Málaga International Week of Fantastic Cinema (2003)
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