MAY (2003)“
May” is the story of a lonely twenty-something girl named, you guessed it, May (Angela Bettis). May has lived a lonely life with her only friend being a doll named Suzy that her mother gave her when she was young. Being stuck with a lazy eye as a kid, May had to have a pirates patch covering her eye, which made this otherwise cute little girl look strange to her classmates. In the beginning we see a scene of her at school and a boy going up to her and asking her if she’s a pirate. This made me think, “If only
Pirates of The Caribbean had been out she could have been seen as cool.” Of course that’s likely not true though and she’d still have been picked on. Being rejected at a young age leads May to become an outsider who, even as an adult, is unsure of how to act around people. But May longs for a friend other than her doll Suzy; she wants a real friend, someone to really see her. One day she eyes a guy named Adam (Jeremy Sisto), whom she finds to be “perfect,” and is especially taken with his hands. It’s obvious to him that May is definitely “different” and after May asks him if he thinks she’s weird he even tells her he does, but that he likes weird. Alas May is finally happy. But that doesn’t last long as he eventually finds May to be too weird for him and blows her off. May is left very hurt for awhile until Polly (Anna Faris), the lesbian receptionist at the veterinary clinic where she works (whose neck May finds beautiful), begins to take an interest in her. Desperate for someone to love her and believing Polly could be it and she might finally be rid of her loneliness, May succumbs to Polly’s fun, sexy, and seductive ways. Figuring this means they are now an item May is hurt to find Polly with another girl. Polly wasn’t exactly clear about her not being the kind of girl to settle down into a monogamous relationship. After being hurt again May comes to the conclusion that people are cruel and flawed, made up of perfect parts but not perfect wholes. She begins to crack more and more until she reaches her breaking point when her doll and only friend Suzy is broken. Now completely alone May decides to do what her mother told her when she was young, which is that if you can’t find a friend you should make one. I don’t think her mother meant literally though. But that’s exactly what she decides to do - “make” a “perfect” friend - out of human parts. But not just any parts, she’s going to take each person’s best part to put together in the form of a human-sized doll, turning these perfect parts into a “perfect whole.”
“
May” is one weird, fun, funny, sad, and slightly disturbing film. It's a mix of so many different things. It's a strangely beautiful and twisted character study about a lonely girl who just wants a friend. I couldn't help but feel for her. She's odd and shy, yet cute and sweet. I was intrigued by her and wanted her to find happiness. No matter how pathetic her character would become I just couldn't stop caring. I wished I could reach out to her and be her friend. Nobody deserves to be so lonely. And it’s really tragic because things wouldn’t have had to be this way. She could have turned out a regular, happy, confident girl, but due to the dismissal she received from classmates she was forced into isolation. I don’t even consider May to be a psycho. She certainly wasn’t all along. Her psychotic behavior was brought on by the shunning she received from society. Psychos aren’t always born; more often than not they are made. Some people will dismiss May as crazy, but others will understand how she got the way she did and will feel sorry for her more than anything. Everyone has disliked someone so much to the point of thinking about doing horrible things to them, the only difference is that she actually acted on them. For a while May was feeling accepted and like she was normal but then she had it taken from her. To her she had nowhere else to turn and finally snapped. It’s easy to judge but you can’t know for sure what you’d do if you were in her shoes. If everyone rejected you and you didn’t have anyone who knows how you might react. May had to spend most of her life lonely and depressed, and it’s completely understandable how being friendless and made fun of for so long could lead to the events that take place. If I had been in her situation I might have done the same thing. I doubt I would have wanted to make a doll out of human parts (for one I can‘t sew), but I still might have wanted to do away with some people. If anything it has a good message about being careful how you treat others. People don’t realize the effect they can have on someone. If she had not been ignored or would have had a friend, a good one, then things could have been entirely different. But things just don't exactly work out that way. Once she began to crack and take the plunge into madness it was clear to see how it could happen. That doesn't mean that the events that unfolded weren't shocking, because they definitely were, but we see why our heroine does what she does. We can't help but want things to be different though, and for her to go down a different path, but when she doesn't, we come along for the ride anyway, following her wherever she takes us. Whether or not you feel for the character will play a big part in determining what you think of the movie. I give props to the filmmaker for not making her perfect and manipulating you into caring about her. He doesn’t ask that of the viewer and doesn’t make it incredibly easy to care about May. But some people will find it hard not to care about her, and I’m one of them.
Angela Bettis gives an amazing performance as May. Had it not been for Charlize Theron’s equally amazing performance in “
Monster” Bettis would have been my choice for the best lead female performance of 2003. It wasn’t easy to choose between them because even though Theron had the astonishing physical transformation that Bettis didn’t Bettis gives such a layered performance, showing so many emotions and making us feel all kinds of things. She was very natural, and sometimes her body language spoke to us more than her words. She made it so we’d just know what the character was feeling and could feel her cracking more and more as the movie went on. She was sweet, sad, scary, pathetic, and yet strangely attractive. Bettis makes us care about her character from the beginning and we never really stop, even when she goes psychotic. Bettis fully embodied this character; she became May in every way. But Theron ended up doing the same in “
Monster,” fully transforming herself into this person and making us believe she really was Aileen. If you watch a documentary and see interviews with the real Aileen Wuornos it’s remarkable how alike her Theron was in the movie. She carried herself exactly the same, from the way she walked to the way she talked. She also looked almost exactly like her; as close to humanly possible anyway. But I’m not including the physical transformation and am just comparing the performances, not how well the makeup crew did in making one look amazingly different than they really look. It’s not an easy choice at all, but Theron ends up beating out Bettis, putting Bettis in the number two spot. It doesn’t mean Bettis isn’t still terrific though. In a perfect world Angela Bettis would have gotten an Oscar nomination for her performance, but unfortunately it was obvious her performance would be overlooked by the Academy because “
May” just isn’t “Oscar material” and the movie didn’t make enough money and wasn’t well known enough for them to even consider it. But even though they didn’t honor it the fans of this instant cult classic will always remember it and Bettis’s performance will be respected and considered great by many. I had seen Bettis in other movies before this, but after seeing her here I will always remember her as May. Angela Bettis isn’t the only one to give a great performance though. Anna Faris (
Scary Movie series,
The Hot Chick,
Lost in Translation) gives a great supporting performance as Polly. I've always been a big fan of this underrated actress, who is actually my personal favorite. I adore her. From her hilarious performances as Cindy in the “
Scary Movie” flicks to her adorable-as-hell performance in “
The Hot Chick,” I just can’t help but be crazy about Anna Faris. She's a great comedic actress and shows she has even more range here. While hardly incredibly serious, her role as Polly is still more serious than the parts she usually plays. She’s a blast as Polly, both funny and sexy. Anna always has the greatest facial expressions and can say absolutely anything and make it sound funny or cool, usually she makes them sound both. Thanks to her having so many great lines here “
May” ends up being one of the most quotable movies of 2003 for me.
Here’s an example of many of the cool and funny lines she has in the movie, which may not sound like anything special but when she says them they become it.
Polly: You should give me a call sometime. We could hang out, eat some melons or something.
Polly: Do you like pussy?
May: What?
Polly: Cats. Do you like pussy cats? Gee you’re a nasty little thing aren’t you.
Polly: It’s girls’ night out tonight, you want to come? I know, you need your beauty rest. Not much of it though.
(The way she says “not much of it though” is priceless! Sexy and cool!)
Polly: You’re jealous! Aw May, I can kick her out if you really want me to. You know you’re my main momma.
Polly: Shut up, hooker!
Polly: You’re funny! You want to watch me file?
Polly: Thanks for the heads up doll!
Polly: Dance with me? Pleasy please?
Polly: What’s giving you the sads doll? Not me I hope.
Polly: Ah, you crazy bitch! Actually, I kind of liked it. Do me again!
Polly doesn’t have all of the great lines though. May has a line that I didn’t really notice the first time around, at least not how funny and delightfully crazy it was, but I noticed once I saw it again and almost laughed out loud.
*****SLIGHT SPOILERS***** It’s where we hear her yell at Suzy the doll behind closed doors, “I told you to face the goddamn wall!”
*****END SPOILERS***** And I love the part where May calls Polly on the phone towards the end and she’s really cool and confident (which she becomes after she decides these people around her are history) and says, “Hey Polly this is May. Happy Halloween. I was thinking about popping by later to bring you your new blouse. Show you my costume. Give me a call if that’s cool. Miss you. Kisses. Call me, ok?” The music in this scene is great too. There are other cool lines she had as well, but most of my favorites came from Polly.
As Polly Anna Faris gives one of my favorite supporting performances of 2003. If you never took notice of her before, chances are you will notice her here.
“
May” also has one of my favorite scenes in a movie of 2003. It’s where Polly and May are getting intimate and Polly says to May, “Do you feel weird doing this?” To which May replies, “I am weird” in a way that makes you think “Aww” because it’s kind of sad. I find the scene very well-done though. It’s sweet and sexy, but tasteful and not exploitive at all. And the music works great. It’s a beautiful scene that I came to appreciate more and more with each viewing. Speaking of this though some people find themselves confused as to how if May was interested in Adam she could now be a lesbian. But I personally don’t think May was a lesbian. I think she just wanted to be loved so badly that she was in a situation where she would take it any way she could get it. It is definitely possible she was bisexual though, but human sexuality isn’t black and white so I guess we’ll never know. And it doesn’t even matter much if we know this little detail because it’s not the point. But some who aren’t enlightened on human sexuality will think her being able to be with either means it’s a choice and won’t get it.
Writer/Director Lucky McKee proves to be a great new talent. It's hard to believe this is his first feature film. Very impressive if you ask me. I'm looking forward to whatever he does next. If it's anything as wonderful as "
May" then it should be great. Also deserving of a mention is composer Jaye Barnes-Luckett. She does a terrific job here, always providing the right music at the right moment. Awesome selection of songs and score music.
“
May” is original, well-acted, well-written, well-directed, etc... It's just twistedly wonderful! It's too bad it wasn't given a better release in theaters, but it's not exactly a mainstream movie either. In fact it might be best that it didn’t get a much bigger release because it’s one many mainstream audiences would hate and the more people that saw it, even if it happened to be successful financially, the worse the word-of-mouth would be and I’d hate to have to hear a bunch of people trashing it all of the time. It’s a movie that would be very well-received in art-house theaters, as it was, but not by the masses. I actually think that if Lions Gate Films would have slowly expanded it in theaters and let the word-of-mouth grow and grow and shown really cool TV spots with quotes saying how disturbing it was that this could have been a mini-sleeper hit, possibly reaching over 500 theaters, which Lions Gate released their crappy horror flick from the same year “
House of 1000 Corpses” in right off the bat. Even though most people thought that movie sucked it actually did surprisingly well in that amount of theaters and had better legs at the Box Office than something like it normally would have. I figured that if people would have seen “
May” and some people would go telling their friends/family/co-workers that it was really disturbing (I don’t find it incredibly disturbing, but it is somewhat and there are a lot of people out there who found it to be, especially if you have a weak stomach) then that would only make more curious about it and then they would see it and say something to people they knew, and it would go on and on. But now I think maybe things worked out for the best. As is I can take comfort in it being a small hidden gem that most of the people who will discover it on DVD will like or love and I don‘t have to hear a bunch of negative comments about it. It's definitely not for everyone. It's bizarre, morbid, quirky, and gutsy. It doesn't shy away from much. In fact, it has one of the best and most realistic slit throats I've ever witnessed on screen. You’re likely to either love this film or hate it and the “what the hell?” ending seems to be what will decide for you. Some might like it the whole way through but then the ending will make them hate it. But don't let that scare you, it's definitely worth a look for any horror fan, or any film fan in general. Just keep an open mind and if you like weird, which I do (depending on the type of weirdness and as long as it’s not too weird), and think this sounds like something you’d like then chances are you will. This is one that I’d put into the artsy horror film category for the people who like to see something a little different. And for some it will end up being a deep and profound little film.
“
May” is not a perfect film. It does have its flaws. Like the people in the movie and people in general, the film has perfect parts but isn’t perfect as a whole. However most movies aren’t perfect and neither are people. But when you love someone or something, their flaws end up not mattering and they become perfect to you, even if they aren’t literally perfect. And for me this applies to “
May.” It’s not perfect but I love it anyway, flaws and all. I'm proud to have this wicked and haunting film as a part of my collection. It's simply A-MAY-ZING!
Grade: 9/10 (A-)Note(s):
*****************************SPOILERS*****************************The first time I watched “
May” I didn’t quite “get” the ending. But it didn’t make me hate the movie like it would some. Still, I really wanted to know what exactly happened at the end. I originally thought she was just moving the arm herself or something, but then when I saw it again I noticed it didn’t look like she could be at all. I heard different theories about it, like that she was just imagining it, that she was moving it herself, and that she actually died. The one about her dying shocked me and made me think that couldn’t possibly be right. But I knew when I showed this movie to people they would want to know what happened exactly and I didn’t want to say that I didn’t know. So I talked to the film’s composer, Jaye Barnes-Luckett, who is good friends with the film’s writer and director, Lucky McKee, and even played May in Lucky’s short film of it that he did in college. I asked her what Lucky intended the ending to mean and she had this to say:
Jaye:
That's probably the most popular question and I can't believe we neglected to touch on that on the DVD audio commentary. What Lucky more commonly says is that he wanted to leave the ending ambiguous in such a way that the audience gets to decide what they think the reality is. *Is* May dying? *Is* Amy really alive? Is May just imagining it? No one is wrong with the guesses, by the way he deliberately left the ending, except, it's *definitely* not her moving the hand itself, physically or by telekinesis or something. Lucky slips on occasion and refers to May as "dying" but he seems to mean just in the sense of the crazed version of her dying, in that regardless of whether Amy is really alive or if May imagines it, whether May lives or dies, that she finally found happiness at that moment. Me: I’ll admit it would be nice if there were a solid right or wrong answer for the ending, but since there isn’t do either you or Lucky have a certain way in which you interpret it? I think it would help give me and others a direction to go in in how we end up taking it.
Jaye:
I see what you mean about the ending. For me personally, most of the time, I feel like Amy is really coming to life but that May is dying... and I see the hand stroking thing as kind of Amy's way of "saying hello and goodbye" at the same time; calming and soothing May and confirming that May got her wish and did have a chance to enjoy a fleeting moment of a real flesh and blood perfect friend. My second choice of explanation is that May is dying but that she is imagining the Amy thing. In both cases, I feel like it only makes sense for May to die. It still makes me feel for her and find it bittersweet because in a sense she *is* paying for her crimes by probably bleeding to death at her own hand just as she gets a real friend, which she got as a result of her crimes. She doesn't get to enjoy it physically for long. Otherwise, you're faced with the scenario that if either May or Amy lives for longer than another few days, then the reality is that several people are dead and cops are going to be looking for them. I don't think May's world is that fantastical that we could explain that she and Amy went off to some magical land together where they're skipping in the fields and sewing mittens together, you know? May would be thrown in a psych ward and I really don't think cops would appreciate seeing a body made of various parts, alive or otherwise.
So anyway, my personal choice of ending is that May physically dies shortly after experiencing Amy's touch, she experiences true happiness for once, and maybe Amy and she meet again in some other time, place, life or whatever. About your other question on Lucky's opinion of the ending, he never answers that question. He just leaves it at the fact that May gets what she wants, so it's a happy ending. Saying more would likely alter the feeling he wanted to leave everyone with. And I’m happy with that. I’m going to go with the theory that May dies but she had her very own friend as she died so she died happy. It makes the ending more powerful and bittersweet, and I like that. I still felt for her no matter what she did and wanted her to find happiness for once in her life, even if it didn’t last long. But the important thing is that she was happy when she died. It would have been lame if it ended with the cops coming and her getting hauled off to jail or something. I didn’t want to see her get locked up. We spend an hour getting to know this character and even though she ends up going crazy and killing some people I didn’t hate her. I found it heartbreaking during the end when she was sitting in front of the mirror and broke down because “Amy” couldn’t see her. And I don’t think it’s wrong to find yourself sympathizing with her even after she kills some people because she’s still human and we can see how she got to this point. You just understand how she got to the point of doing what she did, whether it was right or wrong.
Something a lot of people might not get is why May bit Adam’s lip in one scene. Well, this was after Adam showed her the cannibal video he made and she had never been in a relationship before and didn’t know how things were supposed to happen or how you’re supposed to act. She thought his cannibal video was an indication of what he was “into.” So then she bit his lip, causing him to bleed. I know it might seem weird and crazy, but she didn’t have any experience dating or hanging out with anyone and just wanted to please him and thought this was what he wanted. So in a crazy way it makes utter sense.
I had read in reviews while the movie was in theaters that the scene with the blind kids was disturbing and it sounded like it would be. So I watched it expecting to be disturbed but didn’t even end up finding it disturbing. I actually thought the kids were kind of stupid for continuing to crawl through the glass and fight over the doll when they were getting cut and could obviously feel it. Yet they didn’t seem to care and didn’t act like they were hurting too badly. I don’t think they were even bawling or anything. This is almost wickedly funny.
***************************END SPOILERS**************************
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HAPPY HALLOWEEN 
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