May Movie Preview

Horror/Sci-Fi - dir. Kane Parsons
In theaters May 29

What originated as a creepypasta on a 4chan board and evolved into a web series on director Kane Parsons' YouTube (under Kane Pixels) is now a major motion picture. Written with Will Soodik, Parsons' debut feature follows Dr. Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve) as she enters a yellow-walled dimension in search of her missing patient, a furniture store owner played by Chiwetel Ejiofor. Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, Lukita Maxwell, and Avan Jogia also star in this unnerving exploration of a seemingly endless maze.

Concert Documentary - dir. James Cameron and Billie Eilish
In theaters May 8

Billie Eilish and director James Cameron bring her Hit Me Hard and Soft Tour to the big screen. Using the 3D technology Cameron pioneered, the co-directors will try to immerse audiences into a concert like no one has ever experienced in a movie theater.

Drama - dir. Elliot Tuttle
In theaters May 8

Writer-director Elliot Tuttle's provocative two-hander stars Kieron Moore as Aaron Eagle, a camboy who agrees to spend the night with an anonymous client (Reed Birney) in exchange for $50,000. A tense night of probing questions from a man in a balaclava turns taboo when the man is unmasked and revealed to have a connection to Aaron's past.

Foreign/Drama - dir. Milagros Mumenthaler
In theaters May 29

After traveling the festival circuit in 2025, the latest from Swiss-Argentinian writer-director Milagros Mumenthaler comes to select theaters this month before expanding in June. This intimate character study follows Lina (Isabel Aimé González Sola), an accomplished designer who, while accepting an award for her career in Switzerland, decides to jump in an icy winter lake. After being rescued, she returns home to Buenos Aires where she is greeted by her 5-year-old daughter Sofia (Emma Fayo Duarte) and husband Pedro (Esteban Bigliardi). But Lina doesn't find peace; instead Mumenthaler continues to inventively pull back the layers of a woman in crisis.

Comedy/Sci-Fi - dir. Boots Riley
In theaters May 22

After creating the Metacritic Must-Watch streaming series I'm A Virgo, writer-director Boots Riley (Sorry to Bother You) returns to theaters with a feature that follows a crew of professional shoplifters (or "boosters") known as the Velvet Gang—Corvette (Keke Palmer), Sade (Naomi Ackie), and Mariah (Taylour Paige)—who take aim at cutthroat fashion mogul Christine Smith (Demi Moore) after she steals one of Corvette's designs. Set in a surreal version of the Bay Area, Riley's crime caper has a lot on its mind, but its a success thanks to his original vision and a deep cast that includes Poppy Liu, Eiza González, LaKeith Stanfield, Will Poulter, Eric André, and Don Cheadle.

Action/Drama - dir. Guy Ritchie
In theaters May 15

Since his live-action remake of Aladdin, director Guy Ritchie has returned to the action cinema for which he made his name, either in the stripped down Wrath of Man, the war films (serious and not) The Covenant and The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, or the adventure/spy genre (Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, Fountain of Youth) into which his latest falls. Re-teaming with previous collaborators and working from his own script, Ritchie sends Sid (Henry Cavill), Bronco (Jake Gyllenhaal), and Sofia (Eiza González) on an impossible mission to recover a billion dollar fortune stolen by a ruthless tyrant with his own army. Kristofer Hivju, Fisher Stevens, and Rosamund Pike also star.

Comedy/Drama - dir. Anders Thomas Jensen
In theaters May 29

Denmark 's Anders Thomas Jensen, the writer-director of Riders of Justice and Men & Chicken, once again collaborates with his countrymen, Mads Mikkelsen and Nikolaj Lie Kaas, for this dark comedy about brothers Manfred and Anker, who are reunited after Anker's prison stint for bank robbery ends. Manfred is the only one who knows where the loot is buried, but his various psychological problems, including his belief that he's John Lennon, make it impossible for Anker to find it. As with his other films, Jensen finds the humanity in the mayhem.

Action-Adventure/Fantasy - dir. Simon McQuoid
In theaters May 8

Five years ago, Mortal Kombat may have missed with critics, but it pleased fans of the video game. Now comes a sequel, also directed by Simon McQuoid, that introduces Johnny Cage (Karl Urban) as the champions of Earthrealm battle each other while trying to defeat the dark rule of Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford). Returning to battle are Hiroyuki Sanada, Jessica McNamee, Ludi Lin, Joe Taslim, Mehcad Brooks, Josh Lawson, and Tadanobu Asano.

Horror - dir. Curry Barker
In theaters May 15

A hit with critics and audiences when it premiered at TIFF last year, writer-director-editor Curry Barker's feature debut stars Michael Johnston as Bear, who has been in love with his childhood friend Nikki (Inde Navarrette) for as long as he can remember. When he once again fails to tell her how he feels, Bear makes a wish in hopes of winning over Nikki, but what he gets from his childhood crush is far from what he hoped. Barker demonstrates an impressive command of tone as he takes the simple phrase "be careful what you wish for" to horrific ends.

Musical/Comedy - dir. John Carney
In limited release May 29 (expands nationwide on June 5)

Writer-director John Carney (Once, Begin Again, Sing Street, Flora and Son) hits the sweet spot again with another movie about music and romance, but in this case it's a bromance with a little bit of betrayal. Rick (Paul Rudd) is a wedding singer. Danny (Nick Jonas) is a former boy-band star. When they meet at one of Rick's gigs, they spend the night jamming and bonding over their shared love of music. Months later, when Danny reignites his career with one of Rick's songs, Rick sets out for the recognition he deserves, putting everything he cares about at risk. The supporting cast includes Carney stalwart Jack Reynor, Havana Rose Liu, Beth Fallon, Rory Keenan and Peter McDonald, who co-wrote the script and whose feature acting debut, I Went Down, is worth a look on Prime Video.

Drama - dir. Anthony Maras
In theaters May 29

Director Anthony Maras (Hotel Mumbai) collaborates with playwright David Haig to adapt his 2014 stage play about the crucial decisions made by General Dwight D. Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser) and Captain James Stagg (Andrew Scott) in the 72 hours leading up to D-Day. We know their final choice— to launch the most dangerous seaborne invasion in history—but a fine group of actors, including Kerry Condon, Chris Messina, and Damian Lewis, take us back to when the best course of action wasn't so obvious.

Drama - dir. Olivia Newman
Streams May 8 on Netflix

Sally Field, Lewis Pullman, Dan Payne, Kathy Baker, Joan Chen, Sofia Black-D'Elia, and Colm Meaney star in an adaptation of Shelby Van Pelt's best-selling novel about a widow who forms a bond with a giant Pacific octopus (and some humans, too) while working at an aquarium. Olivia Newman (Where the Crawdads Sing) directs from a script that she co-wrote with John Whittington (Sonic the Hedgehog 2 & 3).

Foreign/Drama - dir. Chie Hayakawa
In theaters May 29

After earning a special mention from the 2022 Camera d 'Or jury for Plan 75, writer-director Chie Hayakawa returned to Cannes in 2025 with this coming-of-age story set in suburban Tokyo in 1987. Eleven-year-old Fuki's father, Keiji, is battling a terminal illness, and her mother, Utako, is constantly stressed out from working and caring for Keiji, leaving Fuki (Yui Suzuki) alone to fall deeper into her own fantasy world. It's a rich and tender look at how grief and imagination play out in the mind of one young girl.

Drama/Horror/Sci-Fi - dir. Natalie Erika James
In theaters May 22 (and streams on Shudder in July)

The latest from Relic and Apartment 7A writer-director Natalie Erika James follows Hana (Midori Francis), a medical student obsessed with losing weight. When she tries a new diet pill and discovers what it is made of, a sinister force begins to terrorize her. Early reviews from this year's Sundance Film Festival found it a little overstuffed thematically but noted plenty of gory scares for horror hounds.

Comedy/Family - dir. Kyle Balda
In theaters May 8

Screenwriter Craig Mazin is a long way from Chernobyl and The Last of Us with this adaptation of author Leonie Swann's novel Three Bags Full. Director Kyle Balda is also mixing things up, moving from animation (Despicable Me 3, Minions: The Rise of Gru) to this live-action hybrid about a flock of sheep determined to solve the murder of their beloved shepherd (Hugh Jackman). As suspects appear, including a long-lost daughter played by Molly Gordon, and the shepherd's lawyer (Emma Thompson) gets involved, the sheep attempt to push the village's bumbling policeman (Nicholas Braun) for a thorough investigation. Voicing the sheep in this Mother's Day weekend family entertainment are Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Chris O 'Dowd, Patrick Stewart, Bryan Cranston, Regina Hall, Bella Ramsey, and Brett Goldstein.

Drama - dir. Ildikó Enyedi
In theaters May 8

After the misstep of The Story of My Wife, Hungarian director Ildikó Enyedi, best known for her 2017 Golden Bear-winner On Body and Soul , is back in critical favor with this story of how three lives are connected to the same ginkgo tree over more than a century. Each time period features its own distinct cinematography as Enyedi takes us to 1908, when the university accepts its first female student (Luna Wedler, winner of the Marcello Mastroianni Best Young Actor Award at the 2025 Venice Film Festival); to 1972, when a student keeps watch over a geranium; and finally to 2020, when a visiting neuroscientist from Hong Kong (Tony Leung) begins to experiment on the old tree. While the tree is the real star of the film, Silent Friend also features Léa Seydoux, Enzo Brumm, Sylvester Groth, and Martin Wuttke.

Sci-Fi/Action-Adventure - dir. Jon Favreau
In theaters May 22

The first Star Wars movie to hit theaters since the poorly received Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker is a continuation of the popular streaming television series The Mandalorian. Directed by Jon Favreau, the creator of the series, from a script he co-wrote with new Lucasfilm president Dave Filoni and Noah Kloor, the film follows bounty hunter Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu as they are recruited by the New Republic to help fight what remains of the evil Empire. Will the film, featuring Sigourney Weaver as Colonel Ward and the voice of Jeremy Allen White as Rotta the Hutt, look and feel like a movie—or just an extended TV episode?

Drama/Thriller - dir. Daniel Roher
In theaters May 22

Canadian director Daniel Roher (The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist, Navalny, Blink) transitions from documentary to narrative filmmaking with this story of an aging piano tuner (Dustin Hoffman) and his apprentice Niki (Leo Woodall), whose condition, hyperacusis, makes him extra-sensitive to everyday sounds, forcing him to wear earplugs. When Niki discovers an aptitude for safe-cracking and falls for a music student played by Havana Rose Liu, his life takes a few surprising turns. This combination of romance and crime-thriller features performances by Lior Raz, Tovah Feldshuh, and Jean Reno.

WANT MORE FILMS?
View our Movie Release Calendar for a complete list of titles headed to theaters, VOD, and streaming in May and beyond.