One-note stoner comedy tells the story of continually high Jane (Anna Faris). Jane’s day gets even more complicated when she accidentally eats pot-laced cupcakes and must now accomplish a series of errands and tasks even more stoned than usual.
Comedy from indie filmmaker Gregg Araki is basically a three minute Saturday Night Live type skit stretched out over 80 minutes from Dylan Haggerty’s script. Despite a cute and funny performance from Faris, as the perpetually-in-a-fog Jane and some funny bits, the film and it’s scenario wear out it’s welcome long before we reach the amusement park-set finale. Araki has a buoyant and colorful style, but there just isn’t enough laughs or story to make it worth sitting through almost 90 minutes of Jane’s weed induced hi-jinxs. Also stars Adam Brody, Jane Lynch, John Krasinski and with narration by Roscoe Lee Brown.
May is the feature film debut of writer/director Lucky McKee and tells the story of eccentric, strange and shy May (Angela Bettis) who works at a veterinary clinic, who likes people only for certain parts of them and has an old doll in a glass display box as her only friend. But May starts to try and come out of her shell when she happens upon handsome mechanic and wannabe filmmaker Adam (Jeremy Sisto) and starts getting hit upon by the sexy receptionist at work, Polly (Anna Faris). May starts to see Adam and has an affair with Polly, but her odd behavior and interest in morbid things pushes both of them away and as the emotionally troubled May tries to deal with all the rejection, she remembers the words of her mother…”If you can’t find a friend, make one.”…and with gruesome results.
Lucky Mckee creates a film that is both disturbing and whimsical at the same time. Despite being a very emotionally awkward and troubled young woman, we like May and feel bad for her when she scares people away with her bizarre behavior and over-eagerness to get attached to someone. When her behavior turns violent, it’s shocking, yet, she still comes across as sympathetic, as the people she encounters appear shallow and self centered and don’t evoke our sympathy when May turns to her gruesome solution to her social isolation. Even Adam, who seems like a nice guy who legitimately likes May, has a jerk side to him that comes out when May doesn’t get that it’s over and he says some very mean and insensitive things about her. After all, she just wants to be loved. And this is where Mckee shows some real promise with his first feature as he takes a character who is well within Norman Bates territory, but makes her the most likable character in the film and tells her blood soaked story as an almost modern day urban fairy tale, with our princess being emotionally scarred and homicidal. After all, while she doesn’t have a magic mirror to talk to, she does have her doll “Suzie”. And McKee mixes the more whimsical elements perfectly with the more disturbing elements and we never truly see May as a monster, but more sad and tragic. She evokes our sympathy even after all the blood is shed and she has unleashed her inner Frankenstein. We still want her to have a happy ending.
Obviously McKee would not have been as successful without a subtle tour de force performance by Angela Bettis as May. She’s awkward and yet adorable, creepy and yet likable and sympathetic. The actress really gives this bizarre character life with her ability to present the facial expressions and body language of a young woman who has little clue on how to express her emotions to other people. She truly gives the appearance of someone who is in social circles for the first time and the frustration of coming across as weird to those she wishes to like her. And of course she remains sweet and innocent even when she is exacting bloody revenge on those who reject her…as if this is how it’s done normally. An understated and overlooked performance. Sisto is also good as the apple of May’s lazy eye and he comes across as likable until we get to meet the inner jerk, when he gets mean concerning May’s bizarre behavior. But he does try to do the right thing and make peace with May and we are left wondering what he really feels about her. Sisto and McKee give Adam an appearance of conflicting emotions when it comes to May which give the character an interesting dynamic. When they are together there seems to be legitimate feelings in play, when apart, he dismisses her as a weirdo to friends. Rounding out the main players, Anna Faris plays Polly as a ditzy woman with a sexual appetite and it’s something Faris plays well and does a good job as the sexually promiscuous woman who unintentionally only confuses May further. A good cast that handles the disturbing material very well.
I recommend May to those who like a little variety and originality in their horror. McKee has a talent for mixing disturbing and whimsical elements…no more evident then in a scene involving a classroom of blind children and some broken glass, that is horrifying yet, almost makes you giggle…It’s got a really strong performance by it’s leading lady and good work by the supporting cast and the director gives his ultimately gruesome story a twisted fairy tale-like atmosphere that works and well. A interesting debut from an interesting filmmaker.
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