May (Lucky McKee, 2002)

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JamesF
Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:36 pm

Re: May (Lucky McKee, 2002)

#26 Post by JamesF » Wed Feb 12, 2020 7:50 am

Yes, McIntosh recently directed Darlin', which is already out in the US. The Woman was also a loose sequel to Offspring, directed by The Woman's producer Andrew van den Houten. McIntosh plays the same character in all three, and of course Jack Ketchum wrote the original Offspring novel and co-wrote The Woman.

On the subject of loose sequels to McKee films, he and Angela Bettis swapped roles a few years after May on a film called Roman, which is still her only directorial credit (other than a segment of The ABCs of Death) and covers similar territory, with McKee in the lead. (Kristen Bell also has an early supporting role.)

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mfunk9786
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Re: May (Lucky McKee, 2002)

#27 Post by mfunk9786 » Wed Feb 12, 2020 1:17 pm

Roman is OK, but a big step down from May - I would also recommend the Masters of Horror episode "Sick Girl," which is another Bettis/McKee collab and more of a spiritual sister to May

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: May (Lucky McKee, 2002)

#28 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Feb 12, 2020 9:43 pm

First and foremost, a hearty thank you to Sausage and mfunk for recommending this one, which ended up being a far more eccentric and talented exercise in directing than I anticipated even with the praise. McKee does a fantastic job setting the tone here, issuing style at the appropriate moments and panning back to create jarring yet necessary meditations on real-time discomfort to mimic May’s experience. The former stylistic presentations mirror her voyeuristic fantasy world as she watches her crush or the mannerisms of Faris, or people at the bus stop, as well as interactions that don’t involve initiation from her agency (Faris’ kiss). The slowing down comes without the security of her coping mechanisms, when she is forcing herself into contact with the social world sans distractions, like that cringing first kiss moment (not Faris) or the painful voicemail message, phone calls etc etc. It’s not complicated but subtle and intelligent strokes from McKee as we walk in Angela Bettis’ subjective space and learn to feel comfortable by her own defensive psychological safety nets and protective filters, as well as distraught by her particular deficits, or so we think.

Bettis is fantastic and plays both extremes of emotion and everything in between perfectly until she starts blending herself in step with McKee and the rules we had established in the first third become meshed as she becomes undone. A great example is the fantasy getting ready leading up to the abrasive cut from montage as she shows up at the door clearly stalking but no longer socially anxious, instead confident which triggers our own discomfort and breaks the rules set up for the characters’ social reactions!
SpoilerShow
(This idea is repeated a few times including the very ending, which moves from a borderline black-comedy camp montage to full-stop devastating isolation)


As her behavior becomes more erratic and frightening to us but no longer to herself, the change-up is as uncomfortable in its unpredictability within the film as it is between us and our understanding of normal human behavior in our social world. The film breaks two rules, inside and out; and keeps altering them until by the halfway point I surrendered to the ride (even small moments like when he opens the door and talks about her to his friends as she’s standing there aren’t overly dramatized or surreal but eerily evoking paranoia in their coincidental targeting). In fact, this film is so populated with coincidental run-ins that it plays like one long cognitive distortion, a psychotic narrative encompassing a skewed perspective of mania, elation, confusion and bouts of clarity within a bizarro world. Faris is also excellent as the intensely extroverted friend with poor boundaries and weird enough social skills to forge an unlikely bond that itself contains no detectable logic to its dynamic.

It’s safe to say I absolutely loved this film. The empathy never wilts even when the film refuses to sacrifice sensation for sensitivity, and that’s a tough balancing act, to embody genre touches, technical playfulness, and bizarre expositions that separate the viewer from comprehension of distinguishing reality in the film’s second half (the creepy daycare scene, what the fuck). The subjective-objective blurring ultimately must be read as subjective, but including us and our own contextual readings along the way is a risky venture that makes this a bit less accessible than one might expect, but so much more rewarding. As I mentioned before, the mood-jump on the final pattern at the end is among the film’s most effective moments and one of the more powerful tonal shifts I can think of, bringing us back to where we realize we’ve been all along: validating Amy’s humanity divorced from her actions. How many movies about a character who follows her path of action can you say that about? How many horror movies? Brilliant.

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mfunk9786
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Re: May (Lucky McKee, 2002)

#29 Post by mfunk9786 » Fri Feb 14, 2020 3:02 am

Wonderful write up that I just got around to reading, TWBB

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