10 marvellous movies and TV shows to watch this May
On the movie front, there's the very amusing looking remake The Wedding Banquet, the Chloë Sevigny-starring comedy Magic Farm and Guy Ritchie's action-packed, straight-to-streaming thriller The Fountain of Youth.
TV wise, viewers can look forward to a star-studded comedy miniseries from Tina Fey, the return of Poker Face, Nine Perfect Strangers and And Just Like That... and Alexander Skarsgård's new series Murderbot.
Check out ten movies and TV shows coming to the big and small screen this May.
Movies
The Wedding Banquet, 9 May
The Wedding Banquet is coming to the big screen on 9 May and it looks highly enjoyable. Andrew Ahn, who directed the very funny romantic comedy Fire Island in 2022, has remade Ang Lee's critically-acclaimed 1993 film of the same name and it seems like it'll live up to its predecessor.
The film is set in modern-day Seattle and a synopsis reads: "A gay man makes a deal with his lesbian friend: a green-card marriage for him, in exchange for in vitro fertilization treatments for her. Plans evolve as Min's grandmother surprises them with a Korean wedding banquet."
The cast is top notch - including Bowen Yang, Lily Gladstone, Kelly Marie Tran, Han Gi-chan, Joan Chen, and Youn Yuh-jung - and it looks like a fun and joyful comedy of errors.
Magic Farm, 16 May
This looks interesting - Amalia Ulman (El Planeta) is the writer and director behind Magic Farm - an absurdist comedy about a film crew who lands in South America to profile a musician but discover they have arrived in the wrong country.
Chloë Sevigny leads the cast as presenter Edna, alongside Alex Wolff, Joe Apollonio, Camila del Campo, Simon Rex and Amalia Ulman herself.
The origins of Magic Farm emerged from hipster journalism, epitomised in the 2010s by Vice News, where unserious, semi-gonzo film crews visited "third world" countries in search of a bizarre story and a catchy headline.
Fountain of Youth, 23 May, Apple TV+
Buckle up, because Guy Ritchie's new heist thriller Foundation of Youth looks action packed to the gills. The film follows two estranged siblings Luke and Charlotte Purdue (John Krasinski and Natalie Portman) who join forces in an effort to unearth the legendary pool of water.
Along with Luke's colleagues, Owen Carver (Domhnall Gleeson) and Deb McCall (Carmen Ejogo), the group will have to decipher a host of historical clues if they have any hope of fulfilling their epic quest.
The star-studded cast also includes Eiza González, Laz Alonso, Arian Moayed, and Stanley Tucci.
Judging by the trailer, it looks like a fast-paced and humourous adventure.
Television
The Four Seasons, 1 May, Netflix
This comedy miniseries from writers Tina Fey, Lang Fisher, and Tracey Wigfield is adapted from Alan Alda's 1981 cult classic rom-com. The eight-episode series, which also stars Fey alongside Steve Carell, Colman Domingo and Will Forte, follows three couples, and old friends, as they head off on their annual holiday.
The longtime couples Kate (Fey) and Jack (Forte), Nick (Carell) and Anne (Kerri Kenney-Silver), and Danny (Domingo) and Claude (Marco Calvani), are completely blindsided when they find out one couple in the group is about to split up.
Over the course of a year, we follow the friends on four holidays, and see how the break-up affects everyone's dynamic, sending old and new issues bubbling to the surface. The series looks like an interesting exploration of marriage, midlife and nurturing friendships.
Poker Face, 8 May, Sky Max/NOW
The highly-anticipated second series of the acclaimed crime comedy-drama Poker Face returns on 8 May, with Natasha Lyonne back as Charlie Cale, a casino works with the uncanny ability to tell when people are lying.
Created by Knives Out director Rian Johnson, the show is a funny and old school case-of-the-week murder mystery which sees Charlie on the run and making her way across the United States as she solves a variety of homicides.
There's a bumper cast of guest stars this season - including Cynthia Erivo, John Mulaney, Katie Holmes, Awkwafina, Giancarlo Esposito, Rhea Perlman, Alia Shawkat and Justin Theroux - and judging by the trailer there's plenty of high-jinks to look forward to.
Elsbeth, 12 May, Sky Witness/NOW
The Good Fight spin-off returns for a second season with Emmy-winner Carrie Preston back as Elsbeth Tascioni, an astute but unconventional lawyer who ends up working with the NYPD to solve murders.
The second run brings new cases and challenges when mistakes of the past come back to to haunt Elsbeth, her boss Captain Wagner (Wendell Pierce), and detective in training Officer Kaya Blanke (Carra Patterson).
As the new season begins, a womanizing finance executive is found stabbed to death after a night at the opera, and Elsbeth suspects an obsessed opera lover (Nathan Lane) was driven to murder because of a ringing cell phone.
Murderbot, 16 May, Apple TV+
Well this looks genuinely unique and funny. From the ever-reliable Apple TV+, Murderbot is a sci-fi action comedy starring the eminently watchable Alexander Skarsgård as a robot who was built to protect and obey humans. Unfortunately, he has come to believe all humans are complete idiots.
After hacking his programming, the self-named Murderbot discovers he can do whatever he wants as long as no one finds out he's become self-aware. When he is given a new mission to accompany a group of scientists on a dangerous planet he reluctantly goes along with them, even though all he wants to do is binge-watch soap operas.
Filmmaking brothers Chris and Paul Weitz (American Pie, About A Boy), have written, directed and produced the show which is based on the book series The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells.
Nine Perfect Strangers, 21 May, Prime Video
Could this fill The White Lotus -sized hole in our lives? Nine Perfect Strangers was originally created by David E. Kelley (Big Little Lies, Presumed Innocent) as a miniseries in 2021, but was later announced to be returning as an anthology series.
The first season followed Nicole Kidman's healing guru Masha Dmitrichenko as she undertook unconventional methods to transform the life of the guests at her health and wellness resort in California.
With the first two episodes of season two set to premiere on Prime Video on 21 May, with new episodes to air weekly from then, we're about to find out what Masha has in store for a fresh batch of privileged guests in a resort in the Austrian Alps.
The ensemble cast this season includes Henry Golding, Lena Olin, Annie Murphy, Christine Baranski, Lucas Englander, King Princess, Murray Bartlett, Dolly de Leon, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Mark Strong and Aras Aydin.
A logline for the show reads: "Nine new strangers connected in ways they could never imagine are invited by mysterious guru Masha Dmitrichenko (Nicole Kidman) to join a transformational wellness retreat in the Austrian Alps. Over the course of a week, she takes them to the brink. Will they make it? Will she? Masha is willing to try anything in the interest of healing everyone involved, including herself."
Sirens, 22 May, Netflix
Netflix's limited series Sirens, created by Molly Smith Metzler and based on her 2011 play Elemeno Pea, promises to be a good one.
The cast includes the always brilliant Julianne Moore, Meghann Fahy, Milly Alcock, Kevin Bacon and Glenn Howerton, and the show is described as an "incisive, sexy, and darkly funny exploration of women, power and class."
Sirens follows Devon (Fahy), who is concerned about her sister Simone's (Alcock) creepy relationship with her new boss (Moore) and decides it's time for an intervention.
And Just Like That..., 29 May, SKY/NOW
Yes it's not a patch on Sex and the City, there's no denying that, but And Just Like That... remains strangely compelling television.
Season three is set to land on 29 May and is set during a New York City Summer as Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) navigates life in her new Gramercy Park home while contemplating her relationship with Aidan Shaw (John Corbett).
Meanwhile, Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) is seen exploring new romantic possibilities, Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) continues to balance her career in the art world with the challenges of parenting, as her daughter Lily embarks on a new romance.
New cast members this season include Rosie O'Donnell, Mehcad Brooks, Jonathan Cake, and Logan Marshall-Green.
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