WHAT WE CAN’T WAIT TO WATCH
Ali Wong: Hard Knock Wife
The follow-up to comic Ali Wong’s 2016 hit Baby Cobra was taped over two nights in Toronto last September, so there’s a chance you’ll recognize the interiors of the Winter Garden or spot a friend in the audience. Pregnant with her second child, Wong revisits her popular (and quotable) material on womanhood, marriage, sex and careers. While her jokes are raunchy, Wong still manages to cleverly subvert feminist ideals and Asian stereotypes. Her views on childbirth and the first year of motherhood might make you cringe, but at least it gives you a reason to watch Hard Knock Wife with the one who birthed you when it drops on Mother’s Day. May 13
Dear White People: Volume 2
Racial tensions are still raging on the campus of Winchester University in the second season of showrunner Justin Simien’s satirical series. The first round polarized NOW critics, and it looks like the environment around radio host Sam White (Logan Browning) is only growing more divisive. Her ex Gabe (John Patrick Amedori) is making a documentary called Am I Racist?, she’s being harassed by a racist troll and the bon mots are coming fast and furious. May 4
Tig Notaro: Happy To Be Here
The cancellation of her Amazon show One Mississippi should give the famously deadpan comic Notaro plenty of material for her latest stand-up special: as we learned from the documentary Tig, adversity only makes her funnier. But not that much adversity she’s still cancer-free and raising twins with her wife Stephanie Allyne, which should also make for some interesting stories. May 22
The Rachel Divide
Netflix faced a huge backlash when it announced Laura Brownson’s documentary about Rachel Dolezal – the white woman who famously pretends to be Black and identifies as “transracial” – would be premiering at the end of April. A lot of ink has been spilled debating, dissecting and mocking Dolezal so what could this film possibly add to the conversations about race and privilege people are so sick of having? Execs have defended the film as a thoughtful deep-dive into Dolezal’s life and childhood as well as race in America. The doc premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and, predictably, critics are divided. April 27
Evil Genius: The True Story of America’s Most Diabolical Bank Heist
The producers behind sleeper hit series Wild Wild Country have another wild show hitting Netflix in May. The four-part Evil Genius recounts a chilling true-crime incident known as the “pizza collar bomb heist.” In 2003, middle-aged Pennsylvania pizza delivery driver Brian Wells died after an explosive device he said had been attached to his neck as part of a bank robbery plot detonated. It would take five years, and many twists and turns, before authorities solved the case. In other words, it’s the stuff Netflix documentary series are made of. May 11
Anon
Netflix hasn’t knocked a sci-fi film or TV series out of the park despite pumping big budgets and marketing into movies such as Bright, Mute, Altered Carbon and Lost In Space. Critics might be scornful, but apparently audiences are tuning in because here comes this Andrew Niccol-directed sci-fi thriller starring Amanda Seyfried, Clive Owen and Colm Feore. The film takes place in a future where privacy no longer exists (or is that the present?) and a detective (Owen) who has his eyeballs hacked turns to a mysterious woman (Seyfried) for help. May 4
Hari Kondabolu: Warn Your Relatives
Now that Kondabolu’s documentary The Problem With Apu helped prod Simpsons actor Hank Azaria to confess he’d be happy to step aside from voicing the South Asian character, the timing couldn’t be better for a new Kondabolu stand-up special. Last year’s JFL42 audiences got a taste of the show, which combines the personal and the political, and includes a great anecdote about being heckled by Tracy Morgan. May 8
John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous At Radio City
Baby-faced stand-up Mulaney is having a moment, riding his absurdist George St. Geegland character from Oh, Hello to Broadway, voicing the anxious Andrew in the animated comedy Big Mouth (both of which were collaborations with his pal Nick Kroll) and hosting a great episode of Saturday Night Live a few weeks ago. And somewhere in there he found the time to do the Kid Gorgeous stand-up tour, captured for our pleasure in his latest Netflix special of “stories, observations [and] random grievances.” What more could anyone ask for? May 1
Steve Martin & Martin Short: An Evening You Will Forget For The Rest Of Your Life
Comedy legends and good friends Steve Martin and Martin Short have been doing the live show circuit for a few years now (they played Casino Rama in 2016). The Three Amigos co-stars tell showbiz and personal stories, do comedy bits and play music – banjo player Martin’s band the Steep Canyon Rangers are featured. They don’t get huge roles in films these days, so it’s good to see that age hasn’t affected their ability to entertain. May 25
The Rain
The Fog, The Mist and now… The Rain. The latest precipitation-related horror comes from Denmark and stars Alba August and Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen as siblings who have been living in a bunker for six years in order to evade virus-infected downpours. The teens emerge and join a group of survivors searching the dystopian Scandinavian landscape for answers. May 4
SOLID BETS
mother!
If you missed Darren Aronofsky’s dizzying, deviously clever allegory at TIFF and in theatres, well, you’re not alone. Plenty of people were scared off by the ambiguous marketing, which did a great job of hiding the film’s ambitious conceit, but made it look like a horror movie, which is not really a fair sell. All you need to know is that mother! is Aronofsky’s most ambitious mode since The Fountain, with Jennifer Lawrence trying to keep her house in order as Javier Bardem keeps welcoming more and more chaos into it. Turn off your phone, dim the lights and give it your full attention. May 28
Coco
Disney•Pixar’s gorgeous, weird comedy follows a young singer (voiced by Anthony Gonzalez) into the underworld to seek the blessing of Mexico’s greatest entertainer and slowly evolves into a delightfully odd quest narrative, featuring a surprisingly moving performance from Gael García Bernal as a hapless spirit named Héctor and a couple of really sharp Frida Kahlo jokes. It’s so enthralling that you won’t even notice the emotional currents building steadily and powerfully underneath until it wallops you with them. Have some Kleenex handy. May 29
Friends With Money
If you can get over the plot point about Jennifer Aniston’s character being single and cash-strapped, this funny ensemble comedy by Nicole Holofcener makes great viewing, especially now that there’s awareness about the need for female-driven films. Made in 2006, it stars Aniston as a maid surrounded by well-off friends, including characters played by Joan Cusack, Catherine Keener and Frances McDormand. All of them are superb, especially McDormand as a woman frustrated with getting older and her sexually ambiguous husband. May 1
Full list of new titles available in May, by date:
TV SHOWS
May 1
iZombie (season four)
PJ Masks (season one)
Pocoyo & Cars
Pocoyo & The Space Circus
Pocoyo Carnival
Pocoyo Halloween: Space Halloween
Pocoyo Halloween: Spooky Movies
Pocoyo Special Sports
May 2
The 100 (season five)
Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments (season three, weekly episodes)
The World’s Most Extraordinary Homes (season one)
May 3
Riverdale (season two, weekly episodes)
Star (season two, weekly episodes)
May 4
A Little Help With Carol Burnett
Busted! (season one, weekly episodes)
Dear White People: Volume 2
Kong: King of the Apes (season two)
My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman: Tina Fey
The Rain (season one)
May 5
Dynasty (season one)
May 6
The Joel McHale Show With Joel McHale (weekly episodes May 6 and May 13)
May 7
Mike Tyson Mysteries (season three, weekly episodes)
May 11
Bill Nye Saves The World (season three)
Evil Genius: The True Story of America’s Most Diabolical Bank Heist
Spirit Riding Free (season five)
The Who Was? Show (season one)
May 15
Animal Intervention (season one)
Brain Games (season two)
Call The Midwife (series seven)
Crimes Against Nature (season one)
Disaster Earth (season one)
Doomsday Preppers (season one)
How Big Can It Get (season one)
Inside Cocaine Wars (season one)
Unusual Cultures (season one)
May 21
Brooklyn Nine-Nine (season five)
May 22
Men On A Mission: 2018
Mob Psycho 100 (season one)
Terrace House: Opening New Doors (part two)
May 23
Explained (weekly episodes)
May 24
Fauda (season two)
May 25
The Toys That Made Us (season two)
May 30
Animal Kingdom (season two)
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (season four)
May 31
My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman: Howard Stern
MOVIES
May 1
27: Gone Too Soon
28 Days
47 Ronin
The Angry Birds Movie
Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Coffee For All
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
The Carter Effect
CIA: Comrade In America
Darc
Did You Hear About The Morgans?
Dragonfly
Duck Butter
Erin Brockovich
Food On The Go
Friends With Money
Honey
Honey 2
How High
Jeepers Creepers 3
John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous At Radio City
Life
My Girl
My Perfect Romance
The Other Boleyn Girl
Patch Adams
Pilgrimage
Please Give
Seven Years In Tibet
Sometimes
Stephanie
The Thirteenth Floor
May 4
Anon
End Game
The Exception
Forgive Us Our Debts
Manhunt
May 5
Pup Star: World Tour
May 7
Danny Collins
May 8
Hari Kondabolu: Warn Your Relatives
May 11
Central Intelligence
The Kissing Booth
May 13
Ali Wong: Hard Knock Wife
May 14
Hello, My Name Is Doris
May 16
A Cinderella Story: If The Shoe Fits
May 17
The Little Prince
May 18
Cargo
Catching Feelings
The Foreigner
The Legend Of Tarzan
May 19
Beatriz At Dinner
May 21
Money Monster
May 22
Tig Notaro Happy To Be Here
May 25
24 Hours to Live
Ibiza
Steve Martin And Martin Short: An Evening You Will Forget For The Rest Of Your Life
Trollhunters: Part 3
May 26
Sara’s Notebook
May 27
The Break With Michelle Wolf (weekly episodes from May 27)
May 28
mother!
May 29
Disney•Pixar’s Coco
LAST CALL
TV series and movies leaving Netflix this month.
May 1
Collateral
Cool Runnings
In The Heart Of The Sea
Mean Girls
May 2
Billy Madison
Planes
Tangled
May 4
Old School
May 7
The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air (seasons one to six)
