May

Saw May, a dark comedy about a quirky girl named May. She sews her own clothes and, due to a lazy eye, never had many friends as a child. She collects dolls and works at an animal hospital. So clearly she's caring, quirky, kind of arts-n-craftsy and single. This film came out in early the 2000s, a time rich with quirky comedies about quirky boys and girls falling in unconventional but oh so a-dork-able love. In this film however, May is clearly extremely, violently, dangerous. She stares at the world through a tight-lipped smile, complementing people's body parts in creepy ways ("I like your hands!") and telling "hilarious" stories about a dog's intestines falling out. She's the dark shadow of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl.

I really dug the film. All of the characters are these annoyingly precious alternative kooks, who love horror movies and who have café-style booths in their homes. They view May as another kook, ready to be mined for memorable experiences and sex and home-made clothing. They're not wrong, it's just they didn't expect it to be this different. The concept is just great.

The film is lacking in many areas aside from the concept however. Many moments feel very forced and there's a hot lesbian co-worker who's always hitting on May in a whiny, baby-girl sort of way. It felt kind of gross to me. Also there's some business with May volunteering a school for the blind that's thematic in many ways (how kooky!) but is clearly not thought out very well. Adults don't actually let fragile delicate crazy flowers around disabled children. All that said, the scenes involving May are always great and the scene where she finally snaps pretty much saves the movie for me. So the film's lumpy in parts with a couple limp scenes and confusing performances but it's atmospheric and moody and has such a great idea that I enjoyed it anyway.