MAY (2002) follows an awkward, perpetually lonely vet tech in her mid-twenties. as a socially inept, slightly weird-looking and cross-eyed young woman, may has difficulty intiating and building the platonic and romantic relationships that she desparately craves. suzie, an encased porcelain doll may was gifted as a child, is her only friend/confidant/silly rabbit. throughout the film, we follow may as she matures and embraces her sexuality, femininity, and rage. she also does a little bit of murder and dismembering to build the perfect person.

killing spree aside, may is one of the very few films that has made me feel truly seen and understood. the fact that i (a 22 year old black lesbian) was able to see myself and connect with this character who is different from me in so many ways is truly a testament to lucky mckee's skill as a writer and director. we need more films about women who are genuinely off-putting in a way that is not cute or easily dismissed as quirkiness. THIS is american psycho for women who need to get an evalutation for autism.

as of 04/09/2022, may is available to stream for free on pluto tv and tubi :) i also highly recommend angela bettis' other films, 12 hour shift (2020), the woman (2011), and drones (2010)!

SMILEY FACE (2007)

it's just really funny to watch anna farris get high and be confused for an hour and a half...it simply never stops being funny.

hit

after

hit

CANDYMAN (1997)

this movie is so smart it actually annoys me a little bit. for context: candyman was based on “the forbidden,” a short story in volume 5 of clive barker’s horror anthology BOOKS OF BLOOD (which i have not read LOL). the forbidden also follows a grad student writing her thesis about a low-income area, but is instead set in a council estate in the UK. while the short story focuses more on class oppression, candyman (the film) provides commentary on race, class, and gender oppression in the chicago projects.

to me, candyman was released at the perfect cultural moment. the ppl of the united states were still grappling with high-profile cases like the battering of rodney king and the central park five, whose coverage were highly influenced by racial and class dynamics. On top of that, sociology and gender studies had just really began to study the White Woman as a kind of political entity with unique interests and relations to other groups of people. so in the following years, candyman enters as an almost perfect analogy for race relations in the 1990s.

we have candyman, a large overtly threatening black man with a hook for a hand, who is looming (if not literally floating) around every corner in the hopes of murdering/mutilating women and children. but we also have hellen lyle, a white female grad student who is highly ambitious and career-driven + vaguely financially well-off. I don’t want to spoil it, but realistically it came out in 1997, so sorry. BUT the way they interact with one another and their homes/neighborhood/space, hellen’s sense of entitlement to the people of cabrini-green and their stories, the HEAVILY RACIALIZED forbidden love/lust between helen and candyman, candyman’s line “BE MY VICTIM” in reference to their interracial sexual/spiritual/romantic relationship. it’s all too much...okay im done. that got me high.