If you can't find a friend...make one...
OTHER TITLES: MAY: DIE SCHNEIDER IN DES TODES (German for MAY: THE SCISSORS OF DEATH); INSANE LIFE or LIVE CUTS (Chinese/Mandarin); MAY: LA CARA DEL HORROR (Spanish for MAY: THE FACE OF HORROR (Argentina title); Frankenstein játékai (Hungarian for PLAYING FRANKENSTEIN or FRANKENSTEIN GAMES)
R for strong language, sexuality, gore galore, and disturbing violent scenes involving kids and animals!!! (Poor Loopy!!! Sniff!!!)
WARNING: THERE ARE SPOILERS!!!
I have one very compelling reason why I love my PC a bit more than my MacIntosh: It plays my DVD movies. Sure my PC gets every cold and flu that crawls thru the internet, and it crashes or has disc errors every month...but it plays my DVDs!!! And when you play a film like MAY on your DVD, where your face is right up to the screen and your earphones make the sound right there, you can make discoveries that make the film ten times more beautiful the experience.
Today I watched MAY with the earphones right in there and the screen really close to my face, and I've fallen even more deeply in love with MAY. It's a much more rich experience to see May up close than from ten feet across the room.
My conclusion is: MAY is the undiscovered treasure of 2003. It really is a beautiful, offbeat movie in which the characters are all very offbeat and dark in their own ways, yet all very endearing as well.
Angela Bettis excels as the title character, May Canady, a loner who lives in an apartment, works as a veterinarian's assistant, and likes to sew her own clothing, a wardrobe of patched jeans and little shirts that have scraps of fabric as embellishments. May is an intelligent young woman in that she has gotten some kind of education and has a job in which she is required to HAVE an education. Somehow, the fact that May is a smart, educated young woman is SCARIER than if she was just some babbling hermit who lived alone and collected disability (for mental problems) or unemployment. Nobody KNOWS May is so painfully lonesome that she is about to break from reality. That is scarey.
She is a petite, harmless looking little thing, with pretty reddish brown hair, hazel eyes, luminous white skin...and a flaw, a lazy eye that refuses to move in the right direction and burdens the normal, hard working eye. She wears thick, but not horribly thick, cute little glasses. She has a collection of adorable dolls, but she regards another doll, a decidedly ugly one named Suzie, above all others, and talks to her as though she was a live person. Suzie is May's best "friend", a presence in her life since childhood. Suzie was made by May's mother and given to her as a birthday gift, but from day one, May has never taken Suzie out of her glass box. Her mother said that Suzie was "special" and could never come out.
Over the years, Suzie's glass case has acquired a crack or two, and we assume the cracks in the glass are from moving or accidentally dropping the case a time or two.
May has become so used to being alone that she is able to tolerate it well. Talking to herself and Suzie is a normal thing. We all talk to ourselves when we are alone. She has made attempts occasionally to make friends. She gets along fine with her coworkers and her boss, an Armenian veterinarian who serves as an unexpected comedy treat.
One day, May sees somebody that captures her attention so totally that she is convinced she must step out of her shell and embark on a real relationship with someone. She sees a dark haired young man hunkered down beside a wrecked car, gently caressing a huge dent in its side. His hands are beautiful. Later she sees the rest of him, which is beautiful as well. "Don't be mad," she tells Suzie earnestly. "You've been my friend my whole life. You see me. But I need a real friend...someone I can HOLD..." May is in touch with reality, you understand then. She knows Suzie is ONLY a doll. So you know that May isn't a crackpot who talks to things thinking they are alive.
First May tries the conventional methods that ordinary women try: sexy outfits, sexy gait patterns, etc. But the object of her mission only falls asleep!!! He wakes up to find her rubbing her face against his hands like a cat begging to be petted. The look on his face says it all: this girl is weird, but this girl is irresistable. But May, painfully embarrassed, flees the scene. The two meet again in a laundromat, and there she learns the name of the boy with the beautiful hands: Adam (Jeremy Sisto). Right away, the interaction between them is adorable, and the chemistry wonderful. In these scenes, you see two very young, unlined baby faces displaying multiple facial expressions as May and Adam discover each other, tease each other, flirt with each other, and ultimately, while May is falling for Adam, and Adam is falling for May, we, the viewers, are falling for them both and suddenly hoping with all our might these two will have a lifelong, scorchingly passionate love affair. Both faces are soft and innocent and expressive, though you realize Adam has at least had some experience in love while May is completely foreign to such things. Yet the innocence in them both is compelling, the attraction sweet and genuine. The scene in the park, especially in which May is reluctant to let Adam leave and go see his Dario Argento film, is very telling. Adam watches May as she eagerly arranges to see him later that night and bites his lip with a shy, wistful smile. He loves Argento, but he seems to be considering the fact that he might not love Argento as much as he loves May. He is flattered, intrigued, smitten by this sweet little brown haired girl and her quirky ways.
Later, when May asks Adam, "Do you like me???" and he replies in a clear, sincere voice, "Sure I do", you believe more than ever that this is a match made in heaven. When May asks Adam if he thinks she is weird and he says, "I do think you're weird, but I like weird. I like weird a lot", you want to scream for sheer joy. He takes her to his room, a creepy shrine to Argento, and May isn't frightened away by the downright spine-chilling "art" all over his walls. They tease each other again, using a toy knife that reminds us that it's a Halloween movie, and May experiences her first kisses. Again, the innocence in both characters is thick in the air at the exact same time as the scene is mind-bogglingly sexy: May holding a sinister looking toy knife while Adam gently kisses her and they "feel" their way toward each other with tangible sense of joy and discovery. The moment is knocked off kilter when May lets go and clumsily shoves Adam against the wall. Her animal passion momentarily made her agressive enough to take hold of Adam, but the clumsiness kind of ruins it. "Who taught you to kiss???!!!" he asks before thinking, and May whispers in a haunting child's voice, "Suzie."
While she agonizes over the first date fiasco, May realizes that her sexy coworker Polly (Anna Faris) is flirting overtly with her, saying such hilarious things as, "Let's hang out and...eat some melons" and "Do you like pussy...cats??? Ooh, you're a nasty little thing aren't you!!!" Polly talks May into taking in Loopy, a cat with beautiful gray fur. In spite of the flattering attention by a very attractive, vivacious woman, May isn't sure she is bisexual, and Adam still has a firm grip on her heart. She shows up on his front door, unannounced, looking luminous, and demands another chance with Adam, who was never truly angry at her, only a bit unsettled by her total lack of experience. They eat macaroni and cheese and drink green gatorade, and then Adam shows May the film he worked on in college. He looks nervous and expectant, for this film is his "baby", something he created and wants to be proud of. As the hilariously gory black and white shlock-flicker plays before them, it's easy to miss the continuous change of facial expressions of both May and Adam. May adores the unconventionally romantic film and Adam adores May and is ecstatic that she adores his film.
She decides that she is ready willing and able to give herself to Adam, and that she knows what he wants. What a heavenly love scene to watch, the experience only enriched by the Kim Deal song "Oh!!! Push me down, push me down, push me down!!!" Yet again, if you watch their faces, you see how much May and Adam feel for each other. The chemistry, once a slow simmer, is now crackling...
Alas, May, thinking she knows what Adam wants, does something that left my own lip smarting painfully. And, still thinking she knows what Adam wants, smears his blood all over her neck and chest. "May, what are you doing???" Adam asks in dismay. And the moment, that promised to be so wonderful, is shattered. Their perceptions of each other are completely knocked upside down. May thought Adam was weird and liked pain and blood during sex, but he doesn't!!! Adam thought May was a strange, harmless little thing who would never even consider biting him and then smearing his blood all over her!!! Adam ISN'T weird!!! May ISN'T harmless!!! You see the complete misunderstanding and wish you could jump into the screen and serve as a quick-serve relationship counselor before it's too late. May looks hurt and rejected, Adam looks frightened and repulsed. He leaves hurriedly, desperate to get himself as far away from May as he can, and you see the fright only increase after he overhears her scream at Suzie, "I TOLD YOU TO FACE THE GODDAMN WALL!!!"
Completely heartbroken, May turns to Polly and finds herself in a lesbian romance that seems good and real enough to balm the pain she is in over Adam. But all too soon, May discovers that Polly is just a nympho who likes to "hit it" whenever she can. We are introduced to the outrageously beautiful and hilariously bitchy Ambrosia (Nicole Hiltz), whose legs, May notices, are long, sleek, shapely...perfect!!! Uh oh!!!
May tries to forget her hurts with volunteer work at a day care center for blind children. There, she meets Petey (Rachel David) a sullen blind girl who only makes May feel worse by brushing off the attempt to make a connection. May then tries to reconnect with Adam at the laundromat a couple of days later, but as he momentarily turns to the camera, showing us the ugly laceration on his lower lip, the fear in him is more understandable than ever. Such wonderful acting from both of them, without saying a lot of words!!!
And so, May, having been rejected and ejected by people she thought a lot of, begins to understand that there are only pretty parts of people, and no pretty wholes. Even Loopy the Cat rejects May's need for love with a haughty hiss, and May finally begins to break. She's been cracking all along, this naive, disillusioned young woman, but now she is breaking down. She hurls a clay ashtray at the cat, killing it instantly, and somehow, what May has done doesn't seem to phase her. She isn't thinking normally like she once did.
She scans the streets of Los Angeles, seeing nothing but pretty parts now, and a dude sporting a crazy hair do sits down beside her.
The new boy, Blank, comes to May's apartment obviously thinking he's gonna score with this little shy chick in the cute little glasses, but you know the score, ha ha, he gets scissors in the head instead, and it is then that May decides that "if you can't find a friend, MAKE ONE".
I found myself watching the film SOME GIRL the night before last, and was astonished to find myself making comparisons between that film and MAY. Both involve a flawed but adorable girl persuing a guy they can't have, both take place on Halloween, both end with some form of punishment to the guy. I have to say that while I still find heavy drinkin' f-word usin' Claire from SOME GIRL every bit as adorable as the timid, deadly MAY, I think I like Adam way better than Chad. Not to say that Chad wasn't likable. He was just a guy who liked a girl who apparently had too much emotional baggage for him to handle. But he was a cowardly little dick who didn't have enough balls to just tell Claire that he was no longer interested (because he was only out to score to begin with) or that he didn't think things would work between them (because she had a very legit drinking problem, AND was clingy and neurotic). He just hoped Claire would get the picture and move on on her own.
Adam, on the other hand, was more likable in that he was a better developed character. We got to see "inside" him better. Chad was kind of a mystery that never got solved. Just a horny little flake, or someone who was avoiding trouble??? Adam is easy to understand from the get-go. His attraction to May is understandable and genuine. He's not a pick-up artist like Chad. Anyway, May does most of the persuing. Later, when things go so terribly wrong between May and Adam, you KNOW why, and you don't begrudge Adam or his reasons even while you are slopping over with sympathy for May.
No need to discuss the murder spree that helped to create "Amy", May's new best friend. Suffice it to say that MAY is one of my favorite Jeremy Sisto movies of all time. Angela Bettis is fabulous. Lucky McKee is awesome and may he churn out more memorable films.
The Cast:
Angela Bettis as MAY CANADY
Jeremy Sisto as ADAM STUBBS
Anna Faris as POLLY
James Duval as BLANK
Nicole Hiltz as AMBROSIA
Ken Davidian as DR. SARKISIAN
Mike McKee as DR. WOLF
Rachel David as PETEY
Nora Zehetner as HOOP
Merle Kennedy as MAY'S MOM
Kevin Gage as MAY'S DAD
Chandler Riley Hecht as YOUNG MAY
and Maddie as LOOPY
LINKS!!!
Back to MAY
Music: Stitch by Jaye Barnes Luckett/Poperratic, from the motion picture strk MAY.
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