Happy Friday, folks! Can you believe it's May already? Well, it sure is and with a new month comes the new movies. So. Many. New. Movies. (Seriously, how is there still this much to watch with theatrical releases on pause?!) If you're looking for the best new movies streaming on Amazon Prime Video, we've got you covered with our picks for the seven standouts of the month. (If you’re looking what to watch on Netflix, head over to Best New Movies on Netflix and the Best New Shows on Netflix this month.) But if you're sticking to your Amazon Prime subscription, here are the highlights.
The headliner this month is last year's Oscar-winning Elton John biopic Rocketman, which a charming fantasy musical with a soundtrack of iconic songs you can't help but sing along to. If you're in the mood for something a little more serious (or more vintage), May brings Escape from Alcatraz to the streaming service, along with the wild thrillers Pathology and Come to Daddy. And if you're in the mood for some mind-bending sci-fi, be sure to check out the new Amazon Original The Vast of Night.
Those are just a few of the new movies worth adding to your watchlist in May and you can get the details on all seven of our picks below. For more, you can find a handy list of all the new movies and TV shows on Amazon Prime in April here.
Pathology
Available: May 1
Director: Marc Schölermann
Cast: Alyssa Milano, Milo Ventimiglia, Keir O'Donnell, Lauren Lee Smith, Michael Weston
Pathology is both an aggressively early-2000s movie and a film that feels sort of out of time -- there just haven't many horror-tinged erotic thrillers in the 21st Century, and while Pathology doesn't quite live up to the niche genre's heyday in the 80s and 90s, it's a fun and freaky thrill ride with a great cast. Milo Ventimiglia as a hospital intern who stumbles on a group of killer colleagues wrapped up in a deadly game in which one of them attempts to commit the perfect murder and the rest of them use their forensics know-how to try and figure out how they did it. There's also a lot of sex. And blood. So much blood. In fact, the script was written by Crank duo Neveldine and Taylor, to give you an idea of the film's appreciation for excess. If you're a fan of dark, straightforward thrillers give this one a shot.
Escape from Alcatraz
Available: May 1
Director: Don Siegel
Cast: Clint Eastwood, Patrick McGoohan, Roberts Blossom, Fred Ward
Dirty Harry and Invasion of the Body Snatchers director Don Siegel stages an impossible, high-thrills prison break in Escape from Alcatraz. Starring Clint Eastwood in the last of his five collaborations with the filmmaker, the 1979 thriller follow Frank Morris (Eastwood), a brilliant inmate with a history of successful jailbreaks who gets relocated the supposedly-inescapable Alcatraz Island. Working with some of his fellow prisoners, Frank develops a plan for his next great escape, and every step of the way is a relentlessly tense wait to see if they can pull it off. It's one of Siegel and Eastwood's best collaborations, an excruciating slow burn that's surprisingly more inline with The Beguiled than the more action-packed Dirty Harry.
The Vast of Night
Available: May 29
Director: Andrew Patterson
Cast: Sierra McCormick, Jake Horowitz, Gail Cronauer
I can't wait to finally settle in for The Vast of Night. The sci-fi festival darling premiered at Slamdance film festival last year, but I first caught wind of it at Fantastic Fest, where every single person I know who saw it absolutely fell in love with it. Set in the 1950s, the directorial debut from Andrew Patterson sees a switchboard operator and a radio DJ in New Mexico stumble upon a mysterious radio frequency that offers a glimpse into the unknown and threatens to alter their reality. The film has earned a lot of comparisons to The Twilight Zone, not to mention a whole heap of glowing reviews from the festival circuit and I'm very excited to finally figure out what exactly that mysterious synopsis means.
Like Crazy
Available: May 19
Director: Drake Doremus
Cast: Felicity Jones, Anton Yelchin, Jennifer Lawrence
Drake Doremus' highly-improvised, naturalistic form of storytelling doesn't always hit the mark, but it really sings in his 2011 romantic drama Like Crazy. Felicity Jones and Anton Yelchin star as a pair of young lovers who fall head over heels, only to be wrenched apart when she's banned from the states for overstaying her visa. Jones and Yelchin are spectacular together, honest, and passionate with easy chemistry that sucks you into their whirlwind romance. Doremus' intimate shooting style and understated tone give those performances the perfect framing to shine. In fact, if you need an example of how good his eye for talent is, Like Crazy even features a Winter's Bone-era Jennifer Lawrence! The core of the love story and the agony of its strain make for familiar bones of a cinematic love story, but Like Crazy stands out for its immersive tenderness and attention to flawed human characters.
Rocketman
Available: May 22
Director: Dexter Fletcher
Cast: Taron Egerton, Jamie Bell, Richard Madden, Bryce Dallas Howard
Watch Taron Egerton give the exuberant performance of his career to date in Rocketman, the delightful music biopic that would have received the same awards treatment as Bohemian Rhapsody if we lived in a just world. Inspired by the real-life story of Elton John's early career, Rocketman stages a fantasy musical that incorporates the iconic British rock star's greatest hits while chronicling the highs and lows of his journey from a dull life in the suburbs to becoming a legend of glamourous stardom. It's cheesy in the best way, with endless charisma, no small thanks to Egerton's knockout performance of a mercurial and intoxicating character like Elton John, but also thanks to Fletcher's playful, emotionally-attuned directing. It's easy to see why Fox called him in to clean up the Bohemian Rhapsody mess and if the Queen biopic left you hungry for something with a little more heart (and teeth), Rocketman is just the ticket.
Come to Daddy
Available: May 23
Director: Ant Timpson
Cast: Elijah Wood, Stephen McHattie, Martin Donovan, Michael Smiley
It's a good month for thrillers on Amazon! But if you like to get weird with your movies, be sure to make Come to Daddy the priority. Funny, fucked up and utterly unpredictable, the film marks the directorial debut for Turbo Kid and The Greasy Strangler producer Ant Timpson and that resume should give you a pretty good idea of the wild sensibilities Timpson brings to the storytelling in his contained yet chaotic thriller. Elijah Wood stars as a young man who receives a letter from his long-estranged father and travels to a remote cabin for a reunion only to be greeted by a snarling, sneering, scenery-chewing Stephen McHattie, who seemingly wants nothing to do with his dear boy. McHattie is a force in the film and its a delight to watch him toy with Wood's timid, affection-hungry character, but Come To Daddy is packing a lot of surprises beyond the basic logline and it's a fabulously weird and unique spin on the genre.
Seberg
Available: May 15
Director: Benedict Andrews
Cast: Kristen Stewart, Anthony Mackie, Jack O'Connell, Zazie Beetz, Vince Vaughn, Yvan Attal, Gabriel Sky
Based on the life of iconic French New Wave actress Jean Seberg, Amazon Prime Video's latest original stars Kristen Stewart as the titular Seberg but don't expect an artsy biopic that's all about cinema. What you may not know is that Seberg had a fascinating, complicated political history that involved the FBI, the civil rights movement, and the Black Panthers, and Seberg is fashioned more along the lines of a political thriller than a traditional biopic. While the reviews surrounding this one haven't exactly been raves, but this one is worth checking out for another standout performance from Stewart, not to mention a fascinating, if sometimes frustrating and often flawed, crash course on Seberg's untold true story.