11 movies to check out on Hulu this May

Sergio Leone’s final film, Once Upon A Time In America, celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Robert De Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Joe Pesci, Burt Young, Tuesday Weld, and Treat Williams star in this epic crime drama about Jewish gangsters in New York City during the Great Depression. The A.V. Club’s Keith Phipps writes, “A film of fatally flawed heroes, oversized passions, nation-building, and, inevitably, violence, America follows its characters from childhood to old age by way of the kind of grand-scale filmmaking that wouldn’t be seen again until Martin Scorsese’s Gangs Of New York.”

Brea Grant’s black comedy horror movie 12 Hour Shift stars indie scream queen Angela Bettis, Kit Williamson, and David Arquette. The A.V. Club’s Katie Rife writes, “The black ensemble comedy stars May’s Angela Bettis as Mandy, a nurse at an Arkansas hospital whose secret sideline in black-market organs comes under some unwanted scrutiny during one chaotic, bloody double shift. Chloe Farnworth costars as Regina, the clueless lynchpin to this entire scheme, along with Dusty Warren and Mick Foley as Mandy’s connection to the organ-selling underground.”

William Oldroyd’s psychological thriller Eileen focuses on two women (Thomasin McKenzie and Anne Hathaway) working at a juvenile detention center for boys in 1960s Massachusetts. The A.V. Club’s Murtada Elfadl writes, “This is Hathaway’s show above all. She gives a performance of both uninhibited freedom and precise gestures, delivering the psychological chaos of the character and her manipulative meticulously planned actions. She treads that dichotomy with poise and cool while keeping the audience guessing at the character’s motivations until the very end.”

Birth/Rebirth, the feature-film directorial debut of Laura Moss, is inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and stars Marin Ireland and Judy Reyes. The A.V. Club’s Matthew Jackson lists Birth/Rebirth as one of the best horror movies of 2023. He writes, “Simultaneously a riff on Frankenstein and a dark journey into the depths of parental grief, Laura Moss’ Birth/Rebirth is an unnerving and hypnotic storm of emotion and primal terror. Driven by the dueling lead performances of Marin Ireland and Judy Reyes, and anchored by Moss’ wonderfully restrained direction, it’s a film that touches on deep universal anxieties, then begins to twist them into something new, sending us to places we can imagine ourselves going, even if we don’t want to.”

The surreal road-trip film The Sweet East is the directorial debut of Sean Price Williams and stars Talia Ryder, Earl Cave, Simon Rex, Ayo Edebiri, Jeremy O. Harris, Jacob Elordi, and Rish Shah. The official description reads: “A picaresque journey through the cities and woods of the Eastern seaboard of the U.S undertaken by Lillian (Ryder), a high school senior from South Carolina. She gets her first glimpse of the wider world on a class trip to Washington, D.C.” This well-received satire of American life debuted at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.

Barnaby Clay’s horror-thriller The Seeding stars Venom’s Scott Haze and You’re Next’s Kate Lyn Sheil. The official description of The Seeding reads: “In The Seeding, a hiker lost in the desert takes refuge with a woman living alone, and soon discovers that she might not be there willingly. Marooned in an inescapable desert canyon, the hiker discovers inhabitants who have built a primordial society structured around a merciless coda of survival and procreation.” You’re not alone if you are picking up some deliberate The Hills Have Eyes vibes from this premise.

Michael Mann’s biographical sports drama Ferrari stars Adam Driver as Enzo Ferrari alongside Penélope Cruz, Shailene Woodley, Sarah Gadon, Gabriel Leone, Jack O’Connell, and Patrick Dempsey. The A.V. Club’s Courtney Howard writes, “With Ferrari, director Michael Mann pops the hood and takes a look at the engine powering one man’s journey towards icon status during a tumultuous time. Through this titular, fallible protagonist, the audacious auteur explores many of his favorite recurring themes about the male identity, ruminating on men’s specialized skillsets, strengths, and vulnerabilities—especially when it comes to relationships with women.”

Stefano Milla’s sci-fi/action movie Sentinel stars Jason R. Moore, Michael Paré, Ellie Patrikios, Neil Cole, and John Stewart Arnold. The official synopsis reads: “In 2155, through a multidimensional portal, an alien invasion annihilates nearly the entire human race. Some of the people who manage to survive are miners hidden on the dark side of the Moon. Years after the invasion, and with the use of new technology, three soldiers are sent back to Earth. Their plan is to connect with the human resistance and end the occupation of the aliens. Upon arrival, our three heroes soon find themselves face to face with the all-powerful guardian of the portal known as the Sentinel and its army.”

Nikolaj Arcel’s historical drama The Promised Land stars Mads Mikkelsen, Amanda Collin, and Simon Bennebjer. The official description reads: “In 18th century Denmark, Captain Ludvig Kahlen (Mads Mikkelsen) – a proud, ambitious, but impoverished war hero — sets out to tame a vast, uninhabitable land on which seemingly nothing can grow. Braving the elements, Kahlen is joined by a couple who has escaped the area’s merciless ruler, igniting a conflict that threatens his life, and the family of outsiders that has formed around him.” Denmark submitted The Promised Land as its entry for Best International Feature Film at the Academy Awards.

If you like seeing Nicolas Cage wild-eyed and unhinged, Hulu has you covered this Memorial Day. Yuval Adler’s psychological thriller Sympathy For The Devil stars Nicolas Cage as the Passenger, who forces the Driver (Joel Kinnaman) at gunpoint to be his unwilling chauffeur. The A.V. Club’s Luke Y. Thompson writes, “Suffice it to say if you liked Cage as Dracula in Renfield, you’ll love him as a Satanic hit man. Sympathy For The Devil may even be the best movie about Nicolas Cage leaving Las Vegas, depending on which manifestation of Cage you prefer.” That’s quite a claim considering Cage won his Best Actor Oscar for his role in Leaving Las Vegas, but Sympathy For The Devil features the nutty Cage that we prefer nowadays.

M3GAN fans will want to check out the British sci-fi thriller T.I.M. starring Eamon Farren as the titular AI robot, an acronym for Technologically Integrated Manservant. The official synopsis reads: “When a robotics scientist (Georgina Campbell) and her adulterous husband (Mark Rowley) move to the country to start fresh, a humanoid A.I. threatens to undermine their marriage and more.” The feature-film debut of Spencer Brown, T.I.M. debuted in the U.K. on Netflix but ended up on Hulu on this side of the pond.