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May
Metascore
58 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 18 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 18
  3. Negative: 2 out of 18
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  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    100
    The movie subtly darkens its tone until, when the horrifying ending arrives, we can see how we got there. There is a final shot that would get laughs in another kind of film, but May earns the right to it, and it works, and we understand it.
  2. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Robert K. Elder
    88
    McKee, like Amenabar, knows how to position his film against type -- which ultimately makes May a refreshing, macabre tale.
  3. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Tim Merrill
    80
    Call it a horror movie, a psychological thriller or a feminist splatterfest, but this sort of story is tough to get right. May gets it more than right.
  4. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Mark Olsen
    80
    The inventive and unpredictable May is exactly the kind of unexpected delight one hopes for every time the lights go down.
  5. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Luke Y. Thompson
    80
    With a level of dark humor akin to the screenplays of Todd Solondz, and a visual style reminiscent of Dario Argento, May is one of the funniest, most disturbing, yet strangely touching movies of the year
  6. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Thomas
    80
    A stylized work of unflinching control and discipline, reflecting an artistic maturity unusual in a first film.
  7. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    70
    May represents something rare and unfashionable-–a smart, twisted little slasher comedy that doesn't skimp on the gore.
  8. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    67
    Writer-director McKee’s arch comic dialogue (i.e., "We’ll hang out and eat some melons or something") is out of synch with the creepy horror he wields.
  9. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Scott Brown
    67
    Though ultimately too waterlogged with student-film self-seriousness to revel fully in its low-rent joie de cleaver -- nevertheless taps into a furious atavistic energy that reflects well on the filmmaker and his fully committed cast.
  10. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    63
    Satisfyingly, May also turns out to be lowdown genre fun, a film that nearly makes up in slacker wit and high-spirited gore what it lacks in budget and elegance.
  11. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    60
    In visual terms, it's clear McKee has a talent for moviemaking...But he's going to need better stories than this.
  12. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Kim Morgan
    50
    On paper, it sounds like the start of a good film. Too bad McKee made such a lackluster thing of it. Though the horror comes from an interesting place, it's frequently forced, negating much of the humor and pathos the film attempts to instill.
  13. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    50
    Led by Ms. Bettis's discreetly campy May, the performances are a cut or two above what you would find in the average slasher film. But in the end that's all it is.
  14. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Sean Axmaker
    42
    It wants to be a "Carrie" with a modern-day "Frankenstein" twist, but it lacks the smarts behind the weirdness.
  15. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    40
    The talented Bettis works her heart out, but McKee apparently directed her to play May as a quivering crazy from the start.
  16. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    40
    McKee's direction of actors is as clumsy as the stabs at rapid editing.
  17. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    38
    Novice director Lucky McKee wrote the first draft of this labored horror flick while he was in school, and for a student film, it's not bad. But it's not ready for the big time.
  18. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Dennis Lim
    20
    The flavor is textbook '90s indie -- self-regarding quirk with an occasional spasm of Solondzian incorrectness.
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