Janus Films
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After a very active April thanks to the Miami Film Festival and other special programming, Miami’s movie scene slows down a bit in May. The absence of Third Horizon Film Festival, which is taking the year off, is deeply felt. Still, there’s lots to be seen, especially for anime fans and music lovers. Here are some of the best limited screenings you can see in Miami in May.
Ani-May: Mamoru Hosoda Retrospective at Coral Gables Art Cinema
Once hailed as a potential successor to the king of anime, Hayao Miyazaki, Mamoru Hosoda is the subject of Coral Gables Art Cinema’s annual Ani-May series this year. Four of the Japanese director’s films will screen on Saturdays throughout the month, starting with the time-travel coming-of-age story The Girl Who Leapt Through Time on May 2. The supernatural family drama Wolf Children follows on May 9, and sci-fi actioner Summer Wars comes next on May 16. The fantasy-adventure story The Boy and the Beast screens on May 23, and the series rounds out with the metaverse musical Belle on May 31.
Our Take: If you can only see one film in this series, Summer Wars is the one to prioritize. Arguably the peak of Hosoda’s collaboration with screenwriter Satoko Okudera, the imaginative action-comedy follows a high school boy and computer hacker who serves as a moderator for Oz, a metaversal social network used by nearly everyone on Earth. He’s tricked into assisting a weaponized computer virus take over Oz, threatening the entire world. Every Saturday during May at Coral Gables Art Cinema, 260 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables; 786-472-2249; gablescinema.com. Tickets cost $10 to $11.75.
GKIDS
Rogue One (10th Anniversary) at Coral Gables Art Cinema
2016 brought us the deaths of Prince and David Bowie and the end of democracy in America as we knew it, but it also gave us the best Star Wars movie of the post-prequels, Disney-ownership era. In honor of the unofficial Star Wars holiday, May the Fourth, Coral Gables Art Cinema is showing director Gareth Edwards’ very good Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, with two screenings on Sunday, May 3, and Monday, May 4.
Our Take: When it originally came out, Rogue One was the first Star Wars film outside of the main series. It did not focus on the Skywalker mythos like the preceding franchise reboot, The Force Awakens, and instead made a bold swing, setting its story just before the original 1977 Star Wars (now titled A New Hope) and focusing on the Rebel Alliance soldiers fighting to secure the plans to the Death Star. The result is a gritty tale of guerrilla warfare and subterfuge, the closest the franchise has ever come to dropping its space-opera fantasy in favor of a more grounded, visceral tragedy about what it means to sacrifice everything for a cause. It’s certainly not a perfect film — the fatal flaw is, of course, the heinous “digital necromancy” used to revive Grand Moff Tarkin and a young Princess Leia that preceded today’s arguments over likeness rights and AI labor replacement in the current film industry. But Rogue One is the best the Star Wars film franchise has had to offer in the Disney era, and its characters and setting would be reused for Michael Clayton director Tony Gilroy’s outstanding Star Wars TV series Andor. 7 p.m. Sunday, May 3, and 8 p.m. Monday, May 4, at Coral Gables Art Cinema, 260 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables; 786-472-2249; gablescinema.com. Tickets cost $10 to $11.75.
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain at Coral Gables Art Cinema
This charming, Oscar-nominated French animation will screen this month at Coral Gables Art Cinema with two showings: the original French version with English subtitles on Saturday, May 9, and an English dub on Sunday, May 10.
Our Take: Amélie is a god — or at least she thinks she is. She observes the world with casual indifference from the safety of a bubble, until one day the bubble pops and she finds herself thrown into a strange new world: Japan, 1960s, in the residence of her Belgian diplomat father. With the help of her babysitter, Nishio-san, she learns to appreciate the incredible world around her and to forsake her childish notions of omnipotence. With stunning animation and a deeply appreciative depiction of Japan through foreign eyes, Little Amélie is a sensitive portrayal of early childhood that will surely delight young and old filmgoers alike. 11 a.m. Saturday, May 9, and Sunday, May 10, at Coral Gables Art Cinema, 260 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables; 786-472-2249; gablescinema.com. Tickets cost $10 to $11.75.
Doc’n Roll Film Festival
Doc’n Roll Film Festival at Miami Beach Bandshell
Focusing on music documentaries, the Doc’n Roll Film Festival is coming to the Miami Beach Bandshell with two features from its most recent lineup. Rave Culture: A New Era explores the emergence of rave in the UK in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when youth from all over the country embraced American house and techno music (and ecstasy) as a way to escape the bleakness of post-Thatcher Britain. The film features appearances from Orbital, The Prodigy, and Goldie, Jumpin Jack Frost, among other music legends, and screens on Wednesday, May 13 at 8 p.m.
Then, on Thursday, May 14 at 8 p.m., legendary producer and Miami resident Arthur Baker will be on hand to present his film Rockers Don’t Stop: The Revival of Rockers Revenge. The movie, which Baker directed, tells the story of his band Rockers Revenge, which topped the U.S. dance charts in 1982 with its hit song “Walking on Sunshine.” The film follows the group’s career and its recent reunion. Baker will stay for a Q&A following the film. 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 13, and Thursday, May 14, at the Miami Beach Bandshell, 7275 Collins Ave., Miami Beach; 305-672-5202. Tickets cost $20.92 via miamibeachbandshell.com.
Blue Heron at Coral Gables Art Cinema
In case you missed it at MFF, this award-winning, semi-autobiographical first feature from Canadian director Sophy Romvari is returning to Coral Gables Art Cinema this month for its official theatrical run. It’s one of the most critically acclaimed films of the year so far.
Our Take: Here’s what we wrote for the film’s MFF showing: “Trouble lurks in the background of Sasha’s (Eylul Guven) childhood memories of an idyllic Vancouver Island summer as the mental illness of her teenage half-brother Jeremy (Edik Beddoes) threatens the safety and serenity of their Hungarian immigrant family. Years after their parents make an unbearable, perhaps unforgivable choice about the boy’s fate, Sasha continues to look for answers as to what went wrong. Both a lyrical period piece and a film that plays with audience expectations and perspectives, Blue Heron is as affecting as it is disturbing.” 9 p.m. Friday, May 15, through Thursday, May 21, at Coral Gables Art Cinema, 260 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables; 786-472-2249; gablescinema.com. Tickets cost $10 to $11.75.
