Seen on Screen: Grogu, Geeky Trivia and Miranda Priestly

Familiar faces (and properties) anchor this month’s slate at cinemas and at home. A rifle-toting Radha Mitchell defends her farm in Ipswich, a bumbling Matthew Rhys encounters folkloric monsters, and the creator and star of Baby Reindeer spins an even more brutal tale of burning obsession.

On top of that, you can look forward to The Devil Wears Prada, The Mandalorian, Jeopardy and a literary classic, plus new outings from Blumhouse. Here’s what to watch in May.

For an unflinching portrait of toxic masculinity: Half Man

“I’m the main character in this relationship,” growls writer and star Richard Gadd in his follow-up to Baby Reindeer. You might not immediately recognise him, though: in contrast to his previous show’s gangly stand-up comic, Gadd packed on 40 kilograms to play a heavily muscled embodiment of toxic masculinity. Drilling down into Gadd’s now-signature theme of obsession, Half Man centres on two closely bonded stepbrothers who we see as brooding teens and again 30 years later. Gadd plays the adult version of Ruben, the violent enforcer to Jamie Bell’s meek, introverted Niall. Niall’s wedding provides the framing device for the six-part English series, which reviewers have compared to Adolescence in sheer intensity. This may not be for the faint of heart, but the buzz around it is strong. On HBO Max now.

For a multi-generational family saga: The House of the Spirits

Released in 1982, Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits is a modern classic of Spanish-language literature. A decade later, the screen adaptation saw white actors like Meryl Streep and Glenn Close playing key members of the novel’s central Trueba family. This eight-episode series corrects that miscalculation, employing Latin American actors (speaking in Spanish) to portray the Truebas across four generations, and a full century of social and political upheaval in post-colonial Chile. Expect the book’s familial trauma and magic realism to remain fully intact, along with luxurious period backdrops and a wide narrative sweep. That said, you needn’t have read the spellbinding source material to appreciate the universal beats of this story. On Amazon Prime now.

For a small-town horror comedy: Widow’s Bay

A deeply isolated small town is played for both scares and laughs in Widow’s Bay. Think The X-Files meets Northern Exposure, though creator Katie Dippold has cited Stephen King classics and formerly wrote for Parks and Recreation. Matthew Rhys plays the frazzled mayor of Widow’s Bay, who is trying to put the New England island community on the wider tourism map. But when quirky locals and foreboding folklore give way to proper horror, the mayor finds himself woefully ill-equipped to handle it. Rhys has become a quiet veteran of prestige TV, anchoring recent gems like The Americans, The Beast in Me and the underrated Perry Mason reboot. This tonally layered outlier is starting with a three-episode drop, before going weekly after that. On Apple TV now.

For an intimate (and local) action thriller: Seven Snipers

Radha Mitchell has plenty of Hollywood action credits under her belt, including multiple Silent Hill and Has Fallen movies, but it’s rare to see her headlining an action movie in her own accent. Filmed near Ipswich, Seven Snipers stars the veteran Australian actress as Kris, an unassuming single mum whose farm becomes the site of a violent siege when Tim Roth’s warlord character arrives to exact revenge. It turns out Kris has a secret past as a military sniper, once wronging Roth in the field. As Kris and her 16-year-old daughter fight for their lives, Kris calls for some much-needed backup – thus the film’s title. Last seen on the locally made series Last Days of the Space Age, Mitchell gets lots of expansive Queensland scenery to chew here. In cinemas now.

For a sassy raft of aspiring memes: The Devil Wears Prada 2

A full two decades – and infinite memes – after The Devil Wears Prada, the core cast returns for another bubbly skewering of the fashion industry and New York City life. Meryl Streep reprises her Oscar-nominated turn as withering media mogul Miranda Priestly (a loving riff on Vogue icon Anna Wintour), while Anne Hathaway is back as journalist Andy Sachs, with Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci not far behind. Their collective chemistry is the main reason the first movie worked so well, and it should apply to this updated story about modern media travails. And we can expect the script – by original screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna – to rack up exactly the kind of perfectly poised putdowns that Andy seems to bring out in people. In cinemas now.

For modern dating, Blumhouse-style: Obsession

Injecting dark humour into a quite straightforward horror premise, Obsession is about a handsome but hapless young guy (Teen Wolf’s Michael Johnston) who wishes his long-time crush loved him back. When he resorts to an old-school toy that promises to grant wishes, all hell breaks loose. Said crush (Inde Navarrette) falls for him in just the way he wants. But soon her unwavering love grows so intense that violence – and yes, obsession – follows suit. Written and directed by Curry Barker, who has cruised along the same comedy-to-horror pipeline as Jordan Peele and Zach Cregger, Obsession looks likely to become a modest genre hit. It’s even got the Blumhouse seal of approval. In cinemas May 14.

For a return to the Star Wars universe: The Mandalorian and Grogu

It’s been seven years since the last Star Wars movie, so the franchise has a lot riding on The Mandalorian and Grogu. Spun off from the TV series that gave us the cuddly Jedi whiz formerly known as Baby Yoda, the movie is directed by Jon Favreau, who established the show’s dust-blown western vibes and also kickstarted the MCU with 2008’s Iron Man. Pedro Pascal returns as the (mostly) masked Mandalorian, with some reliable fan service in the form of AT-AT Walkers and an heir to Jabba the Hutt. While aimed at a slightly younger audience than other Star Wars movies – and certainly more so than the slow-burn payoffs of the series Andor – this one is meant to be a crowd-pleaser that holds us over until Ryan Gosling joins the fold in Starfighter. In cinemas May 21.

For a cheeky, geeky take on classic trivia: Pop Culture Jeopardy

It’s tough being a Jeopardy fan in Australia, scanning two different SBS channels on free-to-air TV for episodes that might be delayed by months from their American airings. But wait: Saturday Night Live’s Colin Jost is hosting a cheeky spinoff that began on Amazon Prime and is now getting a second shot on Netflix. Running on weekdays for four straight weeks, Pop Culture Jeopardy is very much the bratty younger sibling to the long-running original. Contestants appear in pairs rather than solo, for instance, and the category names lean into the geeky, timely aspect of the questions (or rather answers). And after its first incarnation, the show now sees two teams square off instead of three. On Netflix May 22.