The 15 best films hitting Netflix in May 2022

Did Tom Hanks as a bad guy in Road to Perdition leave a bad taste in your mouth? Well, wash it out with some Bubba Gump shrimp and a box of chocolates as the ever-charming Forrest Gump hits Netflix this May. While some of Forrest’s simpleton insights are indeed problematic these days, part of the charm was the fact that they were always problematic. Unsurprisingly, in 2009 Noel Murray smartly acknowledged the film’s complicated legacy while dressing it down a bit, saying of the sprawling, epic crowd-pleaser, “.”

It’s weird how much Guy Ritchie works, and even weirder is he still pulls together a pretty spectacular cast every time. Yet the weirdest thing is how utterly forgettable most of his films are these days. Case in point, the Matthew McConaughey, Hugh Grant, Colin Farrell, and Jeremy Strong starrer The Gentlemen. Will it be enough to make you forget Ritchie directed the live-action version of Disney’s Aladdin or did mentioning that just make you realized that happened? In 2020, Vikram Murthi was less than complimentary, saying it felt “.”

Sergio Leone is of course known as the king of the Spaghetti Western, but he also made a damn fine gangster film with 1984’s Once Upon A Time In America. Clocking in at 3 hours and 49 minutes, the film stars Robert De Niro as Noodles, a former Prohibition-era gangster who revisits his old haunts and the violent life he endured and brought upon himself. Those worried about the long runtime should just pretend they’re binge-watching their favorite show. Back in 2003, The A.V. Club’s Keith Phipps dug into the DVD release of the film, calling it “.”

The Hughes Brothers (Allen and Albert) made a huge splash back in 1993 with their harrowing, nihilistic look at ghetto street life in Menace II Society. Their 1995 crime caper follow-up failed to generate much buzz and from there, the Hughes Brothers have kind of drifted along through various cinematic mediums (music videos, short films, television) over the ensuing decades. But they will always have one of the finest and rawest feature film debuts with Menace. The A.V. Club team listed the film as one of many up for reconsideration in .

An inspiring family film about a near fatal shark attack is a bit of an odd niche but Soul Surfer, the biopic of surfer Bethany Hamilton, pulls it off. AnnaSophia Robb stars as Hamilton, who loses an arm to a shark attack but, through some engineering ingenuity and not-so-subtle nods to “God’s Plan,” once again takes to the waves. The film co-stars Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt as Bethany’s parents, and even includes country star Carrie Underwood in her feature debut. In 2011, Tasha Robinson , saying it “has plenty of strengths to go with its faults.”

A month too late to celebrate 4/20, Netflix brings smart and funny stoner comedy Harold And Kumar Go To White Castle to the streamer this May. John Cho and Kal Penn star as the eponymous, munchies-having burger seekers while Neil Patrick Harris steals the show playing himself, but all horned-up on ecstasy. The film was admired for breaking ground in terms of upending racial stereotypes and still holds up today as an excellent comedy. The A.V. Club’s Nathan Rabin said the film “.”

Steven Spielberg’s 2005 adaptation of H.G. Wells’ War Of The Worlds, as the kids say, slaps hard. In fact, it’s often a bit shocking that the film only got a PG-13 rating, as there’s a whole lot of aliens flat-out dusting people. The film also bookends the two films where Spielberg’s muse was Tom Cruise (the other being 2002’s also excellent Minority Report) and really showcases what happens when two blockbuster masters are in sync. In 2005, Scott Tobias highlighted how Spielberg “.”

Charlize Theron once again stars in a really good Jason Reitman film with 2018’s Tully. The two worked together first in 2007’s Juno and again in the massively underseen Young Adult in 2011 (Note: Patton Oswalt was straight-up robbed of a Best Supporting Actor nom in that one). While Tully is probably a distant third place to those other two films, it’s still a pretty solid comedy/drama about Marlo (Theron), a mother of two, who gets a surprise with pregnancy number three. Enter Mackenzie Davis as night-nanny Tully who immediately forms an intense bond with Marlo. From there, things get weird. The A.V. Club’s Jesse Hassenger dug it too, giving it an A-, observing that screenwriter and Juno collaborator Diablo Cody “.”