Nate at the Movies: May 2026 Roundup 🍿

Hey, Reader! Welcome back another month of movies. Let's find you something worth watching.

🌟 This Month's Must-See Movies

The Sheep Detectives (2026)

I didn't expect a talking animal movie to move me to the edge of tears, but that's what the end of the school year, Hugh Jackman, and Lord and Miller will do to you. That's back-to-back years now with a movie with a silly little title being absolutely great.

"The Sheep Detectives accomplished exactly what it set out to do—tell a funny, heartwarming story about talking sheep solving a mystery—but the fact that it did so much more than that is what’s going to earn this movie its high rating from me".

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I Love Boosters (2026)

Boots Riley has quickly become one of my favorite new directors, and his outlandish, maximalist style (and his clever social commentary) made I Love Boosters just as good as—if not better than—Sorry to Bother You.

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Obsession (2026)

Everybody's talking about Obsession, and rightfully so. Between the two independent horror movies from 20-something directors that came out in May, this one took the cake for me. Inde Navarrette needs more horror roles, stat.

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💎 My Favorite First-Time Watches This Month

As part of a weekend where I saw four movies in 24 hours, I got to see a theatrical re-release of Top Gun: Maverick (2022), which was just as awe-inspiring as the first movie (I rewatched Top Gun in the theater the day before). The 40 years between the two movies also allowed all the technicals to improve dramatically, and I'll have a hard time picking which of those two is better.

My local Regal was showing musicals all month, so of course I had to catch Selena (1997). She's become one of my favorite artists that I teach my students about, and the movie was just as charming as she was. J-Lo also crushed in such an important role, and every song performance was awesome.

The Prestige (2006) was the first movie I watched as part of my new Summer Series, and Christopher Nolan impressed yet again. I didn't know that a movie about magic could be good because of the Now You See Me franchise, and I also didn't know how deep Hugh Jackman's bag (of tricks) was.

🎯 Works in Progress

Adaptation Appreciation (5/12): This month, I read A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, and my brain was adequately scrambled. The nadsat slang was hard to get through, and it hid some pretty disturbing realities in the story. The film was even more impressive and messed-up; good for Stanley Kubrick.

MCU (31/37): I'm nearing the end of my MCU journey, and this month I added on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Neither was as good as their predecessors, but Wakanda Forever made a greater effort. I was dreading Quantumania (because I really disliked Ant-Man and the Wasp), but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Maybe it's because I watched it on a plane, so I focused on it extra hard.

Star Wars (19/19): We've reached the end of the year-long Star Wars journey, and though The Mandalorian and Grogu was underwhelming (yet enjoyable, don't get me wrong), the absolute cinema I got to take in to get to that point was more than worth it. I mean, Andor?!? Come on!

Harry Potter (2/8): This month's Harry Potter watch was The Chamber of Secrets, and, dare I say, it was just as good as The Sorcerer's Stone! I loved the complex mystery at its center, the new characters (besides Moaning Myrtle) were engaging, and Hermione remains perfect. Can't wait for The Prisoner of Azkaban—it's supposed to be one of the best!

Summer Series (1/12): For the first time since 2022, I'm starting a summer movie series for myself! In 2022, I watched every Pixar movie in a month, and this year, I've picked 12 great directors whose work I'd like to see more of. As I mentioned above, the only one I got to in May was Christopher Nolan, and The Prestige was fantastic. I'm not sure why I picked that over Inception, though. Oh, well.

🎶 While I Wasn't At The Movies

This isn't exactly something you can check out for long, but when I wasn't watching movies this month, I was watching the Spurs take the basketball world by storm! The Finals start on Wednesday, so hopefully we can talk in this section next month about how the Spurs won their first title since 2014. Long live Wemby!

🚨 Next Month's Movie Radar

Of the tons of movies coming out in June, I think I'm most looking forward to Disclosure Day (2026), which I'll actually be seeing early at my very first press screening as part of the NTFCA! I'm beyond excited, and the movie seems to be doing amazing so far.

There are plenty of interesting movies releasing this month, from Supergirl (2026) (my Adaptation Appreciation read this month) to Toy Story 5 (2026) and Masters of the Universe (2026). I miss my students plenty, but I'll be using this summer time to get to as many of these movies as possible!