May Movie Roundup: Petite Maman, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Downton Abbey: A New Era

May has brought a slew of interesting offerings to the movie theater so here are three different movies to sample. Whether you want French drama, British bombast, or Marvel magic, there's something to tickle anyone's fancy. 

Petite Maman: What a wondrous film. Written and directed by Celine Sciamma, this is a whimsical tale about a little girl named Nelly who is helping her parents clean out her grandmother's house following her death. While playing in the woods, she meets another girl, Marion, and as the movie unfolds, we discover that Marion is actually her mother, when she was a child. It's a weird time travel fantasy, but I can't quite explain to you how poignant and non-gimmicky a way this is to tell a simple tale about coping with grief and getting to know your parents. 

This movie is only 72 minutes long, so I shan't give away much more detail, except to exhort you to watch this film and indulge in the vibes. In a way, it felt like my Licorice Pizza, something that captured what it felt like to be a young girl and not quite understand your mother, and be an only child who has to always amuse yourself and daydream about fantastic situations. Like Sciamma's previous film, the gorgeous Portrait of a Lady on Fire, this movie is also shot beautifully, with every frame having a tactile quality that makes you feel fully immersed in the proceedings. There were scenes where Nelly was eating chocolate cereal or Marion was wearing corduroy pants and I felt like I could taste and feel my childhood. Every scene is shot at the eye level of a young child, so you're always looking up at the adults and feeling how big the world is around you, and for the entirety of this film, I felt like I was eight years old and going on grand adventures. 

This is a movie that captures that transcendent way in which you can turn the ordinary into magic when you are a child. And towards the end, there were some audible sniffs in the theater, as mother and daughter had a moment of reckoning, and we could all acknowledge that the sins of the mother don't have to fall on the daughter. It is a beautiful, heartfelt film, and if you feel like you need some substantive art in your life this week, Petite Maman is what you seek.

Doctor Strange: If what you seek instead is Marvel chicanery, then the Multiverse of Madness is where you should head. In this latest installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is back, and this time he is paired up with a young woman named America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) who has the ability to travel through the multiverse, but doesn't know how to control her powers. Turns out this ability is just what Wanda, aka the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) has been seeking so she can return to her WandaVision universe and be with her two kids. So what follows is a twisty multiversal battle between Strange and Wanda, with a supporting assist from Sorcerer Supreme Wong (Benedict Wong). Along the way, there are some fun cameos that herald future installments and/or crossovers in the MCU, lots of gorgeous and inventive action set pieces, and the chance for Cumberbatch to play multiple versions of himself, including a bizarre zombie that is reminiscent of his turn as the monster in Frankenstein.

It's all very campy and convoluted, and I wondered why they even bothered calling it Doctor Strange when it felt like it could just as easily be called Scarlet Witch instead. I have never thought it was vital to watch any of the Marvel TV shows, but you will be very lost if you haven't seen WandaVision. Overall, this was a rather bland entry into the Marvel lore, full of random tidbits and storylines that I'm sure made die-hard fans weep, but left a casual fan like me confused. It was pretty to look at, but nothing substantive, and I was hard pressed to remember much about it the second I left the theater. Watch it if you like being a completist, but you can probably skip it without missing much in the Marvel machine.

Downton Abbey: A New Era: I must caveat this review by saying that my mom and I got the chance to watch this movie at the New York premiere at the Metropolitan Opera. It was introduced by the director, Simon Curtis, producer, Liz Trubridge, writer and creator, Julian Fellowes, and a slew of cast members, and then we proceeded to watch the movie accompanied by much applause and delight from a crowd full of die-hard fans. So I watched this movie in the best way possible, feeling very fancy and fortunate, and I had a thoroughly marvelous time.

What's to say? The whole crew is back and up to their usual shenanigans, with a lot of romances afoot downstairs, and some scandals brewing upstairs, and there's a brief jaunt to the south of France to investigate what exactly the Dowager Countess Grantham (Maggie Smith) got up to aeons ago that led a Frenchman to leave her his villa in his will. Meanwhile, Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) is rallying the troops at Downton when a film company arrives to shoot a silent film there for a month, which leads to some very Singin' in the Rain-type complications, and a great deal of hilarity as the staff all give in to their fascination with Hollywood and the movies. It's a lovely bit of meta commentary about actors and the horribly sordid business of filmmaking and it's all farcical and fun in that light-touch way that is Downton at its best.

If you're a fan, this movie will satisfy all your Downton cravings. There are myriad storylines to cater to your every whim, all your old favorites get their chance to deliver a killer line, and the new characters offer up interesting opportunities for change. I certainly had the sense that Fellowes was signaling the end of the franchise, but who knows? If enough of us pour into the theater to watch this installment, we may keep watching the antics of the Crawley family and their servants for many years yet.