Film Top 5 May 2017

1
Taipei Story
(Siskel, May)
Lovingly restored edition of the 1985 second feature of gone-too-soon Taiwanese master Edward Yang (“Yi Yi”), starring Hou Hsiao-hsien (who co-wrote and co-financed) as a washed-up baseball player who can’t reconcile himself to working for his family or with fidelity to his pop-star girlfriend.

2
Two By Tarkovsky: “Stalker” & “Solaris”
(Music Box, May 26-29)
4K digital restorations of two of the most esteemed of the Russian master’s seven features. The great, ambiguous, irradiated allegory “Stalker” should be a dank delight, dusted off for the big screen.

3
Eight Features by Lina Wertmüller
(Siskel, May)
Swept away by an unusual destiny on taste across decades in our usual art-house: restored versions of the superheated work of the prodigiously controversial Italian melodramatist.

4
The Lovers
(Opens May 12)
The latest by deadpan-comic writer-director Azazel Jacobs (“Momma’s Man,” “GoodTimesKid,” “Doll & Em”) brings Debra Winger back to the screen in tandem with ace actor Tracy Letts as a long-married couple who bring fire back to their bed by cheating on their other lovers with each other.

5
A Quiet Passion
(Music Box, opens May 19)
Gifted Liverpudlian auteur Terence Davies’ eighth feature imagines a life of Emily Dickinson, with Cynthia Nixon at her finest as the painted poet. Artful frame and gesture and sound and light adorn each ache.