Cannes Film Festival Recap and Reviews. Boos? It must be another Cannes.
For the second year in a row, the Cannes jury selected a good film by a revered director that tackled of- the- moment social issues, while ignoring the films preferred by critics. This year's big winner was Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake, which won the Palme d’Or while more critically acclaimed films like Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann, Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson, and Paul Verhoeven’s controversial Elle failed to collect a single award. Leaving the Croisette with two awards (for best actor and best screenplay, a rare double) was The Salesman, a film some reviewers thought was a weaker effort by writer- director Asghar Farhadi (though even his lesser films are still better than many filmmakers' best efforts). In a very strong best actress category, Ma’ Rosa star Jaclyn Jose took home the prize over favorite Sonia Braga (Aquarius) and other highly touted performances by Sandra H. That film—along with Nicolas Winding Refn's latest disappointment—was one of several heavily booed by Cannes audiences (an annual tradition that doesn't automatically mean that a film is terrible, though in the case of Penn's film, you can trust the jeers). While critics debated about the overall quality of this year’s competition slate (THR’s Todd Mc. Carthy found it “very disappointing” while Time’s Stephanie Zacharek believed it be “unusually strong”), there’s no doubt that film lovers everywhere have a lot to look forward to until next May as these movies begin to make their way into theaters.
Here’s our rundown of the highlights and a few of the lowlights of this year’s festival. His doctor won’t let him return to work despite social services determining he is fit for work. This leaves him in a bureaucratic limbo and without welfare, but it also leads him to single mom Katie (Hayley Squires), who recently moved to Newcastle with her two kids. Their friendship forms the heart of this humane and urgent slice of social realist fiction. Loach and screenwriter Paul Laverty, who collaborated on Loach’s previous Palme d’Or winner as well as the more recent Jimmy’s Hall and The Angels’ Share, take a direct (and, for some, heavy- handed) approach to the story. Writing for Screen Daily, Wendy Ide admits that the film “might not break new ground” but “there is no denying the potency of the film’s empathetic anguish and fury.
THR’s David Rooney writes, “The film is anchored by incisive characterizations rich in integrity and heart, and by an urgent simplicity in its storytelling that's surprisingly powerful.” Detractors include Robbie Collin of The Telegraph who believes the film . Club’s Mike D’Angelo, who gives it a B–, adds, “It’s at its worst during its home stretch, when Laverty rains down indignity to a degree that turns the movie into a pity party.” That title certainly seemed apropos to some critics. Tweeted Variety's Guy Lodge shortly after the film collected the festival's second- highest honor, . After sharing (with Jean- Luc Godard) the Jury Prize in 2. Mommy and serving on the jury last year, Dolan won over this year's judges with what most critics think is his weakest film to date.
Films starring Kristen Stewart, Adam Driver, Casey Affleck and Isabelle Huppert will screen at the fest, which is set to kick off Sept. With Philippe Noiret, Massimo Troisi, Maria Grazia Cucinotta, Renato Scarpa. Simple Italian postman learns to love poetry while delivering mail to a famous poet; he. TIFF is a charitable cultural organization with a mission to transform the way people see the world, through film.
It's also his first adaptation of someone else’s work (a play by Jean- Luc Lagarce). Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian appears to be the film's sole defender, writing, “It’s Only the End of the World is confrontational absurdism: a fascinating, sustained assault.”In her first America- set feature, writer- director Andrea Arnold (Wuthering Heights) combines two classic American teen movie genres: the coming- of- age story and the road trip movie. In doing do, she nabbed her third Jury Prize after previously winning in 2. Red Road and in 2. Fish Tank. In the former category is The Film Stage, which awards Honey an “A” and deems it “visually astonishing and often devastating,” contracting with Uproxx’s Charles Bramesco, who finds it to be a “nearly three- hour Everest of hot garbage.”More awards. Other winners in the main competition this year include: Outside of the main competition, Juho Kuosmanen’s Finnish boxing film The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki won the top prize in the Un Certain Regard section of the festival.
Mimosas, Oliver Laxe’s follow- up to You All Are Captains won the top prize at the Critics’ Week festival that runs parallel to Cannes, where Mehmet Can Mertoglu. Over at the 4. 8th Directors’ Fortnight, Shahrbanoo Sadat’s Afghan drama Wolf and Sheep won the top Art Cinema Award, beating out strong competition from Pablo Larrain’s Neruda, Laura Poitras Risk and Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Endless Poetry (all detailed below). Finally, the Palm Dog (presented for the best canine performance) went to Nellie, a British Bulldog from Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson. Sadly, Nellie is the first posthumous winner of this cherished award. Other notable films premiering at Cannes At the 2. Cannes Film Festival, Japanese writer- director Hirokazu Kore- eda won the Jury Prize for Like Father, Like Son. As with the director’s previous efforts, it was praised by critics (The Telegraph’s Robbie Collin claims, “No filmmaker today is watching ordinary human life more closely than Kore- eda, or is more unfailingly generous with what they find”), with some likening the gentle family story to the director’s Still Walking.
According to the A. V. Club’s Mike D’Angelo, “Sonia Braga gives the performance of her long, storied career” in writer- director Kleber Mendon. Helped by his star, Filho has crafted what Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian calls “a richly detailed character study, immersing the audience in the life and mind of its imperious main character.”Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Roald Dahl’s 1. Bridge of Spies Oscar- winner Mark Rylance) earned mixed reviews despite the seemingly perfect fit of director and material.
Many critics are comparing it (unfavorably) to Spielberg’s previous collaboration with late screenwriter Melissa Mathison, E. T., but it does have its supporters, including Variety’s Peter Debruge, who calls it an “instant classic.”The first Cannes entry for the French director (a pairof. Mesrine films, Assault on Precinct 1. Macy, Michael Parks, and Diego Luna also star. It's definitely a B- movie, and only an adequate one, at best.
Variety's Owen Gleiberman thinks the film works as an audition reel for Gibson's career revival, though finds the movie as a whole . Not his best but also far from his worst, Allen’s 4. Eisenberg’s Bobby Dorfman as he moves from New York to Los Angeles to work for his uncle (Carell), a top agent to the stars. There, he falls in love with Stewart’s Vonnie. Club’s Mike D’Angelo finds it “sneakily ambitious,” while likening it to “listening to a formerly great pianist whose fingers are now gnarled with arthritis.
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- An inspector hunts down Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda, who becomes a fugitive in his home country in the late 1940s for joining the Communist Party.
The notes are right, and played in the correct order, but the tempo is way, way off.”Set in Cairo, two years after the Egyptian revolution, Mohamed Diab’s second film (following Cairo 6. Egypt that did not get a U. S. Screen Daily’s Lee Marshall calls it “intensely cinematic,” while Deborah Young of THR claims it’s “an original, often quite disturbing experience to watch.”Paul Schrader’s last film, Dying of the Light, was released under protest after final cut was taken away from the director.
As a response, Schrader has gone low budget with this adaptation of a crime novel by Edward Bunker (Mr. Blue in Reservoir Dogs) starring Willem Dafoe, Nicolas Cage and Christopher Matthew Cook as desperate ex- cons who botch a baby kidnapping and become fugitives from the mob and the cops.
The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw thinks Dog Eat Dog is “Schrader’s best for years: a lairy, nasty, tasty crime thriller built on black- comic chaos,” but Peter Debruge of Variety warns that “its infrequent bursts of gonzo brilliance are all in service of such an uninteresting premise.” Paul Verhoeven seems to find his greatest success with sci- fi action (Robo. Cop, Total Recall) or racy psychological thrillers (Basic Instinct). Elle, his first French- language film, falls partly into the latter group, and while it isn't without its controversy—for one thing, it attempts to blend dark comedy with multiple scenes of rape—it does seem to be the director's most lauded film in ages. Based on a French novel by Philippe Djian, the unpredictable and complex film touches on the #Gamergate controversy and centers on the female head of a videogame company, played (to much acclaim) by Isabelle Huppert, who searches for the man who assaults her as the film begins. Indiewire's Eric Kohn is impressed with the film's star, writing, . Despite the controversial subject matter, Elle was actually one of the few Cannes films not to receive boos from its audience this year. Alejandro Jodorowsky’s second autobiographical feature (following The Dance of Reality)—in a planned series of five—shows that the 8.
Picking up where his last film left off, Jodorowsky, with the help of Christopher Doyle’s cinematography, re- imagines his young adulthood in 1. Santiago, where he wanted to become a poet. Variety’s Owen Gleiberman considers the film a “work of transporting charm and feeling.”One of the least- liked films of the competition was Going Away director Nicole Garcia’s adaptation of Sicilian author Melena Agus’ 2.
The film stars Marion Cotillard as Gabrielle, a young woman from a small village in the South of France who is obsessed with true love but is married off to Jos. Some critics think that Cotillard’s performance elevates the material, but for others, like The Playlist’s Nikola Grozdanovic, “not even the presence of the usually magnetic Marion Cotillard will stave off the boredom of Garcia and Jacques Fieschi. Critics suggest the film is a must for fans of the band, but maybe not as revealing as many had hoped. Cristian Mungiu shared the Best Director prize with Olivier Assayas for this drama about a doctor who compromises his values to help his daughter keep her scholarship to study in the UK.