Kitty, the imaginary teen friend addressed in Anne Frank’s diaries, ends up being the main character in Ari Folman’s “Where Is Anne Frank?”.
Read moreVenice Film Festival Set to Announce Lineup Next Week
‘Vortex’: Gaspar Noe’s Slowest Movie is Also His Most Mature [Cannes]
Gaspar Noe’s new film was set to start at 11pm last night at the DeBussy, but had its screening delayed by almost an hour due to the long lines of crowds outside. This always happens with a Noe at Cannes; from “Love” to “Climax” to “Lux Aeterna”, he has a legion of French fans hooked on his experimental provocations and the buzz at these screenings is palpably electric every time.
Read more‘Titane’ Wins Palme d’Or
The 2021 Cannes Film Festival, with Spike Lee serving as president of the jury, awarded the prestigious Palme d’Or to Julia Ducournau’s “Titane.”
Read more‘Casablanca Beats’ Has No Rhythm [Cannes]
Director Nabil Hayouch’s “Casablanca Beats” takes itself very seriously, to the point of ad nauseum. Here is a Moroccan hip-hop version of “School of Rock,” only without the the self-aware humour or Richard Linklater’s artful camera.
Read more‘France’: Bruno Dumont’s Nihilism Strikes Gold [Cannes]
Bruno Dumont’s darkly satirical ”France” received the first major boos of Cannes 2021. I dug it.
Read more‘Red Rocket’: Sean Baker’s Triumphant Indie is One of the Best Movies of Cannes 2021
After “Tangerine” and “The Florida Project,” Sean Baker cements his status as one of the best working American directors today with “Red Rocket,” a down-and-dirty ride into the Trumpian American fringes of Texas. It’s one of the very best movies to have screened at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Read more‘The Story of My Wife’: 3 Hours of Nothingness [Cannes]
Lea Seydoux is the only reason to watch Ildiko Enyedi’s “The Story Of My Wife”, a flat Cannes Film Festival competition entry that just drags and drags and drags …
Read more‘Paris, District 13’ Is All About Sex and More Sex [Cannes]
Jacques Audiard’s “Paris, 13th District” is the French filmmaker’s first film since his Palme d’Or win for “Deephan” back in 2015. Don’t expect this racy but oddly convoluted film to land Audiard the big prize again this year.
Read more‘A Hero’: Asghar Farhadi’s Tense Drama Tackles Social Media Manipulation [Cannes]
When you enter an Asghar Farhadi film you can expect moral dilemmas galore. His social melodramas have become an integral part of the world cinema scene. Ever since his 2011 breakout “A Separation” (although he was making movies years before that), he’s managed to capture the pulse of his home country without, unlike his obvious contemporary Jafar Panahi, having to be jailed by government for it. A feat in of itself.
Read more‘Titane’: Batshit Crazy Blend of Genres Defies Description [Cannes]
It’s quite something that Cannes decided Julia Ducournau’s “Titane,” a batshit crazy midnight movie, and I’m being subtle here, should make it into competition at this year’s festival.
Read more‘Blue Bayou’: The Absolute Worst Film at Cannes 2021
Sean Penn’s “Flag Day” has got nothing, and I mean nothing, on Justin Chon’s Cannes-premiered “Blue Bayou.” Here is a film so on-the-nose and embraceful of its mucky sentimentality that if it were in competition this year then it would have absolutely been booed by press.
Read morePaul Schrader’s ‘The Card Counter’ Set To Premiere at the Venice and Telluride Film Festivals
Word on the street is that Paul Schrader spilled the beans at a recent Q&A that his upcoming “The Card Counter” will be premiering at the Venice and Telluride Film Festivals in early September. The guy can’t ever shut his trap, but that’s why we love him.
Lacklustre …
‘Bergman Island’: Mia Hansen-Løve’s Best Film to Date is Also Her Most Achingly Personal [Cannes]
“Bergman Island” is Mia Hansen-Løve’s best and most accomplished film. If she showed signs of brilliance in “Eden” and “Things to Come,” then here she’s found the perfect vehicle for her cinematic sensibilities — a dreamy and personal meta work that plays as joyously as a breezy summer day.
Read more‘The French Dispatch’ Plays Like Wes Anderson on Steroids [Cannes]
Wes Anderson’s style is as recognizable as they come. No other filmmaker could come up with the minutiae attention-to-detail he delivers in “The French Dispatch.” The problem is that this anthology of short stories, which just premiered at Cannes, feels like Anderson on steroids.
Read moreStudios Pulling Films Out of TIFF 2021 Due to Digital Component
I’m being told certain distributors and have either pulled their films out of the 2021 edition of the Toronto Film Festival or are seriously thinking about doing it. Jeffrey Wells posted the story based on my intel a few hours ago.
Read more‘Tre Piani’: Why Nanni, Why? [Cannes]
Ever since he won the Palme d’Or back in 2001 for his touching family loss drama “The Son’s Room,” actor-turned-director Nanni Moretti has had every single one of his films premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
Read more‘The Souvenir: Chapter Two’ Widens the Divide Between Critics and Audiences [Cannes]
One thing some detractors of “The Souvenir” films may not get, or maybe they do and just don’t care, is that they purposely meander. Every mundane gesture or stilted silence in these two chapters seems to come straight from the personal experiences of its director Joanna Hogg. That may not be enough to convince some that these are a great set of movies, but, hey, at least those naysayers can understand what all the fuss is about and why critics are gushing non-stop over them.
Read more‘Flag Day’: Sean Penn Directs Another Catastrophic Bomb [Cannes]
Sean Penn’s “Flag Day” was met with jeers & cackles at last night’s press screening. What did I exactly witness? The editing was horrendous. The photographer ugly. The dialogue seventh-grade level. Penn used to be a decent filmmaker with his best movie being 2001’s “The Pledge”. What happened?
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It’s been seven years since Alma Har’el’s feature debut, “Honey Boy,” which was written by and starred Shia LaBeouf — she is now set to direct her next film, with a very talented cast.