Whether you love or hate Albert Serra’s “Pacification,” there’s no doubt this year’s subpar competition needed its inclusion just for the sake of shaking things up.

“Elvis” is not the train wreck many will have you believe. Baz Luhrmann’s biopic is a flashy, and does make you feel pummelled by the end of its 159 minute runtime, but it’s not unworthy.

Jordan Peele’s “Nope” is a bit more than a month away from being released. It test-screened again a few weeks ago in Long Beach, California and the most was that of a moviegoer puzzled by what seemed like a heavy lack of VFX completion.

Claire Denis has waited close to 34 years to get back into Cannes competition. The film that got her there might be the worst of her career.

Mario Martone was a surprise inclusion for Cannes competition this year with “Nostalgia.” People were mostly expecting it to land at Venice, but something happened.

Netflix saw its stock crash a few weeks ago, then a few days later they had to layoff off 150 people at their L.A. headquarters and now they have “The Gray Man.”

An Israeli critic I spoke to, who has seen Lukas Dhont’s “Close,” did not like it. He said it felt very familiar and, at times, amateurish. Then again, this same person says he hasn’t seen a good movie at Cannes since Sunday. So, who knows!

This Dardenne’s “Tori and Lokita” is absorbing for 95% of its runtime. They just can’t stick the landing. That’s alright, I bet it goes over well with the jury.

I’ve been following the ascendancy of The Daniels’ “Everything Everywhere All At Once” for around a month now. This week it became A24’s highest-grossing movie of all-time, surpassing “Uncut Gems.”

Some of the raves coming in for Park Chan-room’s “Decision to Leave” are mind-boggling. US and UK film critics have gone gaga over it. Don’t buy it. If you speak to international critics, they are way more divisive towards it. And so am I.

On 04.20.22 I was the first to break the news that Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard were shooting a new Michel Franco movie.

So far, Cannes has been disappointing. Let’s hope the best titles are back-loaded like last year’s edition. We still have Park, Reichardt, Cronenberg, Kore-eda, Dardenne and Denis left to be screened (among others).

Set 21 years ago in Masshad, Iran, Ali Abassi’s Holy Spider has shocked quite a few people here at Cannes for its depiction of violence towards women.

Roman Polanski is, supposedly, having a hard time finding a distributor for his upcoming film, “The Palace.”

In “R.M.N,” you get the sense, much like the Dardennes, that Cristi Mungiu hasn’t necessarily evolved his well-known style, but stuck by it these last 15 years.

This movie was not on my radar. “You People” is directed by Kenya Barris (Girls Trip), and co-written by himself and Jonah Hill.