The 2023 Cannes Film Festival ends tomorrow.
Today the awards for the Un Certain Regard category were announced. I saw 15 of the 19 films competing in this sidebar section, which is filled with first-time directorial efforts.
There were three films that really stood out for me: Molly Manning Walker’s “How to Have Sex,” Felipe Gálvez‘ “The Settlers” and Kamal Lazraq’s “Hounds.” Two of these three films won awards today.
Walker‘s debut film, “How To Have Sex,” about three British teens, who go on resort holiday filled with sex, drugs and boozing, won the top prize. This was a painfully uncomfortable watch as its three protagonists basically drink and party the entire runtime — to the point of ad nauseum —until an incident occurs. I loved Walker’s handling of tone and realism while also showing a deft confidence in style.
The Jury Prize (second place) went to Moroccan director Lazraq’s “Hounds,” a gritty crime drama that takes place in modern-day Casablanca. The story, set in that city’s dark underbelly, deals with a father-son duo who get into serious trouble after a simple kidnapping assignment turns into an accidental death.
El Moudir, another Moroccan filmmaker, won Best Director for her interesting doc, “The Mother Of All Lies.” This inventive film has Moudir recounting her family’s history under the brutal military clampdown of the 1980 “Bread Riots.”
Rodrigo Moreno’s critically-acclaimed “The Delinquents,” which was the one film of the fest that I regretted missing, came home empty-handed.
This year’s Un Certain Regard section was fine as it went along, but I can confidently say that I did not really see anything that would have merited a slot in competition. These were all first and second time directing efforts, but some of the ones I mentioned showed great promise.
While James L. Brooks teased last year that "we'll soon be seeing" Jack Nicholson, 89, act again, and that he was "reading scripts," that idea has now been shut down by his close friend Michael Douglas, 82.