Hirokazu Kore-eda’s ‘Sheep in the Box’ Met With Mixed Reviews, Weak 3-Minute Standing Ovation [Cannes]

I’m not usually one to track Cannes or Venice standing ovations with a stopwatch, or even report on them, but in this era of endless over-applause, a film receiving only a three-minute ovation usually means something didn’t quite land.

That’s what just happened to Hirokazu Kore-eda, a former Palme d’Or winner for “Shoplifters,” who has seemingly struck out at Cannes with his latest film, the dull AI-themed “Sheep in the Box.”

The trades have timed the ovation it received at the Grand Lumiere Theater as around 3 minutes. Amusingly, the most boisterous clapper was James Franco, who “was on his feet as soon as the film ended and kept up his ovation till the very end.” lol.

Kore-eda’s lifeless film is not getting the glowiest of reviews either — IndieWire (C+) Screen (negative), THR (negative), RogerEbert (negative), Next Best Picture (6/10), The Wrap (positive).

“Sheep in the Box” is set in a near-future world where a grieving couple, Otone and Kensuke, lose their young son and later acquire a AI robot child designed to replace him. They raise the humanoid as if it were their own, attempting to recreate family life, but gradually become unsettled as the child’s artificial nature forces them to confront the limits of substitution.

Kore-eda has built one of the most celebrated relationships with the Cannes Film Festival over the past two decades, with seven films selected across Competition and Un Certain Regard. His accolades at the festival include the best actor prize for Yuya Yagira for “Nobody Knows” (2004), the Jury Prize for “Like Father, Like Son” (2013), and the Palme d’Or for “Shoplifters” (2018). More recently, “Broker” earned the a best actor award for Song Kang-ho in 2022, while “Monster” won best screenplay in 2023.

Kore-eda has been working for nearly three decades, building a body of other acclaimed work that includes “Maborisi,” “After Life,” “Still Walking,” “Like Father, Like Son,” and “After the Storm.”