And here is where the internet punishes me for being so woefully behind on my Oscar predictions. I had been planning to predict Channing Tatum for Best Supporting Actor since January... and I would have done so and people would have scoffed only to be blown away a mere month later by my prophetic gift when the Foxcatcher reviews hit at Cannes.
Channing Tatum & Steve Carell headline. Will any movie ever campaign two leads again?
No matter that Chan is, by most accounts, the lead. You know how Oscar do with two-lead/same-gender movies - they cheat!
Foxcatcher isn't the only movie greeted with raves the past couple of days. In fact, it seems like with each day of the festival (which ends Sunday) we have a new Palme D'Or frontrunner. If you believe everything you read on Twitter, for example the winner is clearly going to be Two Days and One Night With Mr Turner & Foxcatcher's Mommy in Timbuktu. I've heard more than one critics proclaim Marion Cotillard the obvious winner of best actress for her leading role in Two Days One Night but haven't they been paying attention at past Cannes ceremonies? She's always the "sure thing" at that festival and she has yet to win. So try not to jinx her, s'il vous plait.
Not every movie is going to win a prize. Atom Egoyan's Captives was widely panned but seemed to quickly dissipate from the converation. Ryan Gosling's Lost River doesn't look like it's going to be so lucky. There's a certain level of joyful snark and target practice that only emerges from critics when a major star is involved in a project so that one appears to be the biggest punching pag since Grace of Monaco on opening night. [The No Duh Lesson: People care about Ryan Gosling and Nicole Kidman. They do not care about Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively]
After the jump a collection of Cannes tweets about Xavier Dolan's Mommy (and a few other movies) that have raised my eyebrows enough to share them.
The first few tweets I saw indicated that Xavier Dolan had outdone himself but then it became clear that it's a divisive movie. That's fine, too. All the more reason to be excited... not that US distributors believe any of us are Dolan fans so who knows when or if it will surface at all outside of the festival circuit.
on MOMMY...
Xavier Dolan's Mommy. There are no words. Okay let's start with one: wow. #holyshit #cannes2014
— Sasha Stone (@AwardsDaily) May 21, 2014
Xavier Dolan's MOMMY is indeed fantastic. Finally a compelling step up from I KILLED MY MOTHER: sad, scary, exciting & well-acted. #cannes
— erickohn (@erickohn) May 21, 2014
MOMMY: A Xavier Dolan Lee Daniels film, shrieky, intermittently moving, shot in rich fluorescent beige. Full of good stuff, but a step back.
— Guy Lodge (@GuyLodge) May 21, 2014
Leave it to Xavier Dolan to invent his own aspect ratio.
— Mike D'Angelo (@gemko) May 21, 2014
I was never drawn into Xavier Dolan's Mommy. Overwrought implausible nonsense it seemed to me but maybe I'm just very tired. #Cannes2014
— Nick James (@filmnickjames) May 21, 2014
on FOXCATCHER...
Jane Campion should give the Palme d'Or to herself for her incredible, frenetic dancing to Lykke Li at last night's Foxcatcher party.
— Kyle Buchanan (@kylebuchanan) May 20, 2014
To me, Foxcatcher is about 2 men so inside their bubble they’re near autistic & the inability of 1 fully formed adult to save them #Cannes
— David Poland (@DavidPoland) May 19, 2014
If you don't have time to watch Foxcatcher watch the ep of The Simpsons where Mr Burns buys into the bowling team. (Not a diss, both ace)
— Catherine Bray (@catherinebray) May 19, 2014
FOXCATCHER is like a more muted, eery BEHIND THE CANDELABRA. #Cannes2014
— Nigel M. Smith (@nigelmfs) May 19, 2014
on TWO DAYS ONE NIGHT...
TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT is basically Rosetta 15 years later. And it's fantastic.
— Peter Labuza (@labuzamovies) May 20, 2014
Impassioned, exciting, magnificently acted - the Dardenne brothers could actually be on for Palme no.3 with Two Days, One Night #Cannes2014
— Peter Bradshaw (@PeterBradshaw1) May 20, 2014
Marion Cotillard has never won Best Actress at Cannes. The Dardennes have two Palmes. Spot the thing that needs more urgently rectifying.
— Tim Robey (@trim_obey) May 20, 2014
on LOST RIVER...
At Cannes no one is referring to Lost River as Lost River. It's all "Have you seen the Gosling?"
— Richard Lawson (@rilaws) May 21, 2014
Confession: I'd sooner rewatch LOST RIVER than WINTER SLEEP, JAUJA or several other Cannes films that don't feature Ben Mendelsohn dancing.
— Guy Lodge (@GuyLodge) May 20, 2014
Did anyone check to make sure James Franco isn't actually behind LOST RIVER? #Cannes2014
— Nik Grozdanović (@nikgrape) May 20, 2014
Lost River: Ryan Gosling confuses 'making film' with 'assembling Tumblr of David Lynch & Mario Bava gifs'. Dumb-foundingly poor #Cannes2014
— Robbie Collin (@robbiereviews) May 20, 2014
I can't say that I 100% wish I was there -- I hear that Cannes is considerably less manageable than, say, Toronto. I understand there are three badge colors for access and I am highly allergic to queues and hiearchies that you can be crushed at the bottom of. There's a theater in Manhattan that now lets you reserve your seats. You can show up as the trailers are ending and still have a great seat. It is heaven.