by Nathaniel R
One of our all time favorite movie couples reunited: Julianne Moore and Todd Haynes
After the fiasco of that opening press conference and the typical "underwhelmed" response to the opening night film, happier news. The first full day of screenings brought us news of Todd Haynes Wonderstruck which reunites one of the world's greatest auteurs with his earliest muse Julianne Moore, and other reportedly fine films. Read on for more!
Julianne portrait from Cannes 70's opening night - C'MON PERFECTION
Millicent Simmonds is winning rave reviews for her performance
Wonderstruck (opening October 20th in limited release)
Todd Haynes new film, which is about two deaf children in two different time periods, is your early Oscar leader for Best Original Score (at least according to Cannes buzz before we've seen any other Oscar contenders). Carter Burwell, who received his first nomination for Carol, gets even more of a showcase in this film since it's not movie star face or dialogue heavy. Much of the film is apparently silent but for Burwell's score. If you believe THR it's an Oscar contender across the board actually, despite some mixed reviews. That tracks since the reaction to Todd Haynes films is always predictable and Wonderstruck proves it yet again: There's the people who fall madly deeply in love and others who feel there's a barrier between them and the screen --they might admire it but nothing more (sounds typical, right?!)
Palme Contender? PERHAPS (if they feel bad about Carol not winning as big as it should have... and Cannes does have the same thing as Oscar in terms of the "it's your turn" dynamic... regardless of the films in question and the shifting juries)
Reviews: IndieWire, Variety, Vulture, Slant, The Hollywood Reporter
Zvyagintsev's LOVELESS is cinema so razor-sharp you can cut diamonds with it. A blistering, masterful portrait of human detachment. #Cannes
— Scott Foundas (@foundasonfilm) May 19, 2017
Loveless
Andrey Zvyagintsev, who last directed the Oscar & BAFTA nominee Leviathan, returns with a bleak study of human detachment in Russia, in which an unhappy couple's son goes missing.
Palme Contender: MOST DEFINITELY (especially if the jury is feeling nihilistic... some people seem to dislike this with others calling it a knockout but I've learned over the years that bleaker-than-bleak stuff has better shot at festival awards than it appears to from a distance)
Reviews: Little White Lies, The Film Stage, The Telegraph
My heart bleeds for #Okja. Great film, perfect creature feature, funny, honest /w attitude. Exactly what cinema needs...oh wait. #Cannes17
— Beatrice Behn (@DansLeCinema) May 19, 2017
Okja
The all-star cutesy monster movie from the great Bong Joon-Ho, was called "uneven" but its peaks are apparently dizzying. And visual! This is both great news and bad news since Netflix has the movie and will probably only do a perfunctory theatrical release in a few markets but will mostly just send it straight to streaming. From the early reactions, and this won't be a surprise if you've seen any of Bong Joon-Ho's movies, it benefits from a giant screen. Jake Gyllenhaal's over-the-topness is getting quite a reaction, too.
Palme Contender? MAYBE LEANING NO
Reviews: Collider, The Guardian, Vanity Fair
JUPITER'S MOON (B) Formerly, "The Mundruczó"; henceforth, "the hot levitating Jesus movie". And why the hell not?
— Tim Robey (@trim_obey) May 18, 2017
Jupiter Moon
Kornel Mundruczo's allegorical drama kicks off with a Syrian refugee surviving three gunshots to the chest. Instead of dying he begins to levitate. It morphs into a chase movie at some point? I haven't read any reviews in full because it sounds like a "you had to be there" genre mish-mash where the details are best left discovered onscreen but people seem to not love it. Even the ones who like it. The Hungarian director previously had a big hit at Cannes with White God.
Palme Contender: NO
Reviews: The Playlist, Flickering Myth, Screen Int'l
BPM (Beats Per Minute)
This French film about a group of Act-Up AIDS activists in Paris in the early 90s joins the recent rich wave of new acclaimed Queer cinema (so nice that it's suddenly back!). Director Robin Campillo, who was just such an activist in his youth, previously made the gay drama Eastern Boys (available to stream on Netflix) and was a co-writer on the brilliant French Oscar nominee The Class about a high school teacher and his students which won the Palme d'Or in 2008. Critics love BPM for its vital absorbing drama but also say it's long and erotic How is Will Smith going to handle watching all that gay sex from the jury?
Palme contender? MOST DEFINITELY
Reviews: Variety, Vanity Fair, The Playlist
The Square
Ruben Östlund returns to the festival but in competition this time after his jury prize in the Un Certain Regard sidebar with Force Majeure and again skewers the bourgeoisie but this time, rather than gender politics via a husband and a wife on a ski trip, he's satirizing the art world. A lot of Cannes attendees are calling in 'this year's Toni Erdmann' because it's reportedly both very long and very funny. Though the length doesn't seem to be getting a free pass from reviewers as it did with Toni Erdmann. I love this quote from Owen Glieberman who gets at Östlund's particular brilliance:
Ostlund creates suspense the old-fashioned way, setting up scenes that make the audience go: What in God’s name is going to happen next? But he also creates suspense in a new-fangled way, turning the space between people into an alarming existential battleground. He’s like Hitchcock infused with the spirit of mid-period Bergman.
Palme contender? MAYBE LEANING NO
Reviews: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, The Guardian