Sean Baker's "The Florida Project" Rocks Cannes

Chris here. For films outside of the main competition, this year has been an unusually quiet Cannes. One film that has stuck out and stirred our immediate anticipation is Sean Baker's The Florida Project in the Director's Fortnight sidebar, as unanimously praised as anything on the Croisette thus far. Baker returns to 35MM after his iPhone experiment for a hopeful portrayal of a youth and poverty with Disney World in the background. Word is he has delivered something gorgeous and heartbreaking, with major breakthrough performances from Brooklynn Prince and Bria Vinaite. Whether or not Florida takes Baker to the next level stateside, I'd bank on his chances to enter the main competition should he return to Cannes for his next feature.

As if anything from Baker post-Tangerine wouldn't already have us foaming at the mouth, the high praise and comparisons to the likes of Beasts of the Southern Wild are making this one we'll be really dying to see once it comes stateside.

THE FLORIDA PROJECT is an absolute barn burner. Brimming with life & noise & neglect & humanity & an all-time Willem Dafoe. #cannes2017 🔥🔥🔥

— david ehrlich (@davidehrlich) May 22, 2017

So why has it not attracted a distributor since debuting a few days ago? With all of the rave reviews, you would think a indie outfit would want to snatch this one up while Baker's star is on the rise. Some are whispering at Oscar potential because of its emotional impact and strong vision, but the film needs a buyer to really support it first. Even though critics are calling it as joyful as it is tragic, are buyers just scared off by an apparently unflinching look at poverty? Do we have to send Sin-Dee out to drag their asses to the buyer's table?

UPDATE - A24 has picked up the film for US distribution.

10th Anniversary: BUG

By Dancin' Dan

Ten years ago right about now, William Friedkin's adaptation of Tracy Letts's play Bug opened in theaters, introducing most of America to Michael Shannon and gifting Ashley Judd with the best part of her career. Unfortunately, though, Bug was marketed as a body horror movie from the director of The Exorcist, which is... not what it is. At all...

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Tweetweek: Alien Riffs, Huppert Meme, and Cannes Mania

Tweet of the Week...

"now you're in the sun-Cannes place." pic.twitter.com/jgYJNzwGb9

— Neil Young (@BohemiaStable) May 24, 2017

Get it? Oh reader, I LOL'ed and LOL'ed. Cannes fun follows after the jump but first some non-Cannes thoughts and amusements featuring Twin Peaks, Rooney Mara, Reservoir Dogs and more... 

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Yes No Maybe So: Jacob Tremblay is a "Wonder"

by Nathaniel R

From a distance the forthcoming film Wonder (2017) looks like Mask (1985) for the junior high set. The film is based on the novel of the same name by RJ Palacio about Auggie, a boy who enters school after years of home schooling due to his many surgeries and complications with a rare facial deformity. Jacob Tremblay, in demand post Room, plays the main character Auggie. The film is directed by Stephen Chbosky who already has some experience with transferring YA novels to the screen since he transferred his own for his directorial debut The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012). Wonder is his sophomore effort though this time he left the screenwriting to another. Steven Conrad, who previously adapted The Pursuit of Happyness and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty to screen, adapts. 

Let's compartmentalize the first trailer with our Yes No Maybe So™ system after the jump...

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The Link Down

It's impossible to keep up these days. So herewith a bunch of news we haven't covered and other enjoyable places to go on the web today...

News
Baz Lurhmann has written a letter to fans about the cancellation of The Get Down, his Netflix series. My favorite bit because I like having him on the big screen in 2 hour doses:

All sorts of things have been thrown around for the future... even a stage show (can you imagine that? I can, concert version anyone? Next summer? Just saying.) But the simple truth is, I make movies. And the thing with movies is, that when you direct them, there can be nothing else in your life. Since The Get Down stopped, I have actually been spending the last few months preparing my new cinematic work...

Variety IFC is on a buying spree at Cannes, including Lars Von Trier's latest, a serial killer drama named The House That Jack Built starring Matt Dillon and Uma Thurman
BBC Star Wars' John Boyega hits the London stage in Woyzeck. Reviews are a bit mixed but everyone seems to love that he challenged himself to such an extent post stardom
Cartoon Brew Pixar has a new experimental shorts division without executive oversight. This sounds like a great idea for the company, fostering new creative visions without much investment or interference
Kenneth in the (212) Jeffrey Schwarz, who specializes in documentaries about gay or gay-interest historical figures (I Am Divine, Vito, etcetera) has a new documentary on Producer Allan Car (Grease 2, Can't Stop the Music)
Broadway World Glenn Close stops a performance of Sunset Blvd to address a rude audience member:

We can have a show or we can have a photo shoot

Variety Kirsten Dunst gets emotional at The Beguiled premiere
Variety Gina Prince-Blythewood (Beyond the Lights) tapped to direct Spider-Man spinoff Silver and Black  about the characters Silver Sable and Black Cat.
Angry Asian Man there's a Joy Luck Club tv series in the work and they're looking for Chinese American women

Good Reads
Vanity Fair on that new unforgivably hideous Spider-Man Homecoming poster
Jezebel on the terrible Dirty Dancing TV remake. (I have to ask though, why do people keep watching TV remakes of movies. They're all just t-e-r-r-i-b-l-e... remember that trainwreck that was Beaches recently?)

For Fun
Gay Comic Geek [nsfw site] Wonder Woman cosplay... by men
The New Yorker Joe Dator draws a comic about his fortieth anniversary with Star Wars. Cute.

Exit Video
Dynasty is getting a reboot.

I object that Krystle isn't a blonde and doesn't look that much different than Fallon (why does the CW have such trouble varying haircolors/styles and overall looks in their casts in all their shows?) but otherwise some of the changes are fun. The most potentially interesting touch being that trashy golddigger Sammy Joe (the Heather Locklear role) is a gay man this time but still after the same mark, Steven Carrington (the family's gay son). But, is this really the right era to idolize the super wealthy? Not sure it will sit as well in 2017 as it did in the 80s when people were more naive about the 1%'s havoc-wreaking on the economy of everyone else.