Cannes at Home: Masturbation, Motherhood and Melodrama

by Cláudio Alves

Long before he was selected for the Cannes Main Competition, Rodrigo Sorogoyen became an Oscar nominee with his MOTHER short film.

The race for the Palme is heating up… is what you’d assume we’d be saying by the time half the Main Competition had screened. However, this year isn’t like most years at Cannes. Or maybe, it’s an edition where issues that have prevailed for years are finally becoming too noticeable to politely ignore. Thierry Frémaux’s favorite auteurs aren’t bringing it, and most of the biggest critical darlings are showing in parallel sections – think La Gradiva, Kurosawa’s first jidaigeki, Clarissa’s transposition of Mrs. Dalloway to Nigeria and various others. Indeed, Hirokazu Koreeda is receiving the worst reviews of his illustrious career for Sheep in the Box, while Rodrigo Sorogoyen can’t stop drawing depreciative Sentimental Value comparisons because of his The Beloved. Finally, James Gray’s Paper Tiger is proving divisive, which is business as usual for the American auteur.

With those cineastes in mind, let’s revisit Koreeda’s Air Doll about a sex doll magically come to life, Sorogoyen’s agonizing Mother, and one of Gray’s best films, the fraternal melodrama We Own the Night…

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Cannes at Home: Big Names Before Their Big Break

by Cláudio Alves

Did the film student who directed PASSION dream he'd one day be a Palme d'Or frontrunner?

The 79th Cannes Film Festival continues to unfold on the French Riviera, and things aren’t looking great for Fremaux and his team of programmers. Some of the most acclaimed titles are premiering in parallel sections, while the Main Competition keeps delivering mixed stuff or provoking outright negative reactions. Asghar Farhadi has probably never received worse notices than the ones he’s getting for Parallel Tales, and even something like Pawel Pawlikowski’s Fatherland, which looked like a slam-dunk triumph going by pre-fest expectations, is struggling to gather the sort of universal critical praise most had predicted for it. Our own Elisa Giudicci loves it, but the consensus isn’t there yet. And let’s not even discuss Marie Kreutzer’s Gentle Monster, whose every element seems to be open for savage criticism apart from Léa Seydoux’s performance. Well, at least, we have Ryusuke Hamaguchi, whose All of a Sudden has inspired a fair amount of “masterpiece,” even though a few naysayers also have showered it with such epitaphs as “long, slow, boring.”

With that in mind, let’s look away from lackluster new works and consider these directors’ pasts, before their big breaks. Think Pawlikowski before Ida and his drift away from British cinema, Farhadi before A Separation and his European misadventures, Hamaguchi before Happy Hour and Drive My Car and the Oscar, Kreutzer before Corsage…

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Cannes at Home: Love in the time of COVID

by Cláudio Alves

Could Koji Fukada's THE REAL THING have been a Palme contender in 2020?

The second day at Cannes came and went, and the race for festival gold is on. Not just the prizes chosen by Park Chan-woo’s jury, mind you. In a rare move by the programmers, the Main Competition opened with two films that are also up for the Queer Palm. They are Koji Fukada’s Nagi Notes and Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s A Woman’s Life. Neither was effusively received, but there are pockets of praise, even love, here and there. The latter has been getting especially high praise for Léa Drucker’s performance. And yet, this Main Competition might mean even more to the Japanese auteur who was among those selected for the festival edition that never was in 2020. At the time, Fukada was included among the returning cineastes and would’ve likely experienced his first go at the Palme d’Or if not for the COVID lockdown.

So, it only seems appropriate to consider his film that would’ve played at the Croisette six years ago, a near four-hour epic love story named The Real Thing. And to keep things thematically cohesive, let’s also remember Bourgeois-Tacquet's 2021 Critics’ Week selection, Anaïs in Love…

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Is 2026 Sandra Hüller’s year?

by Cláudio Alves

PROJECT HAIL MARY, Chris Lord & Phil Miller | © Amazon MGM Studios

One of the most widely loved and acclaimed films in the first half of 2026 has been Project Hail Mary. Personally, I didn’t fall head over heels for Lord and Miller’s Andrew Weir adaptation, though one element did earn some adoration. After all, how can you not love Sandra Hüller doing her damnedest to add dimension and dynamism to her scenes, elevating what could have been an exposition machine into the picture’s most arresting presence? The moment when she belts out Harry Styles’ “Sign of the Times” in a most fatalistic going-away party is enough to justify the admission price. Give this German thespian a mic and a pop tune, and you’ll get instant movie magic. Toni Erdmann fans remember!

Honestly, 2026 is shaping up to be Sandra Hüller’s year, even more than 2023 already was. With that in mind, consider some Berlinale musings, Cannes news, and Venice speculation, after the jump…

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Best International Film: And Then There Were Two...

The Oscar Volleys continue. Today, ERIC BLUME and NATHANIEL R discuss the Oscar race for Best International Feature Film. 

NO OTHER CHOICE, Park Chan-wook | © NEON

ERIC:  Hi Nathaniel, I feel lucky getting you all to myself to discuss Best International Film.  I do think the slate is ultimately very strong overall, but before we get to our five nominees and an assessment on the race, can we take one last brief moment to mourn the EXCLUSION of a film in both of our Top 10 lists, Park Chan-Wook's No Other Choice?  It's no easy feat to make a film that's both political and funny, and he really nailed his tiny little bullseye.

NATHANIEL:  Maybe it's a tiny bullseye but I bet if you zoom way in that bullseye is as intricate as the lines in a diamonds or as multi-colored and weirdly patterned as an iris. Which is to say that not only was it my favourite of the submissions but it's quite literally my #1 film of the year. (Why leave everyone in suspense since it takes me so long to post my awards). I really am just obsessed with it and Lee Byung Hun absolutely deserved a spot in the Best Actor lineup too. The Korean superstar is so confident in his gifts that he's able to be goofy and pathetic and sad without ever losing his Movie Star-ness. It's really a miracle performance if you ask me because he does all that while feeling utterly spontaneous in each scene. Anyway I could talk about this movie for days...

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