2011 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 4 – Joseph Cedar’s Footnote

I’m not sure if it built into the buzz for wanting to see the title, but when Sony Pictures Classics picked up domestic rights to Joseph Cedar’s Footnote hours before the early press screening to a film about a bitter father-son rivalry tagged with academic jealousy my thoughts were this could be a contender. An unrecognizable Lior Ashkenazi plays the son without much an ax to grind, or at least this is how his character is sold for the majority of the film, while his father, an unlikable character with a detestable straight-face played by Shlomo Bar-Aba has a serious chip on his shoulder against just about everyone in and outside of the establishment.
Cedar combines an Amelie imaginativeness and shuffles the timeline here to the film’s advantage, but by the looks of it our panel didn’t seem all too impressed by what could be considered an exercise in style and storytelling.