Eric Lavallée

With the addiction drama Down to the Bone (2004), Granik gave one women's plight in the face of adversity. It won plenty of kudos but tragically no one bothered to notice, and now half a decade later, the filmmaker delves back into the same sphere - and we thank her for it. These comes equipped with Jennifer Lawrence - a brilliant young actress I discovered in The Burning Plain and John Hawkes who looks from he was born from rural America.

I tend to prefer when Ozon works with "less", by less I mean a smaller ensemble as in Water Drops on Burning Rocks, Sous le sable, Swimming Pool and 5x2. So he once again won over critics when he stuck to a simple story as done with Le Refuge, and while Figurehead contains a stellar ensemble (he once again works with Ludivine Sagnier) that seems to be as big as Arnaud Desplechin's A Christmas Tale, I've got a feeling that the era in which it is set in and the famous play on which it is based on might only give the project wings. Look for women with crazy hairdos, men with lots of facial hair and lots of lavish trimmings from the bourgeoisie folk.

He certainly gets drawn to bigger-than-life characters, and while I can't say I'm much of a Zwick fan and nor did I read the novel on which this film is based on, if Love and Other Drugs carries itself as a tale for "grown-ups" and Charles Randolph turns in a screenplay that flips pharmaceutical business on its back, then we may have an insider's take combined with a side dish of romance a la Up in the Air.

Like a fine wine that ages well over the years, I'm loving the choices that Gainsbourg has been making in her career, and I'm expecting her to demonstrate her prowess in this sophomore pic from Bertucelli whose first film Since Otar Left (all the way back in 04') was a critically well-received debut and demonstrated her tact for displaying generational differences with a much needed sincerity. She confidently works in both ends of the human spectrum - with difficult dramatic terrain and subtle humor that I think we might find in this other bittersweet portrait.

I appreciate her female perspective, the fact that Cholodenko doesn't place filters on her characters and one gets the sense that she aims for authentic portrayals. I've found things I liked in both her breakout pic High Art and Laurel Canyon, but I'm left with the impression that see has yet to deliver her full potential as a filmmaker who we really don't get to see enough of -- has anyone seen Cavedweller?