Film Festivals

2021 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 6 – Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car

Published on July 12, 2021

What an extraordinary year for Ryûsuke Hamaguchi. Earlier in 2021, he was at the Berlinale with Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (read our Nicholas Bell’s review), and now Drive My Car becomes his second Palme d’Or competing film after 2018’s Asako I & II. It’s his fifth feature in 2015’s Happy Hours (Locarno entry) that brought he the most acclaim. We have a feeling this will change with this Murakami adapted tale clocking in at 60 second shy from 3 hours. This stars Hidetoshi Nishijima and Masaki Okada.

Day 6 is one of the rare days to have three competition entries unveiled – a bit tricky to schedule but for those who did manage to catch the film (approximately half our jury) – it is easily top of our charts and will likely be cemented once more grade come in. Is a top three finish with Spike Lee’s jury a possibility? Its highly likely.

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Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).

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Film Festivals

2021 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 6 – Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car