2021 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car” is Tops

The Japanese drama based on the short story of the same name by Haruki Murakami landed on the top spot of IONCINEMA.com’s 2021 Cannes Critics’ Panel with an average of 3.8 out of five. The almost three hour opus Drive My Car by Ryusuke Hamaguchi beat out some stiff competition by the likes of tied for second place finishers in Asghar Farhadi’s A Hero and Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria. Rocking the charts with an average of 3.5 we find these three film items: Carax’s Annette, Sean Baker’s Red Rocket and Julia Ducournau’s Titane.

Hovering over the 3.0 mark we also have Compartment No. 6 (3.4), The Worst Person in the World (3.3), The French Dispatch and Nitram (3.2), Bergman Island (3.1), Everything Went Fine, Benedetta and Paris, 13th District (3.0).

Also appreciated by some critics we find Petrov’s Flu, The Restless and La Fracture with an average grade of 2.8, Lingui (2.7), Casablanca Beats and The Story of My Wife (2.6), Ahed’s Knee (2.5), France (2.4) and generally panned we end off the 24 film slate with Three Floors (2.3) and Flag Day (1.7).

Click on the grid below for the final grades!