It’s Going to Be a ‘Shit Year’ in Cannes

Don’t get confused by the headline — I’m definitely not bashing the cuvée of films that’ll be the make up of the 63rd edition, I’m simply mentioning that Cam Archer’s much anticipated sophomore feature going by the title that I’m hoping will stick beyond the festival is, according to a sources close to our site, a lock for the festival. I predicted Shit Year as a Cannes hopeful, and while I’d see this as an Un Certain Regard selection, I’m thinking this will be Director Fortnight fair. 

Shit Year is about a woman who has given up her passion, only to find that she really can’t stand herself, or others, without it. Colleen West (Ellen Barkin), a once renowned actress, comes unhinged as she confronts retirement and life at the twilight of her career. Haunted, she plummets into a hallucinatory affair with Harvey (Luke Grimes), a much younger actor who she met doing a small play.

The Wild Tigers I Have Known director mentions working with Barkin as:

“a big jump from directing nonprofessional child actors in Tigers to working with a serious cinema veteran. “I don’t necessarily know how to talk to actors, “I learned how to do it through this experience. Ellen was so brave and definitely no-bullshit.”