Tag: 2019 Cannes Film Festival
Lux Æterna | Review
Devil’s Familiars: Noé Stirs a Witches’ Brew in Latest Provocation
For those familiar with cult auteur Gaspar Noé, one either has a taste for his...
Sibyl | Review
Doctor Strange: Triet Gets Tricky with Autofiction Affair
Reuniting with Virginie Efira, the lead from her 2016 sophomore breakout Victoria (aka In Bed with Victoria),...
Matthias and Maxime | Review
Peas & Carrots: Dolan Gets Caught in a Bad Romance
Xavier Dolan devotees will be happy to note his latest feature, the treacly melodrama Matthias...
On a Magical Night | Review
A Room with a Screw: Honoré Waxes Playful on Marital Discord
The flexibility (or lack thereof) of fidelity in heteronormative relationships is at the center...
Bull | Review
If There Be Horns: Silverstein Succeeds with Discerning Debut of Rural Desperation
Likely to be compared to Chloe Zhao’s 2017 breakout The Rider, director Annie...
Bacurau | Review
It Takes a Village: Filho & Dornelles Smash Art-House into Grindhouse
A heady melding of local cultural motifs, morbid politically-minded histories and exploitation slasher vibes,...
The Whistlers | Review
If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle: Porumboiu Goes Mainstream with Neo-noir
Romanian New Wave alum Corneliu Porumboiu makes a marked departure with his latest...
Young Ahmed | Review
Stabbing Backwards: Dardennes “Beet” Misguided Youth into Submission
Up until now, even the most disenfranchised personage in Dardennian cinema had at least a glimmer of...
Interview: Kantemir Balagov – Beanpole
We sat down with director Kantemir Balagov at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival following the premiere of his sophomore film Beanpole in Un Certain...
Beanpole | Review
Life After Wartime: Balagov Crafts Exemplary Portrait of Post-WWII Role of Women
In the words of Plato, “Only the dead have seen the end of...
Little Joe | Review
Stamen Alive: Hausner Examines the Pursuit of Happiness in Cerebral Sci-Fi
It was “the nightmare that threatened the world” and something that came from “deep...
Frankie | Review
A Death in the Family: Sachs Sacks Huppert in Sun Dappled Soap Opera
The latest film from American director Ira Sachs is set in the...
The Lighthouse | Review
I Can Hear the Mermaids Singing: Eggers Unleashes a Hyper-Stylized Portrait of Nautical Madness
Virginia Woolf (who, having known something about the subject and its...
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood | Review
California Dreamin’: Tarantino Dons Nostalgic Pastiche of Doomed Decadence
The lurid fascination and mildewed devotion for the transitional glory days of late 1960s Hollywood, informed...
The Dead Don’t Die | Review
Fear the Mocking Dead: Jarmusch’s Zombie Sketch is DOA
“The world is perfect. Appreciate the details,” says deliveryman RZA (in one of the film’s many...
La femme de mon frère | 2019 Cannes Film Festival Review
Is There a Doctorate in the House? Chokri Skids and Skates without Moving
Moving from her award-winning short Quelqu'un d’extraordinaire (2013) debut which dealt with...
Oleg | 2019 Cannes Film Festival Review
Immigrant Song: Kursietis Explores a Modern Slave Trade in Sophomore Film
Latvian cinema seems on the verge of an international breakthrough, with various new directors...
The Conversation: The Best of Cannes 2019
Zombies. The Undead. Reincarnation. These were some of the central themes and motifs displayed throughout an alarming amount of films in the 2019 official...
2019 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Our Jury Rank Parasite Top Film of Cannes Comp
We have a match! Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's jury and our 2019 Cannes Critics’ Panel agree that the best film of the 2019 comp selection...
2019 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 12 – Justine Triet’s Sibyl
And the final film to roll out of the competition this year belongs to that of Justine Triet. She came to fiction film by way...
2019 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 12 – Elia Suleiman’s It Must Be Heaven
With a decade between features, Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman's has been a Cannes mainstay when you see that his four last film projects have...
2019 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 12 – Abdellatif Kechiche’s Mektoub My Love: Intermezzo
Who knew that after claiming the top prize in 2013 with Blue is the Warmest Color that Abdellatif Kechiche would almost attain some sort...
2019 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 11 – Marco Bellocchio’s The Traitor
Master filmmaker Marco Bellocchio returns to Cannes (he was last there for 2016’s Sweet Dreams - a Directors’ Fortnight entry) for what will be...
The Traitor | 2019 Cannes Film Festival Review
Witness for the Prosecution: Bellocchio Delivers Vigorous Portrait of the Man Who Took Down the Cosa Nostra
Italian auteur Marco Bellocchio, on the verge of...
Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo | 2019 Cannes Film Festival Review
Dancing…Yeah: Kechiche Spins Like a Record Round in Vacuous Sequel
The French-Tunisian director who won the 2013 Palme d’Or for Blue is the Warmest Color...
2019 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 10 – Arnaud Desplechin’s Oh Mercy!
After La sentinelle (1992), My Sex Life... or How I Got Into an Argument (1996), Esther Kahn (2000), A Christmas Tale (2008), Jimmy P:...
Sick, Sick, Sick | 2019 Cannes Film Festival Review
Lover, Come Back: Furtado Hearts Hemoglobin in Sinister Debut
The heart is a lonely killer in Brazilian director Alice Furtado’s apprehensive narrative debut Sick, Sick,...
2019 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 9 – Xavier Dolan’s Matthias and Maxime
Twice in competition and twice a winner, after winning the Jury Prize (unofficial 3rd place) in 2014 for Mommy and the Grand Prix (unofficial...
Parasite | 2019 Cannes Film Festival Review
A Judgement in Stone: Joon ho Tackles Privilege in Black Comedy
Strident class disparities in South Korea provide Bong Joon-ho with a novel approach to...
2019 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 9 – Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite
He made his first trip to Cannes in 2006 with the Directors’ Fortnight selected The Host, and after being selected for the Un Certain...
2019 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 9 – Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Film geek personified, Quentin Tarantino's sixth trip to Cannes and his fourth competition film (comes a decade after showing with Inglourious Basterds). He won...
2019 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 8 – Ira Sachs’ Frankie
The French have a fondness for Americana from the likes of Clint Eastwood, James Gray, Sean Baker and Ira Sachs who for this seventh...
2019 Cannes Critics Panel: Day 8 – Dardenne Bros.’ Young Ahmed
Palme d’Or winners for 1999's Rosetta (review) and L’Enfant (2005), Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have attempted to three-peat this past decade with 2011's The Kid...
2019 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 7 – Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life
After spending a whole bunch of time in post (sadly actors Michael Nyqvist and Bruno Ganz will have never had the chance to see their performances), Terrence Malick...
2019 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 6 – Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Shining bright like a diamond, Céline Sciamma makes her way into the comp for a first time with her fourth feature film. Portrait of a...
2019 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 6 – Corneliu Porumboiu’s The Whistlers
Making his way up the "Croisette ladder", Corneliu Porumboiu first arrived in Cannes (and helped launched what was known as the Romanian New Wave)...
2019 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 5 – Diao Yinan’s The Wild Goose Lake
A genre item that Chinese censors didn't take issue with, Diao Yinan who won big time in Berlin with his last picture Black Coal,...
The Orphanage | 2019 Cannes Film Festival Review
Back in the U.S.S.R.: Sadat Goes Back to Soviet-Ruled Afghanistan in Amiable Sophomore Film
Following the success of her celebrated 2016 debut, Wolf and Sheep,...
2019 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 5 – Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain and Glory
Pedro Almodóvar's Pain and Glory becomes the auteur's eighth trip to the Competition and already, comes positive buzz from way back in March having...
2019 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 4 – Jessica Hausner’s Little Joe
A staple figure of the Un Certain Regard section with three trips dating back to 2001's Lovely Rita and 2004's Hotel with her last...
Heroes Don’t Die | 2019 Cannes Film Festival Review
Crimes of the Heart: Rapin Explores Mediums as Remembrance with Inquisitive Debut
The idea of reincarnation was once a virulent staple of American genre films,...
2019 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 4 – Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You
His fourteenth trip in the comp and with two Palme d'Or wins under his belt (for 2006's The Wind That Shakes the Barley and...
2019 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 3 – Mati Diop’s Atlantique
Technically speaking, Atlantique is the other feature debut in the main comp. With filmmaking in her family blood, Mati Diop the face is recognizable via Claire Denis'...
2019 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 3 – Kleber Mendonça Filho & Juliano Dornelles’ Bacurau
Technically their second film to compete in Cannes when you consider Production Designer Juliano Dornelles as a creative collaborator on Aquarius (which placed 2nd in the top vote-getters for...
Monia Chokri’s La Femme De Mon Frère | 2019 Cannes Film Festival
After dealing with separation necessity in her award-winning short Quelqu'un d'extraordinaire (2013), Monia Chokri's deals in separation anxiety with La Femme de mon frère (A Brother’s...
2019 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 2 – Ladj Ly’s Les Misérables
An actor whose appeared in both of Romain Gavras' outings as a director (he was one of the founding members of the collective Kourtrajmé best...
The Unknown Saint | 2019 Cannes Film Festival Review
Gimme the Loot: Money is the Root of Good and Evil in Aljem’s Debut
Love the sinner and not the sin seems to be the...
Annie Silverstein’s Bull | 2019 Cannes Film Festival
Not officially opening the section, but nonetheless the first film out of the Un Certain Regard gate, Annie Silverstein presented her directorial debut Bull...
2019 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 1 – Jim Jarmusch’s The Dead Don’t Die
A long and rich history with the festival since 1984's Stranger Than Paradise premiered on the Croisette and won the Caméra d'or 1984, Jim...
The Conversation: Nicholas Bell’s Top Ten Most Anticipated Titles of Cannes 2019
It’s that time of year again, and the 72nd edition of the Cannes Film Festival is about to begin. If last year’s main competition...
