Cannes You Dig It?
I saw A Minecraft Movie, so I'm writing about something completely different.
We’re in a bit of a lull movie-wise, even if the box office is thriving due to A Minecraft Movie. I did see the new Jack Black-Jason Mamoa picture, and let me just say that I’m glad my employer, Warner Bros. Discovery, is making money, so I won’t get fired. The movie is … whatever—it’s for kids. Who cares?
What I do care about is the new Cannes Film Festival lineup. Unless I come into a lot of money in the next few weeks (PLEASE SUBSCRIBE), I will not be attending, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be excited as hell for stuff that I won’t be able to see for a while. Because I’m feeling lazy today, let’s make a list. Sometimes, you gotta dance with the one that brought you.
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
The History of Sound by Oliver Hermanus
New Wave by Richard Linklater
The Mastermind by Kelly Reichardt
Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning by Christopher McQuarrie
5. Highest 2 Lowest
New Spike Lee. New Denzel Washington. New ASAP Rocky? This English reinterpretation of the Akira Kurosawa crime thriller—which I recently watched for the first time—is one of the more interesting movies playing at Cannes. It’s Out of Competition, so it can’t win any awards, but a story about a wealthy executive dealing with a kidnapping is certainly timely and will no doubt stick around into next year’s Oscar race. This will be the fifth “Spike Lee Joint” with Denzel Washington after Mo' Better Blues, Malcolm X, He Got Game and Inside Man, and the duo is always a must-watch. This is no different.
4. The Phoenician Scheme
There’s a lot happening in this trailer, as Wes Anderson is wont to do. But the main takeaway is that Michael Cera has been waiting his entire life to be in one of these Anderson dioramas. He just makes so much sense with his deadpan sense of humor and eccentric energy. It’s kind of crazy that it’s taken this long. We’re also in for a hell of a Benicio del Toro year between this and One Battle After Another, both coming out so soon. I’m glad he’s getting his flowers. Always ready for a new Wes Anderson movie. Asteroid City was a masterpiece and should be treated as such.
3. Alpha
If you’ve seen Raw and Titane, two gnarly horror movies with a lot on their mind, you may also be very excited about Alpha, Julia Ducournau’s new thriller. It’s already been labeled as “utterly divisive” and is supposedly about “a 1980s-set shocker that follows an 11-year-old girl who is rejected by her classmates after it is rumored she has been infected with a new disease.” Ducournau is one of the more interesting directors we have right now and seems happy making her insane movies for a very specific audience, even if it alienates the more casual filmgoers. I’m perfectly fine with that and buzzing with anticipation over what the hell this could possibly be.
2. Eddington
I know that some (one person especially) didn’t like Beau is Afraid—I was even slightly disappointed—but I still swear by the first half of the movie and think it just kind of went off the rails once it got to the theater in the forest. With that said, Midsommar is a masterpiece and Hereditary is one of the more fun theater-going experiences I’ve ever had.
Now that Ari Aster got a lot of his therapy bugaboos out in Beau is Afraid, I think we’re in for something special with Eddington, which appears to be about the pandemic, especially with the tagline “Hindsight is 2020” and the poster featuring buffalos falling off a cliff as a direct allusion to Untitled (Buffalos) by David Wojnarowicz: Interdisciplinary artist David Wojnarowicz selectively framed a portion of the display in black and white as an allegory of the decade as he was dying of AIDS. At once analogy and piercing critique, the image embodies the tragedy of the pandemic and offers an indictment of a nation at odds with itself.
The cast features Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Austin Butler and Emma Stone. I’m ready for whatever this is.
1. Sentimental Value
I already wrote about this when predicting the 2026 Oscars (a normal and chill thing to do), but I could never write enough about Joachim Trier and Renate Reinsve’s last collaboration The Worst Person in the World, so I’m 100% in on this new one starring Reinsve, Elle Fanning, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Stellan Skarsgård and Cory Michael Smith. We don’t know much about what it’s going to be, but it’s been described as “an intimate and moving exploration of family, memories, and the reconciliatory power of art," which is unbelievably vague as hell. I can’t wait.