From films in competition to showcases, from global cinema and indies to big ticket Hollywood blockbusters, this year's Cannes film festival had its share of everything.
Here are some of the most hyped films that were reviewed or shown a sneak peak of at the festival this year. There are still some films that were only talked about — including Sean Baker's "Anora" and Guy Maddin's "Rumours" — so keep an eye out for more cinema news from other upcoming festivals too. For now, here's what was showed off at Cannes this year.
'Kinds of Kindness' by Yorgos Lanthimos
Coming off of a tremendous award-winning year filled with critical praise, the dynamic duo of Yorgos Lanthimos — who writes and directs this — and Emma Stone return for an anthology film; along with a ton of notable celebrities, including Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn, Hunter Schafer and others. The loosely connected stories are all dipped in absurdism, drenched in dark comedy and have a touch of mild chaos.
Reviews:
A profoundly puzzling, dizzyingly disturbing and dark-hearted set of loosely-connected stories which manage to be discordantly amusing and strangely exhilarating — a cinematic salt-rub.
[Fionnuala Halligan, Screen International]
Lanthimos’s longest, nastiest film yet marks an unapologetic turning point for his studio filmmaking, and will neatly divide the converts from the squeamish.
If you're a fan of the director's early work, you will be mesmerized by 'Kinds of Kindness,' a film where he once again puts up a mirror to our flawed society and shows us the worst, and also the best, that humanity has to offer.
[Serena Seghedoni, Loud and Clear]
'Oh, Canada' by Paul Schrader
Writer and director Paul Schrader, who's been pumping out interesting films consistently over the past few years, targets, again, old embittered men who are tied to the Vietnam War. But, this time it stars Richard Gere and is set north of the American border.
Reviews:
That brutal honesty about the indignities of old age is one of the main reasons to see "Oh, Canada." The other is Richard Gere, who gives what might be the most psychologically bleak and demanding performances of his career.
[Rory O'Connor, The Film Stage]
Easily the least sensationalist entry in Schrader's oeuvre, "Oh, Canada" contains absolutely no violence... This film works better going out on a whimper.
If nothing else "Oh, Canada" is thought provoking and worthwhile. Maybe it could even inspire others to perhaps examine their own lives before it is too late to do so.
[Pete Hammond, Deadline Hollywood Daily]
'Horizon: An American Saga' by Kevin Costner
Kevin Costner left the production of mega hit "Yellowstone" and funded his passion project about the Civil War instead. It's a two-parter, a very long Western epic with a stacked cast and a lot of old-timey guns.
Reviews:
Despite the shootouts, some epic vistas (frankly, not as much as you'd expect), and a few fleeting moments of genuine tension, it all feels flat. Maybe next week's episode will turn it around.
[Gregory Ellwood, The Playlist]
As a stand-alone film (which it isn't, but let's pretend for a moment), "Horizon" is by turns convoluted, ambitious, intriguing, and meandering. But it's never quite moving.
At least "Horizon" accomplishes one staggering feat: it makes one wonder if we were maybe a little too hard on "The Postman."
'Megalopolis' by Francis Ford Coppola
From the mind of Francis Ford Coppola, a sci-fi epic melodrama that's been in the works for decades, Adam Driver stars as a future version of Caesar in New Rome. But, instead of getting stabbed in the back, he has the ability to stop time.
Reviews:
In the same way that George Lucas chose not to listen to anyone who might have had some concerns about "The Phantom Menace" before it was made, there was clearly no one in Mr. Coppola's life who might have been able to stop him and save us.
[Sarah Manvel, In Their Own League]
A bunch of ideas smashed together into a garish, baffling, dazzling, kind of atrocious, and totally audacious rejection of the cinematic form. It should never have been made. And yet, now that it has, we should be so grateful that it exists.
"Megalopolis" is stilted, earnest, over the top, CGI ridden and utterly a mess. And yet you can picture a crowded theater shouting along with Jon Voight as he says in one key scene, "What do you make of this boner I got?"
[Esther Zuckerman, The Daily Beast]
'Jim Henson Idea Man' by Ron Howard
Ron Howard directed this documentary about Jim Henson's career-spanning work on "The Muppets," "Sesame Street" and "The Dark Crystal." The film will stream on Disney Plus worldwide on May 31, 2024.
In a documentary landscape rife with both star-fronted documentaries and other hagiographic entries, Howard leans into honesty. The film is so much better for it, even as it can't quite capture the full magic and scope of Henson's life and work.
His death at age 53 leaves one to wonder what else he could have accomplished if fate had give him more time. "But Jim Henson Idea Man" stands as the definitive account of all he did achieve.
[Matthew Carey, Deadline Hollywood Daily]
What it ultimately showcases is a loving tribute to an endearing personality that lacks a particular substance to make it more impactful.
[Josh Parham, Next Best Picture]
'The Shrouds' by David Cronenberg
Another arthouse horror thriller from the GOAT at making them, Cronenberg has once again directed his twisted gaze with the help of Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger and Guy Pearce. The premise: a machine that can monitor the dead, which leads to mass grave robbing and other nefarious, decrepit and morose shenanigans.
Reviews:
A quintessentially late film from an artist who's always been ahead of his time, "The Shrouds" is Cronenberg at his most inhospitable; so far as the project's emotional availability and commercial appeal are concerned, it makes "Crimes of the Future" seem like "Barbie" by comparison.
It's intriguing and exhausting: a quasi-murder mystery and doppelganger sex drama combined with a sci-fi conspiracy thriller which comes very close to participating in that very xenophobia it purports to satirize.
[Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian]
Unfortunately, "The Shrouds," for all the many ideas floating around in it, feels more like a series of interesting notes for a film than an actual feature.
[Image: "Kinds of Kindess" (2024). Credit: 20th Century Studios]
