Movie Enthusiast Issue 31: Who’s going to Cannes next month?
In my last newsletter I forgot to mention that I was planning on taking a short break through the month of April due to travel and holidays. Whoops! To atone for my error, this week we’re just going to play a round of Guess What Movies Are Going to Cannes This Year!The movies competing for this year’s Palme d’Or will be revealed in a press conference just a week or so away. While we wait for the official announcement, let’s take a stab at guessing who will be in Competition this year! The rules are simple:
- No more than 22 films, no fewer than 18
- World premieres only (i.e. nothing that has played at another festival or has opened in theaters before the start of the festival can screen in Competition)
- No more than 4 French films in Competition
- Most major filmmaking regions of the world must be represented
- The more major movie stars, the better
- No film involving the participation of the Jury President [this year: Pedro Almodóvar] can play in Competition (sorry, ZAMA)
- If Michael Haneke has a new movie, he will always, always, always be in Competition
- Happy End (France/Austria, Michael Haneke)
- The Beguiled (USA, Sofia Coppola)
- Dark River (UK, Clio Barnard)
- Claire’s Camera (South Korea, Hong Sang-soo)
- Wonderstruck (USA, Todd Haynes)
- Ismael’s Ghosts (France, Arnaud Desplechin)
- Des lunettes noires (France, Claire Denis)
- Good Time (USA, Ben and Joshua Safdie)
- Okja (South Korea, Bong Joon-ho)
- Radiance (Japan, Naomi Kawase)
- Loveless (Russia, Andrei Zyagintsev)
- Last Flag Flying (USA, Richard Linklater)
- Racer and the Jailbird (Belgium, Michaël R. Roskam)
- The Square (Sweden, Ruben Östlund)
- Abracadabra (Spain, Pablo Berger)
- Thelma (Norway, Joachim Trier)
- Where Life Is Born (Mexico, Carlos Reygadas)
- Foxtrot (Israel, Samuel Moaz)
- Nos années folles (France, André Téchiné)
- Lean on Pete (UK, Andrew Haigh)
I haven’t historically used my newsletter to promote my own work elsewhere on the web, but because I’m short on time this weekend and because I had two articles I’m proud of published last month, now’s as good a time as any to share them!
For BrightWall/DarkRoom, I did a deep dive on Isao Takahata’s The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. Ever since the movie swept me off my feet when I saw it in theaters back in early 2015, I’ve been mulling it over and trying to place why I think this movie is so good. I really enjoyed doing the research on this piece and putting it out into the world, and I’m thankful for the editors at BWDR for doing such a good job working with me on it (and, uh, for accepting it for publication!); if you want to support independent film criticism, go subscribe!
Meanwhile back at my main gig at The American Conservative, I “reviewed” Terrence Malick’s Song to Song. The scare quotes there are an indication that I was more interested in trying to figure out whether Malick has lost his mind than in giving a thumbs-up/thumbs-down recommendation on the movie, which kind of won me over but is…not my favorite mode that Malick’s been working in…I think? I might still prefer Knight of Cups even though Song to Song treats women better? These are confusing times to be living through so I expect my opinions on Malick’s late-career creative surge will continue to evolve as he continues to make movies.
Movie Enthusiast will return in May.
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