Although we try to divide and conquer a large number of the Cannes program, including one of the titles of the Competition, the program inevitably leads to situations where the author of this group sees something shared elsewhere. It can be a matter of wanting to be part of a conversation about big topics, there are no alternatives in the unorganized time frame, or just the last day, when the whole Comp plays again. In my 40 (!!!) movie schedule, I ended up seeing seven movies premiered by Robert Daniels or Ben Kenigsberg on this site, and only one of them made me feel bad (“Coward”). I’d like to offer a few thoughts on six others, all worth tracking down as they make their way from Cannes to a theater near you later this year.
“Suddenly”
One of the hottest titles going into Cannes seems to be one of the titles that has once again satisfied audiences here in ways that other acclaimed authors (“Parallel Tales,” “A Sheep in the Box”) have failed. Ryusuke Hamaguchi is back with a 196-minute drama that justifies its length by being patient. It is a film that asks us to be patient and quiet for people, especially the elderly and the disabled. Virginia Efira stars as the head of a program called Humanitude at a nursing home in Paris, where she is distracted by realities such as financial worries. When she meets a dying theater director (Tao Okamoto), she is inspired to work hard to connect with those who are often denied contact. In a year full of criticism and anxiety in the Cannes line-up, “Suddenly” is a great cry for empathy, a film that asks us to really look people in the eye, put our hand on their shoulder, and be there in that moment with them. It is an antidote to a festival that can tire of considering the wealth of humanity displayed in Hamaguchi’s vision, a film that grows in reverence in my mind every day since I saw it.
“Club Kid”
The frenzy generated by the world premiere of Jordan Firstman’s writing/directing/acting was felt across Europe. In a deal with few outstanding sales titles, this one to A24 for a whopping $17 million is easily one of the biggest stories of the year. Firstman plays a party planner near the end of his rope when a woman drops off a baby on his doorstep, claiming to be the father. As cheesy as it sounds, Firstman’s funny and moving drama is about how your children can make you a better version of you, sometimes even one you didn’t think possible. We’ve seen hundreds of movies about adults unleashing the power within children, but it can go both ways. Trust me, my kids inspire me every day. And I saw some of that heartfelt truth in this fun, funny movie. When people like Firstman jump into three-pronged filmmaking, one almost always suffers, but this is a rare case where one has a hard time deciding whether Firstman’s writing, acting, or directing is his greatest work here.
“Beloved”
A quick way to describe Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s blockbuster drama about filmmaking might be to call it “An Absurd Price.” Like Joachim Trier’s Oscar winner, this is the story of a filmmaker father (Javier Bardem, as he has been for many years) trying to mend bridges with his estranged daughter Emilia (Victoria Luengo, also at Cannes in “Bitter Christmas,” and wonderful in both). Sorogoyen opens his film with one of the best scenes in years: A 20-minute conversation between the leads that sets the stage for the upcoming film as it delves into conflicting memories and suspicions. The film never quite reaches that peak (though an on-set meltdown comes close) but it remains a hot character study throughout its run, anchored by two of my favorite Cannes performances, but ones I’ll see all year.
“Hope”
Widely accepted as the craziest film in this year’s competition, Na Hong-jin’s action thriller is leading the slide to find a large audience around the world. Wearing its James Cameron and Bong Joon-ho inspiration on its sleeve, “Hope” opens with the most amazing hour of performance cinema I’ve ever seen. As a small-town policeman named Bum-seok (Hwang Jung-min) rushes to find whatever is causing tragic damage to the universe, Na Hong-jin’s camera can’t keep up with him. It’s as bravura a sequence as any movie can get, but a small reservation for the chaos of the Big Chase is approaching. This is a ridiculous action film (160 minutes!) with admittedly janky VFX (which may be fixed before you see it), but what makes it memorable is its unapologetic ambition. While so many films at Cannes this year felt like the writers were playing it safe by exploring themes they had done so clearly elsewhere, this one felt fresh, new, and borderline crazy.
“Minotaur”
“Leviathan” director Andrey Zvyagintsev came to Cannes this year with Chabrol’s chilling film “The Unfaithful Wife” (remade “Unfaithful” with Diane Lane), dubbed in Russian. The acclaimed director uses the backdrop of the early days of the Russian-Ukrainian War to portray what can happen when people are seen as outcasts. A business executive named Gleb (Dmitriy Mazurov) is asked by the Russian government which of his employees should be sent to the war. At the same time, he discovers that his wife is having an affair. There’s a centerpiece sequence in “Minotaur” that’s why it’s so popular, a Hitchcockian action that almost makes us feel like we’re in the house with a crime-buster. Like most of the film’s colors, it is snowy, calculated, and cold, a reminder of what can happen in broad daylight in a time when human life has largely lost its value.
“The Man I Love”
There’s nothing cool about Ira Sachs’s moving drama that successfully gets Rami Malek from famous actors who didn’t know what to make of him. He gives arguably his best performance as a NYC actress in the ’80s dealing with the inevitability of AIDS. Sachs has honed a delicate sense of realism in his last few films—this would make a fascinating double feature with “Peter Hujar’s Day” because it captures a very specific moment—and it allows “The Man I Love” to speak to you. There were times when I felt that the intention was bordering on sad, but the last fifteen minutes are painful, especially the scene where Malek’s character is taken off the stage and doesn’t want to leave. Most men are pulled from that limelight at a very young age. Sachs made a hat for all of them.
