The best kinds of movies try to do something fresh. That was true with the special effects of 1902’s A Trip to the Moon (above), the use of deep focus in 1940’s Citizen Kane, and the 3D animation of Toy Story in 1995. In every case, the ambition works because the artistry – the story, the characters, or the ideas in play – demands it. Otherwise you’d be left with nothing but a sea of empty gimmicks.
Running around the Cannes Film Festival this past week, I saw such innovations everywhere.
There was the use of extended electronic music to tell the story in Sirat, a Spanish-language thriller from director Oliver Lax that takes place against the backdrop of a desert rave, which includes a wordless opening sequence set entirely to thumping beats. In Brazilian director Kleber Mendoza Filho’s absorbing Secret Agent, a 1970s thriller transforms into a bizarre fever dream with profound emotional undercurrents about life amidst dictatorship.
The Mission Impossible movies aren’t anomalies in this regard. While this series features unique, dazzling technical challenges each time out, these reflect the nature of the filmmaking process as it pertains to all movies, large and small. That includes a very different option among new releases, the tender cowboy drama The Last Rodeo.
In this emotional story from director Jon Avnet (whose credits include Fried Green Tomatoes and, as a producer, Risky Business), an aging bull rider (Neil McDonagh) goes against his instincts and jumps into the arena one last time to raise money for his ailing grandson’s surgery. That bittersweet plot carries plenty of poignancy on its own, but The Last Rodeo adds a constant, throbbing tension to the proceedings by depicting the bull-riding ring as a place of constant, fast-moving peril. For Avnet, that was no easy feat, especially when it came to catching closeups of the action.
If you put a camera on a bull, it's just rocking all over the place and with a long lens it's too hard to follow,” Avnet told me in a recent interview. At first, that seemed like an impossible hurdle. “I was panic-stricken,” Avnet said. “How are we going to do this?” He thought about another, similar filmmaking challenge. “Imagine someone in a Formula 1 car,” he said. “If you watch them bounce around, you're going to get sick.”
His solution was to move the camera itself. “Nobody’s ever gotten a good closeup of a bull,” he said. “As a filmmaker, it was a breakthrough. We’ve done something I haven’t seen before.” And that, of course, is what makes going to the movies worthwhile, too.
While we await that update, here are 10 movies that stood out as my favorites from the festival’s first half, some of which are still seeking distribution.
***
I return this week from the festival ahead of Memorial Day weekend to kick off the summer season at the Playhouse, where we have a stacked lineup for the months ahead. (More on that very soon.)
As a 10-day festival, Cannes continues into next weekend, with many movies set to premiere after I leave. This is always the tricky challenge for Cannes audiences as they scramble to track all the highlights and inevitably miss out on a few. This Saturday, the festival will announce the winner of the coveted Palme d’Or, which last year went to future Oscar Best Picture winner Anora.
While we await that update, here are 10 movies that stood out as my favorites from the festival’s first half, some of which are still seeking distribution.
Highest 2 Lowest
Spike Lee’s most vibrant, exciting movie in years reteams him with Denzel Washington for a spirited remake of Akira Kurosawa’s High to Low. The lively thriller finds Washington’s successful record executive tracking down a kidnapper who has nabbed his son. In the process, the movie explores the nature of the creative process as Washington’s character reexamines his priorities in life. It’s a total blast from start to finish, from Washington’s brilliantly domineering performance to the playful jabs at the entrepreneurial energy of the music business. Apple and A24 will release the movie in late August.
Sirat
French director Oliver Lax’s mesmerizing portrait of a father looking for his missing daughter at a rave in the desert splits the difference between Hardcore and Mad Max: Fury Road. Produced in part by Pedro Almodovar, the movie works with dizzying momentum as it utilizes the thumping bass of rave music to heighten the tension of the soul-searching journey at hand. This is breathtaking filmmaking of the highest order. Still seeking U.S. distribution.
Die, My Love
Filmmaker Lynne Ramsay (You Were Never Really Here) follows a troubled young married couple (Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson) as they contend with postpartum depression in the woods. A haunting and powerful character study about the bonds of marriage under the constraints of nascent parenthood, Die My Love is a powerful atmospheric achievement as well as an actors’ showcase. MUBI has acquired the film for release later this year.
Yes!
Israeli director Nadav Lapid is one of his country’s most celebrated filmmakers. (His previous feature, Syndromes, won the Golden Bear at the prestigious Berlinale.) His latest effort is a frenetic look at a hard-partying Israeli couple who struggle to make sense of their country’s war, while constantly distracted by the hedonism of their daily lives. After a lively series of party sequences that define their lifestyle, Yes shifts into a more somber and contemplative tone for its second half as the couple’s marriage reaches a possible breaking point. Alternately wacky and philosophical, Yes delivers a robust cinematic achievement sure to instigate many heated debates. Still seeking U.S. distribution.
The Secret Agent
Kleber Mendoza Filho has steadily become Brazil’s most exciting and original filmmakers with cryptic and surprising achievements such as Neighboring Sounds and Bacurau. A former critic and lifelong cinephile, Filho has made one of his personal works with this mesmerizing look at a solitary man (the great Wagner Moura) in the late 1970s who arrives in his old hometown to confront his past. While rekindling his relationship with his estranged son, he also faces the boundaries of life under dictatorship as eerie events begin to unfold. Equal parts Twin Peaks and Roma, this is an authentic and intoxicating immersion into a time and place rich with hidden meanings at every turn. Still seeking U.S. distribution.
Nouvelle Vague
In 1960, Jean-Luc Godard changed film history forever with the success of his black-and-white crime caper Breathless, which wasn’t really a crime caper at all. It was, instead, a playful homage to gangster movies that treated hip cinematic style as an art form unto itself. Director Richard Linklater (Boyhood) delivers his first-ever French language production with his charming look at the history of the Breathless production and why, in its giddy, lo-fi fashion, it had a seismic effect on filmmaking for generations to come.
Eddington
While director Ari Aster was mainly known for his horror movie instincts with the disturbing one-two punch of Hereditary and Midsommar, he continues to prove that his abilities extend far beyond that genre. First came the Freudian dark comedy Beau is Afraid, and now he’s entered a much broader satiric arena with Eddington. Reteaming with his Beau star Joaquin Phoenix, Aster delivers a highly unpredictable and bizarre look at a small desert town in the midst of the 2020 pandemic. Phoenix’s wily sheriff goes head-to-head with the powerful local mayor (Pedro Pascal) as a range of tensions mount that reflect the broader sense of confusion in the rest of the world. The premise builds to a bold, violent climax loaded with ambiguity and a kind of cartoonish subversiveness reminiscent of R. Crumb cartoons. It’s designed to make some viewers uncomfortable and scratch their heads, but trying to figure out the hidden meanings of Eddington are exactly what make it such a transgressive thrill. A24 will release it later this summer.
The Wave
Sebastian Lelio won the Oscar for Best International Feature Film with his touching drama A Fantastic Woman, and here expands on the themes of feminist rage and repression found in his earlier movies. With The Wave, Lelio recounts the 2019 feminist protests on college campuses across Chile that informed national conversations. A lively and inventive musical drama, the movie follows one student as she contends with the risks of speaking out about her experiences, and how she galvanizes the community around her as a result. Loaded with rousing song-and-dance numbers (many of which appear to take place in the main character’s head), The Wave manages to embody the angry energy of the movement itself. Still seeking U.S. distribution.
Splitsville
Director Michael Covino and his writing partner Kyle Marvin first explored buddies who friendship was broken by infidelity with their celebrated debut The Climb. Now they expand that premise to a friendship broken by the tenuous boundaries of an open marriage. Co-starring the writer-director pair alongside Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona, Splitsville is the kind of rowdy, foul-mouthed comedy we don’t see enough these days, and it speeds along with delirious comedic energy throughout. Neon will release it in August.
Dangerous Animals
With only a handful of features, Australian director Sean Byrne has established himself as one of the most satisfying horror directors out there, from his Texas Chainsaw-inspired The Loved Ones to the heavy metal shocker The Devil’s Candy. He returns with his first feature in a decade, a bloody and satisfying twist on the shark movie genre in which it’s not the sharks who are the villains. Instead, it’s a demented fisherman who catches unsuspecting women and feeds them to the beasts below. Loaded with a series of wacky twists right down to its shocking finish, Dangerous Animals delivers the goods for diehard horror fans and injects new energy into the shark movie subgenre. IFC Films releases it this summer.
