“The Killing Of A Sacred Deer”
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Synopsis: A brilliant surgeon takes a troubled teen under his wing, until the boy tries to bring him into the fold of his dysfunctional family.
What You Need To Know: For all the reasons it’s shit to be alive in 2017, there are a couple of redeeming features, and one of them is definitely that we get to see Yorgos Lanthimos’ second film in as many years. Better still, this one reteams him with his revelatory “The Lobster” star Colin Farrell, and adds Nicole Kidman (Hey! Sofia Coppola called and wants her “The Beguiled” cast back), as well as Alicia Silverstone, Bill Camp and Raffey Cassidy. Ever since “Dogtooth,” and his lesser but still fascinating follow-up “Alps,” Greek Weird Wave pioneer Lanthimos has been one of the most exciting talents to break through on the international stage. But even so, “The Lobster” felt like a step up: a more sprawlingly ambitious, more ruthless, more imaginative trip that he’d ever brought us on before. Between this and his recently announced Kirsten Dunst-starring AMC show “On Becoming A God In Central Florida“ (and were there ever two projects with more awesome titles? No, there were not), Lanthimos fans like us have a great deal to be excited about.
“The Beguiled”
Director: Sofia Coppola
Synopsis: In Civil War-riven Virginia, a wounded Union soldier is taken in to recuperate in the all-female surroundings of a cloistered school for young ladies.
What You Need To Know: If you heard that Don Siegel‘s 1971 “The Beguiled,” starring Clint Eastwood, was being remade, your first thought might be “why?” Siegel’s film, despite some dated filmmaking, is pretty terrific as it is. But if you then heard the remake is being directed by Sofia Coppola, whose fascination with stories about groups of women and intra-female dynamics has been in evidence since her debut “The Virgin Suicides,” it might make a great deal more sense. Of all the filmmakers who could bring something new to the story, Coppola is perhaps ideally placed to imbue it with a richness of atmosphere and a depth in the characterization of the women that the original, for all its merits, lacks. Bringing an eerily Gothic sensibility to the story of repressed sexuality and female envy, featuring the incredible cast of Nicole Kidman, Elle Fanning, Kirsten Dunst and Colin Farrell, and boasting one of the best trailers of the year, it’s no wonder, after “The Bling Ring” got demoted to Un Certain Regard, Coppola is back in the main competition, but Cannes or no, this was always going to be one of our most anticipated films of the year.
“Okja”
Director: Bong Joon-ho
Synopsis: A young girl risks her life to save her best friend — a huge animal called Okja — from falling into the clutches of a sinister multinational science corporation.
What You Need To Know: For a filmmaker of such international renown, Bong Joon-ho didn’t have an easy time of it with the distribution of his English-language debut “Snowpiercer,” so perhaps it’s understandable why he’d be happy to go with Netflix financing his follow-up, so those questions would be sewn up in advance. However, Netflix’s thorny relationship with Cannes casts a question mark over the film’s eligibility — and even after it was announced, French exhibitors protesting Netflix’s lack of theatrical window for this and Noah Baumbach’s “The Meyerowitz Stories” led to rumors that both might be removed. Thankfully there’s no sign that has come to pass, because genre master Bong’s ingenious-sounding sci-fi/adventure/creature feature deserves all the exposure of a main competition slot (“Mother” went to Un Certain Regard), and with a cast of Tilda Swinton, Jake Gyllenhaal, Paul Dano and Lily Collins among others, not to mention the presence of Darius Khondji as DP, this is in every way the prestige, Cannes-worthy package. Whether the Netflix precedent it will set is a good or bad thing, however, is quite another question.
“The Square”
Director: Ruben Östlund
Synopsis: An art experiment that invites public participation and is set up in the town square of a major European city gets out of hand.
What You Need To Know: We’re not really sure what more you need to know about Östlund’s hugely welcome late addition to the Cannes competition lineup aside from the above first image from it. I mean, just look at it. Master of scathingly satirical yet intimate morality plays, Östlund came to major attention when he won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize for the bitingly funny, mordantly discomfiting “Force Majeure” in 2014. But that was actually his third film to have debuted in the sidebar, after 2008’s “Involuntary” and 2011’s controversial and provocative “Play.” Finally he’s earned his promotion to the main competition and this new film also boasts a cast including Dominic West, mo-cap actor Terry Notary, and the great Elisabeth Moss (who will also be appearing in Jane Campion‘s “Top Of The Lake: China Girl“ and who is currently being so rivetingly excellent on Hulu in “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
“How To Talk To Girls at Parties”
Director: John Cameron Mitchell
Synopsis: In the London suburb of Croydon in the late ’70s, hapless teen Enn falls for a girl he’s just met who turns out to be an alien touring the galaxy.
What You Need To Know: All roads in Cannes 2017 seem to lead back to the cast of “The Beguiled,” in various recombinations. Here, it’s the omnipresent Nicole Kidman reteaming with Elle Fanning in a film based on a Neil Gaiman short story. Even more excitingly, it marks the return to direction for John Cameron Mitchell, who has been away too long since his last film, which also starred Kidman, “Rabbit Hole,” a wrenching drama that showed other strings to his bow after a pair of wonderful, sexually adventurous and progressive features: “Hedwig And The Angry Inch” and “Shortbus.” The latter of those premiered in an Out of Competition slot in Cannes in 2006, and that’s where “How To talk To Girls At Parties” has also been placed, perhaps indicating that its punky, spiky, sci-fi-inflected premise was just a little too genre-oriented for the main competition. But anyway, we couldn’t be looking forward to it more, and are also hoping to bump into Mitchell just to congratulate him on his recurring role on season 1 of “The Good Fight,” which is a brilliant, acidly observed riff on a Milo Yiannopoulos type.