Caroline Tsai
The Highlights
“Portrait of a Lady on Fire” (Céline Sciamma) [Review]
As soon as Céline Sciamma received the Best Screenplay award, the briefest moment of dismay ensued. Yes, Sciamma’s sensitive, arresting love story about an 18th-century French painter and the subject of her latest portrait features a lyrical, thoughtful screenplay with its fair share of poetic metaphors. (And true, the actual Palme winner was highly deserving — more on this later.) But “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” a critical favorite previously thought to be a Palme contender, deserves much higher accolades. Every shot of the film simmers, from tension-laden views over perilous cliffs, to the arresting closing sequences, in which Sciamma displays a keen knack for elegantly braiding multiple strands of plot and theme. There’s also a fundamental aesthetic intuition at work, necessary for a film with painting as its central conceit: Questions of the image and its reproducibility percolate throughout the film, with evocative, resonant cinematography to boot. Romances abound at Cannes, but rarely does a love story deliver as convincingly as ‘Portrait.’ Though it didn’t take the Palme, here’s hoping Sciamma’s film will still strike it hot long after the flame goes out.
“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” (Quentin Tarantino) [Review]
Yes, this critic was in the camp that took issue with ‘Once Upon a Time’s’ sidelining of female characters. And yes, with its off-kilter hangout plot, Quentin Tarantino’s ninth film can often feel a little helter-skelter. Still, despite its foibles, “Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood” is Tarantino’s exuberant ode to a bygone era of tinsel town. Hollywood in 1969 sees a convergence of old-school glamour and newfound, free-spirited hippiedom. There’s a new kind of seductive danger among the old haunts, the drive-in theaters and abandoned Western sets. It’s in this intersection of old and new that Tarantino situates ‘Once Upon a Time,’ a rollicking adventure that’s part-buddy comedy (Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt are unbelievably compatible collaborators, so it comes as a surprise that it’s the pair’s first) and part-cinematic pastiche (Tarantino’s admiration for his forebears, namely Sergio Leone, is amply on display). Sure, it’s a self-indulgent enterprise at heart, but it’s not without its degree of magic. Aren’t all the best fairy tales that way?
“Parasite” (Bong Joon-ho) [Review]
2019 will forever be the year of the Bong d’Or. This year’s highly deserved Palme—the first awarded to a Korean director—went to Bong Joon-ho for “Parasite,” a satirical dark comedy that takes on family life and class instability in late capitalism. When brother and sister in the destitute, basement-dwelling Kim family take on tutoring gigs in the affluent Park household, they set in motion a darkly funny, chaotic series of events that culminate in a large-scale home invasion. (If that sounds vague, let’s just say that honoring a no-spoiler petition for a film with this many plot twists is no small feat.) As always, Bong’s attentiveness to his characters’ idiosyncratic ticks is on point, as the film’s tonal pendulum swings from endearing family humor to dark comedy to suspenseful slasher, with a heavy dose of social commentary to boot. With Lee Hae-jun’s shrewd production design—the Parks reside in a stately, modernist concrete mansion, which stands in stark relief to the squalid, basement Kim residence—even the set is laden with symbolism. Turns out home is really where the heart is.
“Vivarium” (Critics’ Week) (Lorcan Finnegan) [Review]
Meanwhile, amidst all the genre buzz on the Croisette, one vibrant sci-fi seemed to get lost in the shuffle: Irish director Lorcan Finnegan’s perceptive dystopian take on suburbia, “Vivarium.” Imogen Poots and Jessie Eisenberg play Gemma and Tom, a young couple whose house-hunting leads them to Yonder, a neighborhood of uncannily identical, seemingly abandoned model homes. And when Tom and Gemma discover they can’t escape Yonder, things go from bad to worse. Lorcan Finnegan’s “Vivarium” astutely borrows the metaphor of a controlled zoological environment to pinpoint the exact imprisoned nature of suburban life, as Gemma finds herself tasked with perverse motherhood, while Tom resorts to mindless physical labor. Like an extended “Black Mirror” episode, “Vivarium” diagnoses societal anxiety and dials it up to eleven, with the help of stark, sterile production design. Suburbia is about as standard as dystopian sci-fi topics come — think “Revolutionary Road” and “Stepford Wives” — but with two compelling leads and specific world-building, “Vivarium” is just weird enough to work.
“Atlantics” (Mati Diop) [Review]
The undead was certainly a popular topic this year on the Croisette, yet one film’s ghost story seemed to gain more traction than the rest: Mati Diop’s “Atlantics” invokes both narratives of migration and magical realism to weave its elegant, haunting story of how the dead never really leave us. In the dunes of Dakar, amidst the onset of modernization, Ada’s boyfriend Souleiman abandons his life in Senegal in search of a better future in Spain, leaving Ada betrothed to an older man. Yet when a strange illness sets in among Ada’s friends, the film ventures into more surreal territory. Diop’s inventive screenplay, plus a striking synthesized score by Fatima Al Qadiri, make for an evocative swirl of a film, as atmospheric and beckoning as the ocean that forms its constant backdrop. Newcomer Mama Sane, playing Ada, shows a promising beginning for a first-time actress. Not to mention, “Atlantics” marked the first time a black female director showed a film at the festival, ultimately taking the Grand Prix at the closing ceremony.
The Dud
“Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo” (Abdellatif Kechiche) [Review]
Six years after his Palme d’Or, “Blue is the Warmest Color” director Abdellatif Kechiche somehow manages to make three-and-a-half hours feel like an eternity. A mostly plotless passion project, “Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo” became That Movie, and not in a good way: Its first screening saw mass walkouts from the Grand Théâtre Lumière, even before reports surfaced that Kechiche, already known for allegedly unprofessional on-set conduct, had plied his actors with alcohol to achieve that unsimulated 15-minute oral sex scene around the three-hour mark. You know, in case you couldn’t survive the other three hours’ worth of gyrating butts set to monotonous house music. Kechiche may have made a name for himself in 2013, but the sequel of ‘Mektoub’ (which, yes, threatens to extend into a third installment) is a real pain in the ass.
Gregory Ellwood
The Highlights
“Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” (Quentin Tarantino) [Review]
Quentin Tarantino‘s love letter to a Hollywood gone by is an entertaining fairy tale centered on two impressive performances by Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt. Much of that got lost in online social media reaction over the number of lines Margot Robbie has in the movie from most people who have not actually seen it. Way to pre-judge internet. In fact, Robbie plays Sharon Tate, a fairy-like figure in this context whose real-life death in 1969 is seen by many as the final turning point as the sense Tinseltown innocence fostered by the studio system finally came to an end. It’s one of Tarantino’s best films and it sticks with you days after the final credits roll.
“Parasite” (Bong Joon-ho) [Review]
Bong Joon-ho’s Palme d’Or winner is another masterwork from a Korean filmmaker who continues to top himself. Unlike most of his previous work, there is a lack of blood and gore (don’t worry, there’s a justifiable amount), but this social class drama is full of wonderfully executed twists and turns grounded by a stellar cast firing on all cylinders. What’s truly glorious about Joon-ho’s depiction is how morally balanced it is. Is the poor family that works its way into Mr. Park’s wealthy family the parasites or are the Parks parasites as well? That you care for any of them after all their actions is a testament to Bong’s Oscar-worthy talents.
“The Lighthouse” (Robert Eggers) [Review]
Robert Pattinson vs. Willem Dafoe. It’s that simple and that excellent. Robert Eggers’ follow up to “The Witch” has some issues, but it’s the incredible performances of these two actors that make it so engaging. As two 19th Century lighthouse keepers on an island off the coast of New England, the pair attempt to keep their sanity when weather causes their four-week excursion to be mysteriously extended. Hyperbole aside, it’s the performance of Pattinson’s career and Dafoe gleefully plays with him in scene after scene like a child teasing a kitten. Now, are some of the stylistic touches a little pretentious? Sure, but with these first two films, Eggers has now proven he’s an extraordinary director when it comes to bringing the best out of his actors.
“The Whistlers” (Corneliu Porumboiu) [Review]
This is a thriller that should have gotten more buzz from the Western media. It’s a rare Romanian film not dripping in depressing moralistic trappings and there are scenes with actual sunshine, but that’s not what makes it so intriguing. It centers on a Bucharest investigator who is forced to get involved with the local gangsters running a drug ring through the city. When things take a turn they have him fly out to the Canary Islands to learn a little known “whistle” language. The idea is that this new trick will allow them to communicate outside of the prying eyes of a police force that has more cameras and wiretaps in circulation than you can believe. The scenario is not meant to be glib, but director Corneliu Porumboiu’s stylistic choices and smart script make it the equivalent of a big screen page turner.
The Dud
“Les Misérables” [Review]
Ladj Ly’s feature debut was well received by French critics and landed him a shared Jury prize, but, boy, does it have issues. Set in the low-income neighborhood (basically, the projects) of Paris, it centers on a suburban cop, Stéphane (Damien Bonnard) who gets partnered on a new assignment with two longtime veterans in dealing with this rough part of town. Granted, what Americans think is rough and French think is rough are two different things (guns are largely absent from this film). But, in this context, it’s an area where police and the government are brutally keeping People of Color down. Tackling this subject is a noble idea, but Ly’s characters are, for the most part, utter clichés including “angry cop” Chris (Alexis Manenti), one of Stéphane’s new partners who is so over-the-top he’s in another movie (Ly deserves a lot of the blame for that) and the third member of their trio, a Black cop who doesn’t seem to have any issues with what’s going on until it’s far too late (and even that’s not clear why). And the end of this movie. It’s just ludicrous. But maybe just ludicrous enough to be France’s International Film selection this year.