“Woodshock”
Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Pilou Asbæk, Joe Cole
Synopsis: A hypnotic exploration of isolation, paranoia, and grief that exists in a dream-world all its own. A haunted young woman spiraling in the wake of profound loss is torn between her fractured emotional state and the reality-altering effects of a potent cannabinoid drug.
What You Need to Know: Visionary fashion designers Kate and Laura Mulleavey (Rodarte), already friends with Kirsten Dunst from various fashion collaborations, attempt to become visionary film directors. The trailers appear as if “Woodshock” is “The Tree of Life” of hallucinatory images; beautiful, trippy and surreal. But is it a collection of images or an actual movie? It’s hard to say what the Mulleavey’s will deliver and surely there will be some cries of dilettantes using wealth and privileged to penetrate the film world. But tastemaking studio A24 has already picked up the film for theatrical release and the company lending their imprimatur to the drama lends it some credibility you shouldn’t overlook.
“Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno”
Cast: Shaïn Boumedine, Ophélie Bau, Salim Kechiouche
Synopsis: A young screenwriter goes to his Mediterranean home town for a summer vacation where he falls in love with a woman and meets a producer who agrees to finance his first film.
What You Need To Know: Tunisian-French director Abdellatif Kechiche is arguably one of the greatest filmmakers working today. “The Secret of the Grain” deservedly won the 2008 César Award for Best French Film and Best Director and you’d be living under a rock if you haven’t heard of “Blue Is the Warmest Color,” which won the Palme d’Or and the first winner to share the award with its actresses (Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux). But the film was hit with a lot of criticism from those same actresses, claiming Kechiche exploited them in their graphic sex scenes and punished them psychologically. Since then, Kechiche’s faced several issues, including legal woes surrounding his latest Venice entry (“Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno” was supposed to be one film, but apparently expanded into two parts and the financiers weren’t happy). From there, Kechiche began auctioning off his Palme d’Or (!!) to finish off the film. Did he actually do it? What happened to the 2nd part of ‘Mektoub’?. All of this is unclear, but presumably, answers will arrive during the Venice press conference for the film, perhaps just as anticipated as this film.
“Lean on Pete”
Cast: Charlie Plummer, Steve Buscemi, Chloë Sevigny
Synopsis: A 15-year-old boy, recently transplanted to Portland, Oregon, finds himself in dire circumstances. In search of a relative, he sets off on a perilous journey across the United States with an ailing racehorse, the titular Lean on Pete.
What You Need to Know: Andrew Haigh’s previous directorial effort, “45 Years,” proved to be a major breakthrough and earned lead Charlotte Rampling an Oscar nomination. This will be the filmmaker’s second stab at adapted material, tackling Willy Vlautin’s moving novel of the same name. Personally, we can’t wait to see how Haigh mythologizes the American landscape following his sensitive, attuned portraits of gentrified San Francisco in HBO’s “Looking” and urban Nottingham in contemporary gay classic “Weekend.” Expect big things from Charlie Plummer in his first big role since 2015’s underrated “King Jack.” If Haigh follows this scope of the novel, this one is likely too modest for Oscar (and is expected to land in 2018), but “Lean on Pete” is nonetheless a serious contender to pick some hardware on the Lido.
“Zama”
Cast: Daniel Giménez Cacho, Lola Dueñas, Matheus Nachtergaele
Synopsis: Set in 18th-century South America, Spanish officer Don Diego de Zama grows increasingly impatient with the delayed promise of a post in Buenos Aires. As relations with the indigenous population and his fellow Europeans become more and more strained, Zama turns towards madness and violence.
What You Need to Know: It has felt like an eternity since Lucrecia Martel’s last feature, “The Headless Woman,” since its premiere at Cannes in 2008, and it has become a touchstone of arty foreign cinema. Her earlier “La Ciénaga” was inducted into the Criterion Collection. Anticipation is therefore high for “Zama,” an adaptation of the classic Argentine novel by Antonio di Benedetto, which looks to be larger in scope than anything the director has tackled before. On the surface, “Zama” appears to be in the vein of “Silence” or “The Lost City of Z” in its criticism of Argentina’s colonial past. If the lengthy post-production and rumored personal issues experienced by Martel are anything to go by, expect something far more personal and deeply felt, and likely divisive, too.