Venice 2026: 'Look Back' Review

Sad to say, but Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda has put out not one but two disappointing films this year. I was underwhelmed by Sheep in the Box at Cannes, and now comes Look Back, a story of childhood friendship and tragedy. You can read my review here.

'Sheep in the Box' Review

Even the greats stumble from time to time. For the Los Angeles Times, I reviewed Hirokazu Kore-eda's disappointing look at grief and AI, Sheep in the Box. 

Cannes 2023: The Wrap-Up and the Rankings

Much like this year's Sundance, there was one film that stood head and shoulders above the pack at Cannes. There will be more to say about The Zone of Interest, but for now, I'd like to point out that this is the first time I've been in Cannes where journalists and critics wanted to rewatch a movie a day after seeing it. Such was the power of Jonathan Glazer's fourth feature that people felt a desperate need to get a second helping immediately. (If I hadn't had a conflicting assignment in the same screening slot, I might have been tempted myself.)

The question of how good any one Cannes is depends on two factors: the movies you saw and the overall experience you had at the festival. On the latter front, I can't complain. I was lucky to stay with great roommates, the weather basically cooperated, and the unexpected hassles that can bedevil your trip thankfully steered clear of me in 2023. I had friends twist ankles, lose their apartment key, and battle shitty wifi. I dodged all those bullets.

As for the movies themselves, looking at my ranked list below, I'm forced to conclude that this was merely an okay Cannes. Some of the films on my list scream out for a second viewing so that I can wrap my head around what works and what doesn't about them. (In particular, I'm curious what Killers of the Flower Moon will feel like with fresh eyes.) But the consensus on the ground was that there were lots of strong films without as many gems as in past years. And, as always, I lament the movies I simply couldn't get to, including About Dry Grasses, Anselm, Eureka, Occupied City, Pictures of Ghosts and Youth. I look forward to catching them all down the road.

Without further ado, here is my list of everything I saw either during or before the festival. Links lead to individual reviews:

33. Riddle of Fire
32. Project Silence
31. Black Flies
30. Firebrand
29. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
28. Conann
27. Hypnotic
26. The Sweet East
25. Elemental
24. Perfect Days
23. Jeanne du Barry
22. Room 999
21. Acid
20. The King of Algiers
19. Club Zero
18. Last Summer
17. Rosalie
16. La Chimera
15. Monster
14. Cobweb
13. Omen
12. Fallen Leaves
11. Asteroid City
10. How to Have Sex
9. Robot Dreams
8. May December
7. Anatomy of a Fall
6. The Delinquents
5. The Animal Kingdom
4. Killers of the Flower Moon
3. The Pot-au-Feu
2. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
1. The Zone of Interest

Now I'd like to take a moment to talk about my No. 2 film. I couldn't have been more exhausted than when I went to see director Pham Thien An's three-hour-long debut, which is about a young man on a spiritual quest of sorts in Vietnam. It's rare when a movie wakes me up to the degree that Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell did. It's an extraordinary experience, although it did inspire plenty of walkouts at my screening. Well, it's their loss: The film is transporting, moving, a total stunner. It deserves to win the Camera d'Or for best first feature. I hope an adventurous distributor picks it up soon: In a completely different way than The Zone of Interest, it needs to be seen on the big screen.

Finally, let's engage in a futile annual tradition wherein I try to predict what will win the Palme d'Or. I have been going to Cannes since 2013, missing one year because of a book project and another (in 2020) because Covid shut the festival down. And in all that time, I have never been right with my guess. Do I have any more confidence this year? Not really.

Nonetheless, I'm going to go with my heart and say that Ruben Östlund's jury will go for The Zone of Interest. It's easily the boldest film in the Competition, but it's also divisive among critics, which may prove true for his jury as well. Anatomy of a Fall may be a safer consensus pick, although part of me wonders if Sandra Hüller will take home Best Actress, which means that film couldn't win the Palme as well. (It's possible she gets Best Actress for Anatomy of a Fall, and then her other movie, The Zone of Interest, collects the big prize.) 

My sleeper pick is The Pot-au-Feu, which surprised a lot of folks here at the festival. On paper, it looked like a middlebrow food-porn period piece. But Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel are simply terrific in this deeply felt love story. Plus, the film can be read as a metaphor for the importance of art, and a Cannes jury could certainly get behind that message. Also worth noting: Documentaries are almost never part of the Competition, so perhaps Wang Bing's three-and-a-half-hour Youth will emerge victorious. I could just as easily see Glazer win Best Director, but fool that I am, I'm picking The Zone of Interest. I look forward to finding out just how wrong I was again.

Cannes 2022: The Wrap-Up and the Rankings

An informal poll I conducted of colleagues who, like me, attended last year's pandemic-affected Cannes confirmed my suspicion: The 2021 installment was better than this one. Partly, it was the fact that there were fewer people around, making navigating the festival easier, and partly it was because the films were stronger. To be fair, the 2021 edition had, essentially, two years worth of movies to work from, which allowed for an extra helping of greatness. (Also, there were simply more films programmed in 2021 than this year.) But even so, 2022 yielded fewer terrific movies, although I am cognizant of having missed out on several pictures that were well-reviewed, including Aftersun, Corsage, Godland and The Blue Caftan. You spend 11 days watching movies, but there are still some you can't get to.

But if the highs of this year's slate weren't as high -- or as frequent -- then at least the lows weren't so low. Looking at my rankings, even the films at the very bottom of my list offered a few pleasures or some interesting ideas. There were no outright stinkers, and the truth is, I generally liked most of what I saw, even if my enthusiasm was often measured. That said, I know plenty of folks who strongly support Three Thousand Years of Longing, Elvis, Stars at Noon and Top Gun: Maverick, so my festival experience is no guarantee to have been anyone else's. That's part of the fun of being at Cannes.

So, without further ado, here are my rankings, including movies I'd seen prior to the festival. Links lead to individual reviews.

39. Three Thousand Years of Longing
38. Elvis
37. Stars at Noon
36. Father and Soldier
35. Remains of the Wind
34. Brother and Sister
33. The Innocent
32. Top Gun: Maverick
31. War Pony
30. Final Cut
29. Rebel
28. Mediterranean Fever
27. Our Brothers
26. Imagine
25. Funny Pages
24. Crimes of the Future
23. God's Creatures
22. Holy Spider
21. Smoking Causes Coughing
20. Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind
19. Tchaikovsky's Wife
18. The Silent Twins
17. Hunt
16. Plan 75
15. The Eight Mountains
14. Moonage Daydream
13. Armageddon Time
12. Decision to Leave
11. Leila's Brothers
10. Triangle of Sadness
9. Men
8. All That Breathes
7. Close
6. Broker
5. Tori and Lokita
4. EO
3. R.M.N.
2. Showing Up
1. One Fine Morning

(If you'd like to be additionally annoyed that I didn't care for Top Gun: Maverick, let me point you to this essay I wrote for MEL about my misgivings about Maverick as a character.)

For me, there were two true standouts, one I saw at the beginning of the festival and one I saw at the very end. One of the unfortunate themes of this year's Cannes was world-class directors bringing less-than-world-class films to the Croisette, with everyone from Claire Denis to David Cronenberg being accused of not living up to their previous high-water marks. (Of course, this take was subjective as well: I was quite taken with Broker, generally considered a letdown from former Palme d'Or-winner Hirokazu Kore-eda, and I deeply dug Tori and Lokita and R.M.N., which proved that, respectively, the Dardenne brothers and Cristian Mungiu still have plenty to say.) But One Fine Morning, Mia Hansen-Love's just plain lovely look at a widowed mother (Lea Seydoux, wonderful), and Kelly Reichardt's deceptively simple Showing Up were clear outliers, finding their makers doing some of the best work of their illustrious careers. The only reason I think Showing Up should win the Palme is because One Fine Morning was in Director's Fortnight, which keeps it out of the running. (Why it wasn't in the official competition, which slotted Hansen-Love's slightly-less-great Bergman Island last year, is a mystery to me.)

The other prevailing theme of the 2022 edition was the glut of good-enough films. Not bad, not amazing, just ... good. I suspect a second viewing will add dimension to Park Chan-wook's densely plotted Decision to Leave or may make me appreciate James Gray's Armageddon Time more. That's the hope, anyway: If this Cannes wasn't filled with stunners, the movies certainly didn't lack for ambition, and sometimes a fresh perspective away from the rush-around of a festival can help. Maybe just maybe I'll even come around on Stars at Noon. 

And now, here's where I indulge my annual tradition of incorrectly guessing what's going to win the Palme d'Or. It's impossible to know, of course, because the nine people who make up the competition jury will be giving out the prizes, and it's not like they're talking to anyone. But in terms of possible victors, Lukas Dhont's late-arriving Close, which just got picked up by A24, could be a consensus choice, emotional and heartfelt. If the jury wants to go in a more career-achievement direction, Cronenberg could walk away with the prize for his audacious (I'm not sure entirely successful) "return to form" Crimes of the Future. Nostalgia has been the best-reviewed of the competition films I haven't seen, and Armageddon Time got such a warm reception at its premiere, which featured Grey getting choked up about what the movie means to him, that I think it has a shot as well. 

But ultimately I see the Palme going to either Close or Decision to Leave, with my pick being the former. Park is a revered filmmaker, and Decision to Leave is a Hitchcockian thriller that's inspired plenty of comparisons to Vertigo. It's a work of consummate craftsmanship that deals in obsession, both familiar and challenging at the same time. But Close makes people cry. I'm gonna go with tears.

And if Showing Up should somehow win? Well, that loud noise you'll hear on Saturday is me turning on my phone when my plane lands and letting out a cheer when I see the news.

Cannes 2022: 'Broker' Review

Hirokazu Kore-eda is back at Cannes for the first time since Shoplifters. For Screen International, I reviewed Broker.

My Interview With Hirokazu Kore-eda, Director of 'The Truth'

What a treat to speak with Japanese master Hirokazu Kore-eda. Our conversation happened in March, just as the pandemic was starting to take hold of America. (He was in Japan, and we talked through an interpreter.) Now that his new film The Truth is out, my Q&A is live at MEL.

'After the Storm' Review

After the Storm is the latest from writer-director Hirokazu Kore-eda. It's lovely, like so many of his films, telling the story of a deadbeat dad who only slowly comes to the realization that he's kind of a screw-up. I reviewed the film for Paste.

Cannes 2015: 'Our Little Sister' Review

I recognize that director Hirokazu Kore-eda's films (Like Father, Like Son) are too slight for others. But I continue to find them quite touching. The same goes for his latest, Our Little Sister, which is part of the Cannes competition this year. I reviewed the film, which is about three close-knit sisters who realize they have a younger half-sister when they go to their distant father's funeral, for Paste.

Cannes 2013: 'Like Father, Like Son' Review

Few filmmakers do family drama as well as Kore-eda Hirokazu. Nobody Knows, Still Walking, I Wish ... and now comes Like Father, Like Son, which part of me knows is a touch sappy. But other parts of me say to just feel the emotions and not question it. So I obey. My review is live at Paste.