The Grierson & Leitch Podcast: 'The Phoenician Scheme,' 'Ballerina' and 'All That Money Can Buy'

On this week's episode, well, we're a little let down by both of the new movies we review. So it's good we went back to 1941's All That Money Can Buy, which is probably better known as The Devil and Daniel Webster. Check out all our wise insights down below.

'Press Play With Madeleine Brand': Dissing 'Karate Kid: Legends,' Lamenting 'The Phoenician Scheme'

 

Alison Willmore and I were on KCRW yesterday to talk about this weekend's movie offerings. Check out our reviews of Karate Kid: Legends, The Phoenician Scheme, Bring Her Back and Mountainhead down below.

The Film Comment Podcast: Talking about 'Resurrection,' 'The Mastermind' and 'Young Mothers'

My last day at Cannes, I was on the Film Comment podcast, hosted by Devika Girish. I was joined by my buddies Justin Chang and Alison Willmore, and we had a blast talking about a bunch of films we'd seen at the festival. Also: We were pretty loopy from exhaustion, so it was a loose and lively conversation. But I made sure I was focused while singing the praises of Kelly Reichardt's The Mastermind. It was the first time I had discussed the film with anyone and, well, I was pretty effusive. Hear the whole thing down below.

Cannes 2025: 'The Phoenician Scheme' Review

While watching Wes Anderson's latest, something occurred to me: I've never disliked any of his movies. Until now. For Screen International, I get into what I think doesn't work in The Phoenician Scheme.

Gene Hackman's Finest Films

I was flattered to be asked to help contribute to this Rolling Stone piece that provides a primer on Gene Hackman's best performances. These 20 films constitute a hall-of-fame career.

The Grierson & Leitch Podcast: Reviewing 'The Creator' and the Wes Anderson Netflix Shorts

Two features and four shorts are the focus of this week's episode. We both liked Dumb Money, both disliked The Creator, and then we spend some time digging into Wes Anderson's Roald Dahl adaptations: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, The Swan, The Rat Catcher and Poison. Hope you enjoy.

The Best and Worst of the 2023 Summer Movie Season (Comedy Edition)

There were funny movies! There were movies that tried to be funny! I looked back at them all for Cracked.

Picking the Best Performance From Each of Wes Anderson's Frequent Actors

Now that Asteroid City is on Peacock, I decided to do a fun rundown of Wes Anderson's stable of regular performers, selecting each actor's best performance from his movies. Let the debate begin.

The Grierson & Leitch Podcast: 'The Flash,' 'Elemental' and 'Asteroid City'

This past weekend was heavy with interesting new releases, both big and small. You can hear our takes on the latest DC spinoff, Pixar's misfire and the new Wes Anderson picture down below.

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 2023: 'Asteroid City' Review

Wes Anderson returns to the Croisette with Asteroid City, a look at an American desert community in 1955. My review is up at Screen International.

The Grierson & Leitch Podcast: The Final Chapter of 'Guardians of the Galaxy,' My Cannes Preview, and 'Short Cuts'

Big episode! We spent a lot of time talking about Vol. 3. Then, I previewed the five films I'm most intrigued to see at Cannes. And then we went back to 1993 to discuss Robert Altman's sweeping portrait of Los Angeles. Hear it all down below.

The James Caan Films You Need to See (After You Watch 'The Godfather')

Vulture asked Will and me to come up with a list of essential James Caan performances, the assumption being that The Godfather was an obvious choice and therefore not worth including. You can see all our picks here.

James Caan, Funny Guy

James Caan will be best remembered for his dramatic work. But for MEL, I made the case for his comedic side.

Jarvis Cocker - "Aline"

Happy New Year. May 2022 be better than 2021.

The Grierson & Leitch Podcast: 'Dune,' Wes Anderson and 'Contact'

We had our first Reboot in forever on this week's episode. Unfortunately, that movie was Contact. We also reviewed Dune and The French Dispatch. Hear the whole thing down below.

'Breakfast All Day': A Long Talk About 'The French Dispatch'

Christy Lemire had Katie Walsh and me on this week's episode of Breakfast All Day to dig into Wes Anderson's latest. I was the only one of us who liked it, so we had a chat about that. I really enjoyed our conversation, which dealt with (among other things) the question of whether we owe it to filmmakers to revisit their movies if they don't entirely work for us the first time.

Giving 'The French Dispatch' Another Shot

When I saw Wes Anderson's latest at Cannes, I was a little underwhelmed. So what turned it around for me on a second viewing? I get into that here.

Cannes 2021: The Wrap-Up and the Rankings

For most of the year, I assumed I wouldn't be attending the 2021 edition of the Cannes Film Festival. Partly, that was because I figured there wasn't going to be a festival due to the ongoing pandemic. (And if it was held, the odds were good that American journalists wouldn't be allowed to travel to it.) Well, all that changed in late May, and quickly I found myself throwing together plans to fly to France, which included figuring out Covid protocols that seemingly changed on a daily basis -- not just for air travel but for the festival itself. I was hardly alone in feeling a little discombobulated: The other U.S. critics I knew who were going were all trying to decipher confusing and contradictory information, too.

But I made it, and I'm so glad I did. I haven't traveled to a film festival since Sundance 2020, and it's remarkable how quickly muscle memory kicked in. I joked over the last several months about being out of festival shape, which isn't so much about physical conditioning as it is the rush-rush-rush, grind-grind-grind of doing a festival on a daily basis, which requires a lot of patience, stamina and a willingness to be flexible. Considering we were taking part in an international event in the midst of a pandemic, not to mention enduring a new press ticketing system and an unpredictable Covid testing program, the ability to go with the flow was crucial. I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Because this year's Cannes was super-sized, packed with more films than usual, it was inevitable that I wouldn't be able to see everything on my wish list. The 2021 edition may have featured more options, but there's still only a finite amount of time to see films, and with reviewing responsibilities taking priority, I had to make peace with the fact that I would have to let promising movies like Vortex, Petrov's Flu, The Velvet Underground, Ali & Ava and Paris, 13th District slip away. I'll get to them eventually. 

So, let's get to the rankings. Links lead to individual reviews....  

29. Flag Day
28. Where Is Anne Frank
27. Stillwater
26. The Stronghold
25. Nitram
24. Annette 
23. Benedetta
22. Supremes
21. The French Dispatch
20. Ahed's Knee
19. Everything Went Fine
18. Belle
17. Cow
16. Val
15. Deception
14. Titane
13. Murina
12. Compartment No. 6
11. Bergman Island
10. A Hero
9. The Story of Film: A New Generation
8. After Yang
7. Hit the Road
6. Drive My Car
5. The Souvenir Part II
4. The Year of the Everlasting Storm
3. Red Rocket
2. Memoria
1. The Worst Person in the World

As I was putting together my list, I knew what my top two would be, but not in what order. Festival rankings are always a bit arbitrary, and picking a favorite often comes down to deciding between two very different films, and different impulses. Apichatpong Weerasethakul's return to the Cannes official competition for the first time in 11 years is an absolute triumph: a big, bold artistic stunner. It's the kind of film that invites "Masterpiece" hosannas. On the other side, there's Joachim Trier's thoroughly lovely and wise story of turning 30 and trying to figure yourself out. Hardly as formally inventive and singular as Weerasethakul's landmark, The Worst Person in the World nonetheless moved me beyond words and, for this moment anyway, wins by a photo finish. But it's worth pointing out that my Cannes rankings tend to shift over time: In 2013, Blue Is the Warmest Color beat out Inside Llewyn Davis, and in 2019, I slotted The Lighthouse higher than Parasite. By the end of their respective years, those films' placement had flipped. I would not be surprised if Memoria eventually reigns supreme.

My own indecision reflects that of my peers. There was no clear-cut critical consensus, with a wide range of films enjoying their own niche of support. Some people raved about The French Dispatch. Benedetta, Annette and Titane had their passionate champions. Everyone generally really liked Drive My Car and A Hero. Outside of Flag Day, another absolute stinker from Sean Penn after his The Last Face face-planted at Cannes five years ago, critics tended not to be too hard on the Competition films. And even Penn's folly inspired a few rave reviews. 

What was largely not commented on, at least among the people I was with, was the fact that ... we were watching movies in theaters again. A lot of movies in theaters. After basically avoiding theaters for more than a year, I was inside them for the last week and a half. That return couldn't have started better than by seeing the latest installment in Mark Cousins' The Story of Film series, which is no doubt why Cannes programmed it to open the festival. If it's perhaps a little too self-conscious about reminding everyone that, yes, movies still matter, A New Generation is stuffed with clips of the best and brightest films from this century, including a list of helpful suggestions for under-the-radar titles worth seeking out. Soon that initial giddy buzz went away and we went back to the grind of covering a film festival, as always. But, my god, the fact that we were there at all was a miracle I don't think enough of us paused to acknowledge.

I have a spectacular failure rate when it comes to predicting what will win the Palme d'Or, so I'm tempted not to even make a guess. But I'm going with A Hero over Titane or Drive My Car. Asghar Farhadi has never won, so the jury (headed by Spike Lee) may decide he's due. Plus, the film is seen as a return to form for him after the disappointing Everybody Knows. It wouldn't shock me if Lee went for something a little stylistically bolder, but it's always a risk to assume that the movie that most resembles the jury president's M.O. will win. So let me put it this way: If he gives it to The Worst Person in the World or Memoria, you won't hear me complaining.

Cannes 2021: 'The French Dispatch' Review

A love letter to journalism, Wes Anderson's latest is a series of vignettes made to resemble reported pieces in an upscale literary magazine. It's so gorgeous, but also a little emotionally distant. My review of The French Dispatch is here.