We’re en route to the 79th Cannes Film Festival, which begins Tuesday and runs for another 10 days of manic movie watching, along with the slow, stunned walk of post-screening euphoria (or the opposite). Before taking in another edition of what is dependably the most significant cinema showcase in the world, Times film critic Amy Nicholson and film editor Joshua Rothkopf batted around some hopes and prejudgments — all sight unseen — of a lineup that’s sure to yield gold.
Joshua Rothkopf: First, let’s talk about who’s not going to Cannes this year: American directors. Apart from Ira Sachs’ “The Man I Love” and James Gray’s late addition “Paper Tiger,” no U.S. films have been invited to compete for the Palme d’Or. This bucks a recent trend: Sean Baker world-premiered his “Anora” at Cannes in 2024 and, at least lately, the festival has been the launching pad for some risky homegrown dares that I’ve loved, like Ari Aster’s future classic “Eddington.” You don’t even have Tom Cruise rappelling in for a “Mission: Impossible” gala.
I’m only semi-OK with this. I want Cannes to feel, at least for a week, like the galaxy-brained center of movie nerd-dom. A big dice-roll like Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” is definitely a part of that. My itch will be scratched, hopefully, by “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma,” the meta-horror latest from Jane Schoenbrun (“I Saw the TV Glow”), opening the Un Certain Regard section, which also includes American Jordan Firstman’s debut feature “Club Kid.” And Cannes has a way of surprising you from the margins. It’s where Demi Moore kicked off her gooey comeback with “The Substance.”
But I look at this year’s official poster — Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis striking a steely pose from 1991’s “Thelma & Louise” — and can’t help but wonder if Hollywood has changed irrevocably. Thirty-five years ago, Ridley Scott’s feminist road movie made a splash on the Croisette, then opened four days later on a Memorial Day weekend to strong box office and an awards run. Do we even get films like that now? Amy, do you think this year’s lineup says anything by its omissions?
Amy Nicholson: Josh, I’m glad you whisked this conversation through the velvet ropes and straight to that question of: Have American movies gotten worse since Cannes premiered “Kung Fu Panda” in 2008? The answer to that is oui, non and peut être. We aren’t making as many good movies as we used to, but our good movies are still excellent.
Perhaps last year was too American. In addition to Cruise conquering the Palais, it also boasted premieres by Spike Lee, Wes Anderson, Kristen Stewart, Richard Linklater, Kelly Reichardt and Scarlett Johansson. Maybe there are political reasons our country is unpopular. Or — and this is the optimistic spin — perhaps the strong Oscars showing of other Cannes titles like “Sentimental Value” and “The Secret Agent” is a signal that our own tastes have evolved. After all, not one of the Hollywood-made 2025 titles I’ve mentioned above even got to this March’s Academy Awards. (Although “Eddington” should have.)
I’ve yet to swoon for a Jane Schoenbrun film, but only because their fixations like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” fandom are so hyperspecific that they miss me by millimeters. But I’ll probably watch “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” at least twice to see if that’s the one that cracks through. Schoenbrun’s work is fascinating even if, so far, it’s not for me.
Spitballing from afar, the Un Certain Regard title that’s seized my attention is Zachary Wigon’s “Victorian Psycho,” a gothic horror film starring Maika Monroe and Thomasin McKenzie. Wigon’s most recent film, “Sanctuary,” was a twisty thriller about sexual politics with Margaret Qualley and Christopher Abbott that deserved to make more of a splash. Maybe this will. And I have to admit, the actor I’m most curious to see in it is 13-year-old Jacobi Jupe, who was the best thing in “Hamnet.”
Speaking of: Any first thoughts on which movies we’ll be talking about for the next 10 months?
Rothkopf: So hard to say! Even when a movie outright wins the Palme, I’m usually that guy wondering: But does it have legs to go all the way? For the record, last year’s winner, Jafar Panahi’s politically inflamed abduction drama “It Was Just an Accident,” ended up with two Oscar nominations and no wins.
I can only offer possibilities. Take an awards-saturated director, Asghar Farhadi (“A Separation,” “The Salesman”), a revered French cast (Isabelle Huppert, Vincent Cassel and, sure, Catherine Deneuve) and put them in a script about several people stoically surviving the aftermath of terrorism — specifically the November 2015 attacks in Paris — and you get “Parallel Tales.” Here’s another one: Ryusuke Hamaguchi, whose roving “Drive My Car”surprised everyone, is back with a sad-sounding movie about terminal illness, “All of a Sudden.” I have a hard time imagining those two movies won’t be in the conversation.
But this is what my heart says: Na Hong-jin is a Korean moviemaker who’s only getting better. His excruciating debut, 2008’s “The Chaser,” felt like what you’d come up with if you only watched David Fincher’s “Seven” for a year and spoke to no one. A little later, he upped his game considerably with “The Wailing,” which adds ghosts, demons, dead crows and an extremely literal title. I couldn’t get it out of my head. Now he’s back with a sci-fi film called “Hope” which also, apparently, has a tiger on the loose.
It would delight me to no end if that were the movie we ended up talking about for months. Do you see hints of a mighty performance anywhere in these tea leaves?
Nicholson: Hmmm … well, there’s no bigger hint than the name Sandra Hüller in the cast list of Paweł Pawlikowski’s “Fatherland.”
I was nuts about Pawlikowski’s 2013 “Ida,” about a young nun on a destructive road trip through her family’s history, and 2018’s “Cold War,” a tumultuous romance between two artists in a time of propaganda. “Ida” won the Academy Award for international film; “Cold War” was nominated for (and lost) three Oscars including director and cinematography. If I was going to pop over to Monaco and place a bet on next year’s heavyweight contender, “Fatherland” would be it.
Another one I’ve got my eyes on is Gray’s “Paper Tiger,” a Russian mafia movie with Adam Driver, Johansson and Miles Teller. Gray tends to get great performances out of people — Gwyneth Paltrow and Joaquin Phoenix in “Two Lovers” is another personal favorite — and it’s been ages since I’ve seen Teller play a role that measures up to his potential. (His turn as the Gloved One’s lawyer in “Michael” doesn’t, although he’s perfectly fine in it.) Likewise, Driver and Johansson have four nominations between them and no wins. Maybe this will turn their luck around?
Meanwhile, Sebastian Stan has been steadily building an eclectic, challenging resume with movies like “A Different Man,” “The Apprentice,” “Fresh,” heck, even “Pam & Tommy.” It’s a relief he took time away from “Avengers: Doomsday” to shoot “Fjord” with Romanian director Cristian Mungiu (“4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”) and au courant Oscar darling Renate Reinsve. Speaking of Stan’s Bucky Barnes, is there any hope that anything in the program might break out of the art house and into the mainstream? I’ll even be content with something that has the sizzle of last year’s “Sirāt,” which you and I both dug.
Rothkopf: “Sirāt” may just be one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences — I still remember the room (and my chest) vibrating. Will any of these new movies feel like bass-heavy raves?
It still strikes me as improbable that a talent as weird as Denmark’s Nicolas Winding Refn somehow found his way to making 2011’s L.A.-at-night thriller “Drive,” a movie that already feels essential to this city’s psychology (scorpion jacket optional). Refn is back at Cannes with his first feature in a decade, “Her Private Hell,” which stars a bunch of hot young things and takes place in a futuristic Tokyo. Sounds like all the elements are there.
And Neon, the company that’s won a stunning six Palmes in a row, has already bought “The Unknown,” the mysterious latest from Arthur Harari (who won a screenplay Oscar with his partner Justine Trier for “Anatomy of a Fall”). If anyone can drag an art-house phenomenon into the mainstream, it’s Léa Seydoux, who pockets “Dune” and James Bond movies whenever she slinks on screen.
What’s the craziest-sounding movie that you can’t wait to don formal attire to see?
Nicholson: For me, the answer is always Quentin Dupieux.
I’ve been a fan of Dupieux’s before he made movies like “Rubber” and “Deerskin,” back when he was the techno artist “Mr. Oizo” who directed his own music videos (with puppets!) that played on heavy rotation on Euro MTV while I was studying abroad. “Full Phil” is his first English-language comedy since 2013’s bizarro “Wrong Cops” and his most star-laden one since, well, ever, with a cast top-lined by Woody Harrelson and Stewart as a father and daughter on a Parisian vacation.
I’m not sure if I’ll be seeing “Full Phil” in a ballgown or blue jeans and I don’t really care. I just can’t wait to see it. Yes, it’s a pity more Hollywood movies aren’t flying to France. But I’m glad we are — and I can’t wait to report back on what’ll be worth debating until spring 2027.
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