Reviews

Cannes Review: 'Only God Forgives' Stretches Refn's Neon-Noir Style Over Too Little Oedipal, Amoral Substance

Jessica Kiang — Wed, 22 May 2013 10:48:07 GMT

With the weight of expectation behind it, Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Only God Forgives” was never going to be able to deliver the same neon blue jolt of surprise that thrilled through the 2011 Cannes...

Cannes Fest Diary: Le Weekend, from Compelling 'Jimmy P.' to Toback's Doc and 'Jodorowsky's Dune'

Tom Christie — Wed, 22 May 2013 02:46:13 GMT

It was a weird, wooly and wet weekend in Cannes. And it began with what has to be one of the stranger ideas ever put forward for a film: “Jimmy P.: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian” from Arnaud...

Review: 'Fill The Void' An Orthodox Jewish Romance Caught Awkwardly Between Comedy & Melodrama

Oliver Lyttelton — Tue, 21 May 2013 22:20:00 GMT

After a Cannes Film Festival which attracted criticism for including no female directors whatsoever, new Venice Film Festival head Alberto Barbera seems to be having bit of a dig at his...

Cannes Review: Killer Dance Moves and Crime In Simple, Formulaic 'Grigris'

Eric Kohn — Tue, 21 May 2013 20:30:10 GMT

France-based Chadian director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun's last feature, the Cannes-winning "A Screaming Man," involved father-son tensions against the backdrop of civil war. By comparison, his followup...

DVD Review - Senegalese Drama 'Les Feux De Mansaré' ('Fire of Mansaré')

Wendy Okoi-Obuli — Tue, 21 May 2013 19:53:51 GMT

Known mainly for his award-winning short films, in Les Feux De Mansaré director Mansour Sora Wade delivers a second feature film as a story about desire, choice and the freedom (or lack of it)...

Cannes Review: 'La Grande Bellezza' An Indulgent But Dreamy Reflection On Life, Love & More

Kevin Jagernauth — Tue, 21 May 2013 19:45:00 GMT

Opening with a literal bang from a cannon and proceeding into an over-the-top party sequence, Paolo Sorrentino lets you know from the start that nothing will be held back in his latest, "La Grande...

Review Roundup: Critics Go Ga-Ga for Soderbergh's Outrageously Mesmerizing 'Behind the Candelabra'

Beth Hanna — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:51:05 GMT

Critics are over the glittering, bedazzled moon for Steven Soderbergh's Cannes competition entry "Behind the Candelabra," set to premiere on HBO on May 26 and starring a no-holds-barred Michael...

Michael Douglas, Kitsch and Depth: Soderbergh's 'Behind the Candelabra'

Caryn James — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:45:23 GMT

Despite the earnest pr spin surrounding it, Behind the Candelabra invites us to laugh at - not always with - the grinning, gaudy Vegas spectacle that is Liberace. But Michael Douglas'...

Cannes Review: Claire Denis Destined To Divide With Disturbing, Salacious 'The Bastards'

Jessica Kiang — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:59:00 GMT

If all art is only ever about sex and death, Claire Denis’ Un Certain Regard film “The Bastards” may be the most "artistic" one we’ve seen in Cannes to date, as it rolls around positively shamelessly...

Maryland Film Fest Review: 'Mother of George' Is The Best Film I’ve Seen Thus Far This Year

Dankwa Brooks — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:53:23 GMT

Every year I pick a favorite film, among the many I see at the Maryland Film Festival, and this year it's a truly remarkable one—Mother of George. I knew going into this film that it would have good...

Cannes: Suicide and Sexual Abuse Abound In Claire Denis' Frustratingly Muddled 'Bastards'

Eric Kohn — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:39:41 GMT

Claire Denis' films are typically intimate dramas weighted with emotion, which makes it particularly dispiriting that "The Bastards," her eleventh feature, contains all of those ingredients without...

Cannes Review: 'Behind the Candelabra' is Steven Soderbergh's Glamorous, Garish and Great Goodbye (For Now)

Alison Willmore — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:33:19 GMT

"Behind the Candelabra," which premiered at Cannes today before heading to HBO on Sunday, May 26th at 9pm, is Steven Soderbergh's virtuoso swan song to filmmaking (at least for now), his final...

Cannes: Family Problems Dominate In Clio Barnard's 'The Selfish Giant' And Kore-eda's 'Like Father Like Son,' But 'Borgman' Makes Them Scary

Eric Kohn — Tue, 21 May 2013 12:51:29 GMT

Movies for families tend to embrace the value of sticking together. However, movies about families -- at least those with a certain amount of gall -- assail that very same principle. At the Cannes...

Cannes Review: Steven Soderbergh's 'Behind The Candelabra' Puts Dazzling Entertainment On Top Of Toxic Relationship

Kevin Jagernauth — Tue, 21 May 2013 11:17:24 GMT

It's almost unfair how easy Steven Soderbergh makes it look. As the filmmaker heads into his hiatus from movie-making, he's spent the few last years dipping between high grade entertainment ("Magic...

Review: Rama Burshtein's Luminous 'Fill the Void' Looks at the Strange, Painful Romance of Choice

Beth Hanna — Tue, 21 May 2013 10:05:00 GMT

Rama Burshtein’s “Fill the Void,” Israel’s official Oscar entry earlier this year, is set in the Haredi Orthodox Jewish community in Tel Aviv. It focuses on one young woman’s turbulent experiences ...

Cannes Review: Douglas and Damon Shine in Soderbergh's Funny, Poignant Melodrama 'Behind the Candelabra'

Anne Thompson — Tue, 21 May 2013 08:30:00 GMT

The Cannes Film Festival accorded Steven Soderbergh's lush period melodrama "Behind the Candelabra" a prime competition slot (his fourth) for a reason. While it's not the first time an HBO movie has...

Cannes Review: James Franco's 'As I Lay Directing'

Tom Christie — Tue, 21 May 2013 06:35:42 GMT

Back in her “Pretty Women” days, I interviewed the young Julia Roberts and at one point she mentioned her dog, which she called Faulkner. Well, that’s one way to add some intellectual heft to your...

In Search Of ‘The Searchers’

Leonard Maltin — Tue, 21 May 2013 04:00:00 GMT

Glenn Frankel’s The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend (Bloomsbury) has received more attention from the mainstream press than the average film book, and for good reason: it is an...

Cannes Film Fest Diary 3: Seduced by 'The Past,' Abandoned by a Brazilian Beach Bikini Party

Tom Christie — Tue, 21 May 2013 03:11:50 GMT

At 8:30am Friday morning, I got it. What Cannes is truly all about. You get something in theory, and then there’s the moment you get it through experience. Asghar Farhadi’s “The Past” had just begun,...

Review: The Kids Are All Right in 'The Kings of Summer,' A Sappy Coming-of-Age Romantic Comedy

Ryan Lattanzio — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:35:37 GMT

The fine young summer romance -- that time in the short months between spring and fall when love gets idealized and love gets messy -- is an idea so entrenched in pop culture and particularly in film...

Cannes Review: The Rich Also Cry In Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi’s 'A Castle In Italy'

Jessica Kiang — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:22:22 GMT

It’s hard not to read a degree of self-justification into Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi’s (mostly) French-language comedy-drama “A Castle In Italy,” so we’re not really going to try. We took...

Cannes Review: James Franco's Ambitious Directorial Effort 'As I Lay Dying' is Dragged Down by Franco's Own Performance

Boyd van Hoeij — Mon, 20 May 2013 19:39:23 GMT

It's become a running gag stretched out over the annual festival calendar: Here's another project (or two, or three...) with and/or by actor-writer-director-artist-celebrity James Franco. Does the...

Review - 'Fast & Furious 6' Is… Well… Loud and Crazy (and That’s Mostly A Good Thing)

Dan Simolke — Mon, 20 May 2013 19:15:34 GMT

"The Fast and the Furious" series is one of the few where I have little problem shutting my brain off for two hours. It’s at least based in some sort of reality, there are no superheroes, although...

Cannes Review: Martian Zombies and Liev Schreiber Can't Quite Salvage 'Last Days on Mars'

Eric Kohn — Mon, 20 May 2013 16:27:03 GMT

Mars is a frequent sci-fi setting, but the appeal of an object of wonder and mystery just barely within our reach rarely translates to the screen. From "Ghosts of Mars" to "Mission on Mars,"...

Cannes Review: Admirable Ambition Isn't Enough For James Franco's 'As I Lay Dying'

Kevin Jagernauth — Mon, 20 May 2013 15:25:00 GMT

To be certain, James Franco has never been lacking in ambition. From the meta quasi-doc "Francophrenia (Or Don't Kill Me, I Know Where the Baby Is)" to the Hart Crane biopic "The Broken Tower" to the...