Cannes Critic’s Take: From Martin Scorsese to Wes Anderson, This Year’s Lineup Is Faithful to Old Friends
thewrap.com“Elemental” and Martin Scorsese’s Apple-produced “Killers of the Flower Moon” an additional veneer of vindication. As to the box-office futures of the 20-odd films competing for this year’s Palme d’Or, certainly none will reach the international highs of James Mangold’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” but then, none were ever expected to.Instead — and at its best — Cannes works as a sophisticated shell game, channeling the glamour of the red carpet and the frenzy of 40,000 accredited guests to make glitzy international events out of existential Turkish dramas like Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s “About Dry Grasses,” existential Finnish dramedies like Aki Kaurismäki’s “Fallen Leaves”or intimate two-headers about 19th-century French gastronomy like Tran Anh Hung’s “The Pot au Feu.”Other Palme d’Or contenders will come with built-in SEO, as Wes Anderson’s more-star-packed-than-usual “Asteroid City”threatens to saddle red-carpet rubberneckers with a permanent case of whiplash once the Texan auteur’s full repertory company mounts the Palais steps alongside new additions Tom Hanks and Scarlett Johansson.That all the aforementioned filmmakers could walk those Palais steps in blindfolds is another notable element of an official competition marked by staggering high fidelity.
That fidelity cuts both ways, as Cannes remains loyal to Palme-wielding eminences Ken Loach, Nanni Moretti and Hirokazu Koreeda, while directors Jessica Hausner, Alice Rohrwacher and Todd Haynes have made the South of France their destination of choice for about the past decade.
That Haynes’ Mary Kay Letourneau-inspired “May December” boasts the hint of scandal alongside stars Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore should come as a particular delight for the.
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