At Cannes, the search goes on for a knockout — or at least a decent ending

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The Cannes Film Festival is nearing its halfway point, and critics are still searching for a truly outstanding film. The atmosphere is starting to feel like a fruitless quest, reminiscent of a cartoon explorer chasing a deceptive mirage in the desert.

After a disappointing festival so far, even decent films feel exceptional. James Gray’s “Paper Tiger” is a good example – a gritty thriller starring Adam Driver and Miles Teller as brothers in 1980s New York who get caught up in a plan to clean up the Gowanus Canal. Driver plays a former cop who knows how to negotiate with the Russian mafia, while Teller is the straight-laced engineer who struggles to understand that honesty doesn’t always work. Teller and his wife, played by Scarlett Johansson, seem a little out of their depth – though Johansson’s 80s hairstyle is a bit over the top. Still, the movie has a well-written, suspenseful plot, and at this point in the festival, that’s a welcome change.

Movies

Na Hong-jin’s newest film, a sci-fi adventure featuring Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander, is his most ambitious and large-scale work yet.

Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s film, “The Beloved,” centers around a renowned director (Javier Bardem) who hires his distant daughter (Victoria Luengo) for his new movie. This film-within-a-film is a historical drama set during Spain’s retreat from the Sahara in the 1930s, and it mirrors the strained relationship between father and daughter. The daughter struggles with her father’s renewed interest, as she’s dealing with personal instability. Despite her character’s vulnerabilities, Victoria Luengo delivers a captivating performance, skillfully controlling her on-screen presence when her father demands it.

Think of this film as a follow-up to “Garance,” again featuring Adèle Exarchopoulos in a raw and compelling role as an actress struggling with alcohol. It’s a clever, quick-moving, and enjoyable watch for most of its runtime, but unfortunately loses steam towards the end and feels rather cut short.

Something I’ve really noticed at this year’s festival is how many films are exploring the idea of connection – the feeling that we’re all in this together, and that the lines between us, whether it’s ‘human’ versus ‘robot’ or ‘man’ versus ‘woman’, don’t really matter. It’s almost a bit too on the nose, because I’ve seen at least three movies where a character just shrugs and says, “That’s life.” The frustrating part is, despite all that talk about life, the films themselves feel strangely flat. And honestly? They’re just too long. I’m totally happy with movies that are more about mood and feeling than a tight plot, but there’s a limit – around 85 minutes, for me, is usually the sweet spot.

Okay, so I finally saw Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Her Private Hell,” and honestly, it felt long. It’s been a while since Refn gave us a feature – “Neon Demon” was back in 2016 – and this one doesn’t quite feel like the triumphant return I was hoping for. The story centers around a moody daughter and her stepmother, who are stuck in this hazy skyscraper while a killer is on the loose. There’s a soldier trying to track him down, but mostly it’s just a lot of people smoking, changing outfits, and being bathed in these endless, pulsing colored lights. It’s visually striking, sure, but things move slowly. Kristine Froseth is a bright spot though, she plays a character who’s still figuring things out and brings some much-needed energy to a film where everyone else seems determined to speak in the most monotone way possible.

The program features too many slow-paced films by well-known directors – it feels like they’re included simply because of their reputation. Hirokazu Kore-eda previously won a major award at Cannes for his lively film “Shoplifters,” but his new movie, “Sheep in the Box,” is a polished but uninspired story about parents who adopt a clone of their deceased son. While it tries to evoke the emotional impact of films like Spielberg’s “A.I.,” the characters feel as artificial as the clone itself. With its predictable story and overly sweet music, the film feels stale and unrewarding.

Arthur Harari, a co-writer of the acclaimed film “Anatomy of a Fall,” directs “The Unknown,” a slow-moving drama with a bizarre premise: a moody photographer wakes up to find himself inhabiting the body of actress Léa Seydoux after a one-night stand. The idea feels like something Brian De Palma might explore, or even inspire the creator of “It Follows” to ask for a credit. However, the film’s interesting concept loses steam because the characters are so bland. It’s hard to care about who’s inside which body when everyone acts so lifeless and unexpressive. This is definitely not as exciting or dynamic as the action film “Face/Off.”

A particularly touching moment at the festival was the surprise presentation of an honorary Palme d’Or to John Travolta. The celebratory video included a clip from his 1997 thriller with Nicolas Cage. Travolta, already thrilled to be premiering his first directed film, “Propeller One-Way Night Coach,” was visibly moved and started to cry. He exclaimed “Complete surprise!” and kissed the award, adding, “I was just happy to be here.” His cheerful white beret, worn for the event, quickly became a viral sensation, perfectly capturing his joyful mood.

John Travolta’s passion for the subject clearly shines through in this lighthearted film, which is loosely based on his own childhood fascination with airplanes. The story takes place in 1962 and follows a boy, around Travolta’s age, traveling from New York to Los Angeles with his mother, who is on the hunt for either a wealthy husband or a break in Hollywood. The boy is thrilled by everything about flying, except the airline’s chicken cordon bleu. While it aims for the nostalgic charm of a movie like “A Christmas Story,” it doesn’t quite deliver the same level of humor or depth, and at just over an hour long, it feels a bit short. Ultimately, it’s a sweet and charming film that leaves you with a pleasant, if slightly embarrassed, smile.

Awards

In their Cannes Film Festival preview, film critics Amy Nicholson and Joshua Rothkopf talk about the relatively quiet showing of American films this year, and which movies are most likely to win awards.

I’d rather watch a really bad movie than one that’s just boring and average. And that’s why I’m so enthusiastic about “Butterfly Jam” – it’s so poorly made, it reminds me of the famously bad film, “The Room.”

“Butterfly Jam,” set in New Jersey, explores the damaging effects of exaggerated masculinity within a community of Circassian immigrants. While Barry Keoghan, Harry Melling, and Riley Keough are talented actors, their accents and backgrounds don’t quite fit the specific subculture they’re portraying – a problem more due to the director’s choices than their performances. Despite supposedly being teenagers when they arrived in America, the actors don’t attempt American accents, opting instead for dyed black hair. The film is relentlessly bleak, but it does feature a shocking plot twist that’s surprisingly entertaining. In one bizarre scene, a pelican actually turns on a cotton candy machine with its beak, sending sugary goodness flying – a moment that almost earned an applause from me.

A friend advised me not to bother staying up late for the premiere of Quentin Dupieux’s “Full Phil,” saying it was the worst movie they’d seen at Cannes in years. Still, I couldn’t resist seeing Woody Harrelson and Kristin Stewart as a dysfunctional father-daughter duo on vacation in Paris, especially since the film’s director is usually quite entertaining – though this time, he almost missed the mark.

The plot is straightforward: the father is anxious and complains a lot, while his daughter eats room service with incredible gusto. It took about an hour for the film, “Full Phil,” to get to its message – that being a parent means accepting a lot of hardship – and the humor feels more like hints of jokes than actual punchlines. Despite this, I’m glad Woody Harrelson and Stewart signed on for such a quirky project. What’s really great is that it actually had a good ending, which is something you don’t often see. Hopefully, the film festival itself will also finish on a high note.

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2026-05-19 06:02