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DarkImbecile wrote: Fri May 17, 2019 7:55 pm Really intrigued by the all-over-the-place reactions to Jessica Hausner's Little Joe, with substantial debate over whether the movie is

Spoiler

anti-anti-depressants.

Do you have any links to positive reviews? So far I've only seen negative reactions, and quite a few at that.

Not a lot of completed reviews up yet, but here are a handful of the more positive immediate post-screening reactions I saw:

Thanks DarkImbecile! I don't know how I missed that A. A. Dowd tweet!

ng4996 wrote: Fri May 17, 2019 8:09 pm

DarkImbecile wrote: Fri May 17, 2019 7:55 pm Really intrigued by the all-over-the-place reactions to Jessica Hausner's Little Joe, with substantial debate over whether the movie is

Spoiler

anti-anti-depressants.

Do you have any links to positive reviews? So far I've only seen negative reactions, and quite a few at that.

I read the Variety review as positive, but certainly stresses that YMMV

https://variety.com/2019/film/reviews/l ... 203218605/

I haven't seen more negative word about Pawlikowski elsewhere before or after I read the piece which is why I said apparently before paraphrasing the article. Innaritu on the other hand.. Who ever says "I like to be impregnated by them [films]". Anywaay.....

Indiewire says Pain & Glory is Almodovar's best in years and as the two posts above already indicated, David Ehrlich is one of those critics that take issue with what they think Hausner's film is saying about anti-depressants. As someone suffering from depression myself and who's finding anti-depressants helpful, I'm curious to see how I interpret the film when I get to see it. The descriptions instantly make it the film I most want to see, together with Eggers' The Lighthouse.

AA Dowd reports on Day Three, giving the Loach the first somewhat mixed review I've seen online, a B- to the Mati Diop and a B to the Bonello film in Director's Fortnight.

Indiewire gives Miike's new film First Love a B+ .

THR liked it less but still enjoyed it.

Among the Palme d'Or contenders, Almodóvar's Pain and Glory leads every critics poll for now (except the German one; the herokuapp has two unscreened films with few ratings ahead of it). Needless to say, that has nothing to do with its awards chances.

I’d say it seems like an immediate frontrunner for the International Feature Oscar pretty handily though

While trying to avoid reading much about it, I'm seeing mostly positive reviews for Bonello's Zombi Child, which pleases me.

Cremildo wrote: Sat May 18, 2019 3:02 pm Needless to say, that has nothing to do with its awards chances.

Yeah, although it's hard to shake the feeling that'll win. It feels like in 2014 when Winter Sleep entered as the frontrunner and went the distance.

Perhaps it's just me or that I've followed it less this year, but the proceedings seem a lot more muted this year. A lot of these films seem to be plugging away with more or less the same reception---the only outlier is Pain and Glory, which hasn't seemed to garner the same enthusiasm (on Twitter, really) as Carol, Toni Erdmann, or Burning. The festival didn't look its best on paper, and I haven't seen any of these films, but hopefully Malick, Porumboiu, the Dardennes, Suleiman, and Sciamma have something in store, as well as Desplechin, who never stopped making quality films (Jimmy P. included) ever since the fêted one-two of Kings and Queen and A Christmas Tale.

A few Slant reviews from Cannes:

2.5 out of 4 for Pain and Gain
2 out of 4 for Dumont's Joan of Arc
3.5 out 4 for Zombi Child

Oh, it appears Porumboiu straight-up made a crowd-pleaser. I mean, it could still be good, if not great, and I suppose it makes sense, but Police, Adjective was only ten years ago. If Alex Billington is over-the-moon about it...

I'm really ready for Malick.

I first saw Porumboiu’s debut 12:08 East of Bucharest in a massive open-air cinema in Sarajevo, and it pleased the crowd greatly.

Omensetter wrote: Sat May 18, 2019 8:52 pm

Cremildo wrote: Sat May 18, 2019 3:02 pm Needless to say, that has nothing to do with its awards chances.

Yeah, although it's hard to shake the feeling that'll win. It feels like in 2014 when Winter Sleep entered as the frontrunner and went the distance.

By all accounts, the Malick also went into this set up as a front runner on equal level with the Almodovar so, if there's anything to the logic of this kind of inevitability, perhaps they'll split the top prizes. I guess we'll have a better sense of that tomorrow at this time.

MichaelB wrote: Sat May 18, 2019 11:33 pm I first saw Porumboiu’s debut 12:08 East of Bucharest in a massive open-air cinema in Sarajevo, and it pleased the crowd greatly.

...and it's plausible La flor pleased the crowd at the NYFF. You know the connotations of "crowd-pleaser". There's nothing wrong with making more mainstream films, of course---it could be why he's finally in Competition; I was just taken aback by how much Porumboiu ostensibly went genre. I'm sure I'll find more to like in it than not.

@JohnCope: Most odds I saw pegged Almodóvar as the front runner, with Malick not far behind, so it definitely makes sense that what you saw had them on equal footing. Almodóvar screening to raves in Spain in March plus not having a Palme likely pushed Almodóvar over Malick odds-wise.

Almodovar gets Palme, Malick gets Director? Maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves...

Surely Iñárritu likes Malick and Pawlikowski definitely does based on his Criterion Top Ten. I read a primary source that Rohrwacher is a fan, but I cannot find it.

Malick's film seems well-positioned at the intersection of relevance and artistry that it could very well take it, with perhaps Banderas taking Actor. The Tree of Life received mixed reviews in 2011, but was loved enough by Assayas to take it.

Of course, we're not even at the halfway point and Ira Sachs or whoever could end up with the award.

Okay, Sciamma is getting raves and is surely the frontrunner for the Palme. I'll provide links later (unless someone beats me to it), but between this and The Lighthouse, it feels like the festival's finally woken up.

Excellently reviewed films have lost out on major prizes previously, like last year's Burning (though, to be fair, Shoplifters seemed to be a choice that most people could live with), or Toni Erdmann. I have no idea whether the jury president can veto a majority vote if he doesn't like the film they're proposing but if he or she doesn't like or even hates a critics' darling, this probably sinks the chances of the film in question for the Palme D'Or. But who knows, maybe this year, the critics' choice and the jury's choice align.

Sure, sure, who knows what a jury will land on, but well-received films do tend to receive awards.

I ultimately try to read very little about the films screening and stick to the Twitter reactions, but I'm curious if the reactions to Sciamma and Malick are more Shoplifters (3.2 on the ScreenDaily grid) or more Burning (3.8, a record). I'd wager the Malick will be a lot lower, but I can see a lot of people get with Sciamma's film.

Eggers' The Lighthouse getting quite the Twitter raves. Some say it's the best thing they've seen at Cannes so far and I saw a couple that go as far as saying it's a career-best performance for Dafoe, though that seems to me like something that would need some serious consideration and film revisiting. He's had a LOT of good performances.

Dowd gives a B to Pain & Glory, The Wild Goose Lake and The Whistlers.