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Cannes Film Festival · 2024

Cannes Film Festival 2024

Competition

Programme

24 films · 15 reviews

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All We Imagine As Light

Review preview for All We Imagine As Light

It’s fitting for a film set in the “City of Dreams” and that is concerned with life’s illusions and how we navigate them as it is about the here and now.

Amber Wilkinson · 5 out of 5
Triptych explores the lives of three women in Mumbai.

(Country: France, India, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy; Year: 2024; Director: Payal Kapadia; Writer: Payal Kapadia; Stars: Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam, Hridhu Haroon, Azees Nedumangad, Anand Sami, Lovleen Mishra, Madhu Raja, Shweta Prajapati, Tintumol Joseph, Ardra K.S., Sisira Anil CK, Aparna Ram, Kashish Singh, Nikhil Mathew)

Full review See: Interview with Payal Kapadia about All We Imagine As Light

Anora

Review preview for Anora

What isn't untrue is that Anora is brilliant.

Andrew Robertson · 4.5 out of 5
Anora, a young sex worker from Brooklyn, gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and impulsively marries the son of an oligarch.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Sean Baker; Writer: Sean Baker; Stars: Mikey Madison, Yura Borisov, Ivy Wolk, Lindsey Normington, Karren Karagulian, Ross Brodar, Mark Eydelshteyn, Emily Weider, Alena Gurevich, Paul Weissman, Luna Sofía Miranda, Masha Zhak, Vache Tovmasyan, Charlton Lamar)

Full review

The Apprentice

Review preview for The Apprentice

It finds room for those who despise weakness, and are weaker for it, and is stronger because of it.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
A dive into the underbelly of the American empire. It charts a young Donald Trump’s ascent to power through a Faustian deal with the influential right-wing lawyer and political fixer Roy Cohn.

(Country: US, Denmark, Ireland, Canada; Year: 2024; Director: Ali Abbasi; Writer: Gabriel Sherman; Stars: Sebastian Stan, Maria Bakalova, Jeremy Strong, Martin Donovan, Emily Mitchell, Patch Darragh, Stuart Hughes, Michael Hough, Joe Pingue, Eoin Duffy, Randy Thomas, Chloe Madison, Ben Sullivan, James Downing, Joel Labelle)

Full review See: Q&A with Jeremy Strong about The Apprentice , Q&A with Sebastian Stan about The Apprentice

Armand

Review preview for Armand

Less concerned with scrutinising the playground than the dangerous games adults can play with one another.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
A mother is called into her child's infant school after he faces an accusation.

(Country: Norway; Year: 2024; Director: Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel; Writer: Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel; Stars: Renate Reinsve, Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Øystein Røger, Endre Hellestveit, Thea Lambrechts Vaulen, Vera Veljovic-Jovanovic, Loke Nikolaisen)

Full review

Beating Hearts (L'Amour Ouf)

A crime romance spanning 15 years.

(Country: France; Year: 2024; Director: Gilles Lellouche; Writer: Audrey Diwan, Ahmed Hamidi, Julien Lambroschini, Gilles Lellouche, Neville Thompson; Stars: Adèle Exarchopoulos, François Civil, Raphaël Quenard, Élodie Bouchez, Alain Chabat, Benoît Poelvoorde, Nicolas Wanczycki, Vincent Lacoste, Anthony Bajon, Jean-Pascal Zadi, Mallory Wanecque, Malik Frikah, Bastien Trouvé, Emmanuel Dehaene, Manon Jacquart)

Bird

Review preview for Bird

Amid all the deprivation Arnold, as is her style, uncovers elements that lift the action out of the ordinary and into the realms of fantasy and magical realism.

Richard Mowe · 3.5 out of 5
12-year-old Bailey lives with her single dad Bug and brother Hunter in a squat in North Kent. Bug doesn’t have much time for his kids and Bailey who is approaching puberty seeks attention and adventure elsewhere.

(Country: UK, US, France, Germany; Year: 2024; Director: Andrea Arnold; Writer: Andrea Arnold; Stars: Barry Keoghan, Franz Rogowski, Nykiya Adams, James Nelson-Joyce, Jasmine Jobson, Rhys Yates, Joanne Matthews, Frankie Box, Dave)

Full review See: Arnold reveals the naked truth about Bird

Caught By The Tides (Feng Liu Yi Dai)

An elusive, decades-spanning love story impacted by life in modern China.

(Country: China; Year: 2024; Director: Jia Zhang-Ke)

Emilia Perez

Review preview for Emilia Perez

Audiard has assembled a remarkable team of actors

Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
A lawyer gets an offer to help a cartel boss start a new life.

(Country: US, Mexico; Year: 2024; Director: Jacques Audiard; Writer: Jacques Audiard; Stars: Zoe Saldana, Selena Gomez, Edgar Ramírez, Karla Sofía Gascón, Adriana Paz, James Gerard, Shiraz Tzarfati, Agathe Bokja, Marie-Elisabeth Robert, Stéphane Ly-Cuong, Eric Geynes, Anabel Lopez, Eduardo Aladro, Line Phé, Cyrus Khodaveisi)

Full review See: Jacques Audiard and Karla Sofia Gascón on changing identity, democracy and drug cartels in Emilia Perez

The Girl With The Needle (Pigen med nålen)

Review preview for The Girl With The Needle

Illusions are everywhere in this film.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
In Copenhagen in the aftermath of World War one, a young woman in desperate circumstances takes on a job which will lead her to still greater depths of despair.

(Country: Denmark; Year: 2024; Director: Magnus von Horn; Writer: Line Langebek Knudsen, Magnus von Horn; Stars: Vic Carmen Sonne, Trine Dyrholm, Besir Zeciri, Ava Knox Martin, Joachim Fjelstrup, Tessa Hoder, Søren Sætter-Lassen, Thomas Kirk, Dan Jakobsen, Anna Tulestedt, Ari Alexander, Benedikte Hansen, Per Thiim Thim, Peter Secher Schmidt, Agnieszka Przyborowska-Mitrosz)

Full review

Grand Tour

The travels of a civil servant after he runs away from his finacee.

(Country: Portugal, Italy, France, Germany, Japan, China; Year: 2024; Director: Miguel Gomes; Writer: Telmo Churro, Maureen Fazendeiro, Miguel Gomes, Mariana Ricardo, Babu Targino; Stars: Jani Zhao, Gonçalo Waddington, João Pedro Vaz, Teresa Madruga, Manuela Couto, Crista Alfaiate, Lang Khê Tran, Diogo Dória, Cláudio da Silva, Américo Silva, João Pedro Bénard, Jorge Andrade, Joana Bárcia, André Lourido, Giacomo Leone)

Kinds Of Kindness

Review preview for Kinds Of Kindness

The entire cast, especially Stone, who has admitted that Lanthimos is a muse, enter into the grand guignol spirit of the proceedings with gusto.

Richard Mowe · 3 out of 5
A triptych fable, following a man without choice who tries to take control of his own life; a policeman who is alarmed that his wife who was missing-at-sea has returned and seems a different person; and a woman determined to find a specific someone with a special ability, who is destined to become a prodigious spiritual leader.

(Country: Ireland, UK; Year: 2024; Director: Yorgos Lanthimos; Writer: Efthimis Filippou, Yorgos Lanthimos; Stars: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn, Mamoudou Athie, Hunter Schafer, Krystal Alayne Chambers, Abi Beaux, Susan Elle, Merah Benoit, Jess Weiss, Victoria Harris, Tessa Bourgeois)

Full review See: Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos on Kinds Of Kindness

Limonov: The Ballad

Story of the revolutionary as he travelled the world.

(Country: Italy, France, Spain; Year: 2024; Director: Kirill Serebrennikov; Writer: Emmanuel Carrère, Pawel Pawlikowski, Ben Hopkins, Kirill Serebrennikov; Stars: Ben Whishaw, Masha Mashkova, Tomas Arana, Sandrine Bonnaire, Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, Corrado Invernizzi, Viktoria Miroshnichenko, Ivan Ivashkin, Odin Lund Biron, Daria Zueva, Alexander Prince Osei, Victor Solé, Derwayne Mcbayne)

The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent

Review preview for The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent

Slijepcevic is a documentarian by trade and he maintains a strong sense of realism.

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
Tension mounts on a passenger train after it is stopped by paramilitaries.

(Country: Croatia; Year: 2024; Director: Nebojša Slijepčević; Writer: Nebojša Slijepčević; Stars: Goran Bogdan, Alexis Manenti, Dragan Mićanović, Silvio Mumelaš, Lara Nekić, Nebojša Pop Tasić)

Full review See: Nebojša Slijepčević on bringing the story of Tomo Buzov to screen in The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent

Short film

Marcello Mio

Chiara Mastroianni plays a version of herself as she interrogates the legacy of her father Marcello Mastroianni.

(Year: 2024; Director: Christophe Honoré)

Megalopolis

Review preview for Megalopolis

It is described simply as “A Fable”, but there is nothing simple about this over-ambitious allegorical sprawl.

Richard Mowe · 3 out of 5
Power play and corruption unfold in a futuristic city.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Francis Ford Coppola; Writer: Francis Ford Coppola; Stars: Giancarlo Esposito, Aubrey Plaza, Nathalie Emmanuel, Shia LaBeouf, Adam Driver, Kathryn Hunter, Laurence Fishburne, Dustin Hoffman, James Remar, Jason Schwartzman, Forest Whitaker, Jon Voight, Chloe Fineman, D.B. Sweeney, Talia Shire)

Full review See: Francis Ford Coppola on Megalopolis

The Most Precious Of Cargoes

Review preview for The Most Precious Of Cargoes

The choice of hand-drawn animation and its ability to demonstrate a magical realism allows the film to find the right distance from what is being depicted.

Richard Mowe · 3 out of 5
Animation about a woodcutter and his wife whose lives are transformed after they rescue a baby thrown from a train that passes near their home.

(Country: France, Belgium; Year: 2024; Director: Michel Hazanavicius; Writer: Jean-Claude Grumberg, Michel Hazanavicius; Stars: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Grégory Gadebois, Denis Podalydès, Dominique Blanc)

Full review See: Light at the end of the tunnel

Motel Destino

Review preview for Motel Destino

In this hothouse, madness easily exerts its grip.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A young drifter finds shelter in a seedy motel and embarks on a dangerous love affair.

(Country: Brazil; Year: 2024; Director: Karim Aïnouz; Writer: Wislan Esmeraldo, Mauricio Zacharias; Stars: Fábio Assunção, Nataly Rocha, Iago Xavier)

Full review

Oh Canada

Review preview for Oh Canada

Simply put, the viewer is constantly tempted to attribute the character’s old man’s ramblings both to the author of the source novel and to the filmmaker adapting it.

Marko Stojiljkovic · 2.5 out of 5
A documentary filmmaker, who is terminally ill, reflects on his life.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Paul Schrader; Writer: Paul Schrader; Stars: Jacob Elordi, Uma Thurman, Richard Gere, Michael Imperioli, Kristine Froseth, Penelope Mitchell, Victoria Hill, Aaron Roman Weiner, Cornelia Guest, Dylan Flashner, Gregory Connors, Ryan Woodle, John Way, Jean Brassard, Gary Hilborn)

Full review

Parthenope

Drama charts a woman's life in Naples from the Fifties onwards.

(Country: Italy, France; Year: 2024; Director: Paolo Sorrentino; Writer: Umberto Contarello, Paolo Sorrentino; Stars: Gary Oldman, Stefania Sandrelli, Luisa Ranieri, Isabella Ferrari, Silvio Orlando, Dario Aita, Alessandro Cucca, Brando Improta, Paola Calliari, Celeste Dalla Porta, Peppe Lanzetta, Giampiero De Concilio, Biagio Izzo, Nello Mascia, Lorenzo Gleijeses)

The Seed Of The Sacred Fig

Review preview for The Seed Of The Sacred Fig

Grittily compelling

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Investigating judge Iman grapples with paranoia amid political unrest in Tehran. When his gun vanishes, he suspects his wife and daughters, imposing draconian measures that strain family ties as societal rules crumble.

(Country: France, Germany, Iran; Year: 2024; Director: Mohammad Rasoulof; Writer: Mohammad Rasoulof; Stars: Soheila Golestani, Missagh Zareh, Setareh Maleki, Mahsa Rostami, Niousha Akhshi, Reza Akhlaghirad, Shiva Ordooie, Amineh Mazrouie Arani, Mohammad Kamal Alavi, Parisa Mohyedini, Barat Azimi)

Full review

The Shrouds

A widower invents a gadget that lets the bereaved connect with their loved ones inside a burial shroud... as they decompose.

(Country: France, Canada; Year: 2024; Director: David Cronenberg; Writer: David Cronenberg; Stars: Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger, Guy Pearce, Sandrine Holt, Al Sapienza, Elizabeth Saunders, Jennifer Dale, Ingvar Sigurdsson, Jeff Yung, Matt Willis, Eric Weinthal, Steve Switzman, Paddington)

The Substance

Review preview for The Substance

Brutal, bloody and enriched with a specific dark humour.

Marija Lukarevska · 4 out of 5
A fading television star tries to restore her fame with the help of a suspicious drug.

(Country: UK, US; Year: 2024; Director: Coralie Fargeat; Writer: Coralie Fargeat; Stars: Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid, Demi Moore, Hugo Diego Garcia, Joseph Balderrama, Oscar Lesage, Gore Abrams, Olivier Raynal, Vincent Colombe, Tiffany Hofstetter, Matthew Géczy, Tom Morton, Philip Schurer, Matthew Luret, Alexandra Papoulias Barton)

Full review

Three Kilometres To The End Of The World

A gay teenager's journey of self-discovery sees him clash with his parents.

(Country: Romania; Year: 2024; Director: Emanuel Parvu; Writer: Miruna Berescu; Stars: Laura Vasiliu, Bogdan Dumitrache, Adrian Titieni, Valeriu Andriuta, Ciprian Chiujdea)

Wild Diamond (Diamant Brut)

Details coming soon...

(Country: France; Year: 2024; Director: Agathe Riedinger; Writer: Agathe Riedinger; Stars: Malou Khebizi, Idir Azougli, Andréa Bescond, Ashley Romano, Alexis Manenti, Kilia Fernane, Léa Gorla, Alexandra Noisier, Antonia Buresi, Sandra Bijou, Francesca Giromella, Guillaume Verdier, Gaëtan Thomas, Jean-Jacques Rouvière, Mohamed Mallek)