Cannes Summary: Woody Allen through Gus Van Sant
Friday, May 13, 2011 at 4:00PM 
Hi All. Robert (author of Distant Relatives) here. As Nathaniel has mentioned, MUBI.com is really the place to go for lots and lots of Cannes reviews. But in case you don't want to sift through lots of reviews or fear leaving the warming embrace of The Film Experience, I thought I'd sum up some of what people are saying about the first few Cannes Films, right here.
Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris opened the festival and while a few viewers are suggesting it's an unnoteworthy truffle, most of the reaction has been positive though not exhuberant. Still, with expectations growing lower and lower for Mr. Allen's releases, it's nice to see that he can still enchant an audience. Seriously, you've never seen the words "charming" and "pleasant" and "whimsical" so much in one place. Here's the MUBI summary.
Sleeping Beauty, the first film by author Julia Leigh is one of a handful of films this year that feels like Cannes attempt to recapture that uncomfortalbe sexual Antichrist buzz. Here, Emily Browning plays a newbie prostitute whose specialty is being drugged and taken advantage of in her sleep. Detractors here seem to be in the slight majority calling the film "cold" and "psychosexual twaddle." But there are still some reviewers who find the film "enthralling" and have high praise for Browning's performance and desire to break free from studio stuff. MUBI summary.
Nathaniel has already touched on We Need to Talk About Kevin and the great notices coming Tilda Swinton's way (Roger Ebert referrs to her in his tweeting as Saint Tilda and I must admit that name is sticking in my brain). It's also nice to see excitement greet a Lynn Ramsay film (whose Ratcatcher and Morvern Callar I assume must have been some of the better DVD discoveries of the past 10 years). Alas the film itself is getting a bit of a mixed reaction. MUBI summary.
Gus Van Sant's teenage romance Restless opened Un Certain Regard and it's hard to ignore the bad reviews piling up. While there are a few nice sentiments, like Mike Goodridge's declaration that it's a "gentle moving hymn to life" most of the agreement seems to be that the film is a "dud" not to mention "intert" or "emo goo." MUBI summary here.
Cannes, Gus Van Sant, Tilda Swinton, Woody Allen
Reader Comments (4)
Was hoping for a bit more from Restless. Oh well.
wasn't expecting much from restless based on that absolutely terrible trailer... too bad that seems to be an accurate summation of the entire film ://
I've heard good things about Woody Allen's latest film but you've got to give the guy credit for continuing to make movies at such a pace. The time it take George Lucas to think about changing the hair color of an Ewok on his next update of Star Wars, Allen has written, directed, starred in and released four movies.
I've seen worse trailers this year, including my candidate for Worst Trailer: Horrible Bosses. Seems utterly pointless, with insanely broad comedy and characterizations that are way more cartoony than anything you can see in Office Space. I can't see this turning out well.