Disgruntled friendo: “From the Palme d’Or and on down, the Cannes Film Festival awards often don’t make any sense, and this year are only compounding what is now the twee irrelevance of Cannes itself.”
Ruben Ostlund‘s Triangle of Sadness takes the Palme d’Or! And a lot of people are scratching their heads. Sadness is a very funny, impudent and whipsmart satire during the first half, but it loses something when the vomiting scene kicks in aboard the Christina O. The second half isn’t as good as the first, and no one has disputed this. So why did it win the top prize?
I’m a serious fan of the film and Ostlund in general, but this seems like a political call. The film bluntly satirizes the super-wealthy and the general spread of self-obsession, selfishness and social media. Congrats to Ostlund and his cast, but this is kinda nuts, man.
Friendo: “I didn’t love Triangle of Sadness — like you I found the second half slow and dawdling and didactic, and obviously woker-than-woke in the desert-island section — and it’s just so disappointing that they would give the Palme to Ostland AGAIN, for a film that’s not really good enough. But all you have to do is scroll through the entire history of Cannes winners to remind yourself that one-half to three-fifths of them are utterly nuts. Totally undeserving.”
Grand Prize: A tie between Lukas Dhont‘s Close (fully deserved) and Claire Denis‘ The Stars at Noon….another crazy call. The Denis isn’t even close to Dhont’s realm of accomplishment, and so this feels like feminist positivism — Denis’ film has seemingly won for the same reason that Power of the Dog‘s Jane Campion won the Best Director Oscar — an aging, distinguished feminist helmer is paid tribute for her long brave career.
Trust me, The Stars at Noon is okay but delivers nowhere near the emotional combustion of Close.
Best Director: Park Chan-wook for Decision to Leave. I give up. We all understood that Decision wasn’t any kind of masterful effort except technically, but the Park Chan-wook cabal is curiously adamant about his being honored because…well, mainly because Decision has excellent chops. It’s certainly not good enough to win a big award, but here we are regardless.
Special 75th Anniversary Prize: Jean-Pierre et Luc Dardenne‘s Tori et Lokita…at least it didn’t win the Palme.
Jury Prize: The Eight Mountains and Jerzy Skolimowsky’s EO…a tie.
Best Actor: Song Kang Ho (the Parasite guy with the slightly oafish expression) for Broker.
Best Screenplay: Tarik Saleh, Boy From Heaven.
Best Actress: Zar Amir Embrahimi, Holy Spider.
Camera d’Or: Riley Keough‘s War Pony, a film that I liked and respected for the most part.
Random sloppy thoughts: Embrahimi’s crusading female journalist in Holy Spider wins for Best Actress? Why? Her peformance is apparently being celebrated because of the feminist symbolism aspect — because her fictitious journalist character was persistent and committed and basically busted an infamous woman-loathing serial killer singlehandedly. Again — Embrahimi is okay but why all the excitement?
I wasn’t dead bored by Broker, but it was certainly an in-and-outer. If you ask me it’s bullshit to give the Best Actor trophy to the Parasite chauffeur guy — Song Kang Ho. Really mystifying. Song just repeated his awkward middle-aged-guy performance from Parasite, the same character wearing the same timid, not-fully-comprehending expression…this time he’s playing another kind of hustler or scammer…more or less the same deal.
I didn’t see Le Otto Montagne but Jerzy Skolimowski’s EO (basically an Au Hazard Balthazar remake) felt sloppy and catch-as-catch-can — meandering, spotty, didn’t kick into gear, overly impressionistic and kind of a mess. No buzz, no excitement and no applause after the press screening ended and yet they’ve split the Jury Prize and given both of these films an award for same? This is CRAZY!