This is going to sound perverse if not outrageous to the Cannes dweebs but here goes. A little while ago I happened to watch the clip below — obviously a smartly-written, efficiently shot, no-big-deal scene in a broadly commercial Hollywood Oscar winner. Familiar to one and all. But I swear to God this one little scene delivers more in the way of complex social undercurrents, authoritative acting and emotional intrigue than the entire import of Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne‘s Two Days, One Night, which I saw this morning. There’s no comparison. The Sting is a shallow studio confection, agreed, but it’s ten to fifteen times more absorbing than watching Marion Cotillard going from co-worker to co-worker asking for their secret vote, etc.