Four Standouts at the Cannes Film Festival

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Reviews

Published on Monday, 31 May 2010 20:40

Written by Ron Dicker

The most subdued Cannes Film Festival in recent memory ended May 23, but a few entries are sticking with me. The following comprise my fabulous foursome.
 
Inside Job
Charles Ferguson's evisceration of the crooked bankers and pundits who led us to financial disaster gets my nod for best film -- even if it didn't screen in competition. His in-your-face camera made subjects squirm to provide accountability for the 2008 crash and our ongoing woes. Their hemming and hawing will stoke your rage, and Inside Job's meticulous breakdown of how we got screwed might make you the smartest guy in the room.
 
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
Big-studio slickness meets real-life fiscal sickness in Oliver Stone's recession-set follow to his 1987 Wall Street. The "greed is good"-spouting Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) emerges from prison to confront a world where he says, "greed is now legal." This is his cue to chew up some scenery (in a good way) and figure out how to manipulate his long-estranged daughter (Carey Mulligan) and her fiancé Jake (Shia LaBeouf), the earnest hedge-funder. Lots of longing looks at tall buildings and a story about avarice told with heart.
 
The Strange Case of Angelica
Beyond a curiosity for its 101-year-old director, Manoel de Oliveira, the film beguiled with old-fashioned pacing and a timeless tale of an outcast. Isaac (Ricardo Trepa), a Jewish refugee in Portugal after World War II, is called in the wee hours to photograph a beautiful bride (Pilar Lopez de Ayala) who has just died. Her image comes alive for him as Isaac mopes his way through daily life in an all-Catholic village. He pines for the dead . Without supernatural silliness, de Oliveira makes us believe that Isaac might be able to have her.
 
Blue Valentine
It's very Sundance-y and very good. Director Derek Cianfrance trains his camera on an unraveling marriage. Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams are the couple, locking horns in semi-verité moments that'll make you cringe. Blue Valentine is not a feel-good movie; it's a feel-good-about-movies movie.

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