Cannes 2024

[Sabin]

Speaking of body horror, Cronenberg's The Shrouds sounds both old school (it sounds gross) and personal (it's' about his late wife) and except for Ehrlich it sounds like muted praise at best.

https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/mov ... 235007047/
https://variety.com/2024/film/reviews/t ... 236010116/
https://www.theguardian.com/film/articl ... tival-2024

[Mister Tee]

It's a refined horror movie. Did you not get the references to Dorian Gray, The Shining, and The Fly?

1) "Audacious, and Insanely Gross Body Horror Masterpiece" -- that's the headline of the IndieWire review

"Grisly Body Horror Caper" -- Guardian headline

How do you get "refined" out of that?

2) Even if I were to accept your analogy to those other films (which I don't):

Dorian Gray, with a literary pedigree, got 3 nominations, only one above the line, nearly 70 years ago.

The Shining was 100% Oscar-ignored.

The Fly got (and, to be fair, won with it) a single nomination, for make-up.

That leads you to 13 nominations?

[Big Magilla]

Magilla, are you on uppers or something? Did you not get from the reviews that The Substance is a horror movie? An apparently quite gross horror movie? Hasn't the experience of Hereditary and Us demonstrated that even horror movies critics rally behind just don't fly with Academy voters? Never say never, of course, but 13 nominations? Come on.

It's a refined horror movie. Did you not get the references to Dorian Gray, The Shining, and The Fly?

It's also a Me-Too movie which Moore, Quaid, and the director were quick to point out at the press conference doesn't mean anti-men but anti-jerk.

And Sabin, MUBI has streaming rights, not so sure they have theatrical distribution rights even though IMDb. says they do. Universal produced the film. They might want to take charge of the film's U.S. distribution as well as its Oscar campaign.

[Sabin]

dws1982 wrote
Jia Zhangke's film Caught by the Tide has quietly become one of the most acclaimed films out of the festival, although it got buried in the discourse between Emilia Perez and The Substance. Jia has been an international mainstay for about twenty years now, so I could see him being a compromise choice for a big prize.

The Cannes grid has Caught by the Tide at 2.6, The Substance at 2.7, and Emilia Perez at 2.5. So yes, I could see that happening. Jia Zhangke really has been under-rewarded at this festival.

[dws1982]

Jia Zhangke's film Caught by the Tide has quietly become one of the most acclaimed films out of the festival, although it got buried in the discourse between Emilia Perez and The Substance. Jia has been an international mainstay for about twenty years now, so I could see him being a compromise choice for a big prize.

[flipp525]

The Apprentice is out. Reviews don't seem great. Gleiberman seems to like it okay.
Also, the film depicts him as a rapist.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/articl ... 1716225924
https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/mov ... 235006848/
https://variety.com/2024/film/reviews/t ... 236010185/

Well, I mean, he IS a rapist so that depiction works just fine for me.

[Sabin]

Mister Tee wrote
Beyond that...Magilla, are you on uppers or something? Did you not get from the reviews that The Substance is a horror movie? An apparently quite gross horror movie? Hasn't the experience of Hereditary and Us demonstrated that even horror movies critics rally behind just don't fly with Academy voters? Never say never, of course, but 13 nominations? Come on.

I think there's a bigger problem working against the film. It's being distributed by Mubi. If Neon or A24 got the rights then we'd be talking. Obviously, there's a first time for everything but... it's Mubi. Until they demonstrate what they're capable of, I'm going to assume it doesn't crossover.

The only rationale I can see for any kind of showing is the Academy is warming up to the grotesque, bizarre, and niche more these days. But thirteen for a body horror film? No way.

I love Cannes Film Festival speculation because you're never right. But right now, I'd be surprised if one or two variations didn't happen. We could be looking at The Substance taking the Palme d'Or and Karla Sofía Gascón taking Best Actress or Emilia Perez taking the Palme and Demi Moore taking Best Actress.

Mister Tee wrote
I knew we'd end up paying for the abundance of good films last year, but 2024 seems headed in the wrong direction with consistency. The plethora of unnecessary sequels that dominate the next two months is numbing to even contemplate. We could really have used some surprise hits, but nothing's turned up so far.

If the Oscars turn into a game of the tallest kid in kindergarten, this could bode well for Challengers, Civil War, and the upcoming Hit Man. I find pondering that scenario more appealing than sight-unseen Joker 2 vs. Gladiator 2.

[Mister Tee]

The thing working in Demi's favor here would be that her film/role's subtext is to some extent exactly what Sabin is talking about here: the discarding of babe actresses when they age out of what-gets-male-execs-and-audiences-hot.

Beyond that...Magilla, are you on uppers or something? Did you not get from the reviews that The Substance is a horror movie? An apparently quite gross horror movie? Hasn't the experience of Hereditary and Us demonstrated that even horror movies critics rally behind just don't fly with Academy voters? Never say never, of course, but 13 nominations? Come on.

In other Cannes "news", the opening salvo of Costner's projected epic-on-epic Horizon appears to have flopped with critics -- 50 on Metacritic, a painful 20% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Renate Reinsve has got great reviews for Armand, but it's (I believe) in Un Certain Regard, thus ineligible for prizes.

I knew we'd end up paying for the abundance of good films last year, but 2024 seems headed in the wrong direction with consistency. The plethora of unnecessary sequels that dominate the next two months is numbing to even contemplate. We could really have used some surprise hits, but nothing's turned up so far.

[Sabin]

The Apprentice is out. Reviews don't seem great. Gleiberman seems to like it okay.
Also, the film depicts him as a rapist.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/articl ... 1716225924
https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/mov ... 235006848/
https://variety.com/2024/film/reviews/t ... 236010185/

[Sabin]

Assuming it's a deserving performance, that would be nice for Demi Moore to get an Oscar nomination at this point in her career.

I wrote a post a little while ago about Sharon Stone's ubiquity when I was growing up and how quickly it seemed to flame out following her sole successful-ish bid for respectability. In hindsight, it's very similar to Demi Moore's except flipped. Sharon Stone showed up on the scene baring it all and had to work to get people to take her seriously in Casino. Despite her Brat Pack origins, Demi Moore had Ghost and A Few Good Men, both of which were respectable films that she was more "in" than highly acclaimed for. She spent the rest of her moment of stardom working in the opposite direction of Stone in increasingly schlocky material that promised you'd see more of her (Indecent Proposal, Disclosure, The Scarlet Letter) and "finally" bares it all with the disastrous Striptease (bizarre because I thought she'd been nude in films before). She basically just became a body. And then with the exception of one more moment in the zeitgeist (G.I. Jane, an honorable-ish flop) it was over.

I don't want to make it seem like we've been denied some great careers. Neither Stone or Moore were terribly great. But when I think about both actors, I think about how sad Hollywood was in the 90s/is today that both Sharon Stone and Demi Moore aged out by their mid-30s. They're as stunning as any human you'd probably ever seen in real life but they were both playing losing games throughout their careers and aged out at the same time.

[Big Magilla]

Wow. Just when we were ready to give up on this festival, a 13-minute-standing ovation for a horror movie based on Dorian Gray with touches of The Shining and The Fly, followed by a terrific 34-minute press conference with Demi Moore, Coralie Fargeat, and Dennis Quaid available on YouTube.

Should not only win at Cannes, but it could also be a major Oscar contender in 13 categories including Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Actress (Demi Moore), Supporting Actor (Dennis Quaid who was cast after the death of Ray Liotta), Supporting Actress (Margaret Qualley), Cinematography, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Sound, Score, Makeup and Hairstyling, and Costume Design.

[Sabin]

The Substance is getting very good reviews. The return of Demi Moore.

https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/mov ... 235006738/
https://variety.com/2024/film/reviews/t ... 236009235/
https://www.theguardian.com/film/articl ... ie-fargeat

[Sabin]

Greg wrote
As it is in competition for both, they will likely give Emilia Perez the Queer Palm, rather than the Palme d'Or.

As of now, I think it's the front-runner to win the Palme d'Or.

Greg wrote
The negative reactions (Ehrlich is far from alone) came after I'd posted this. Not surprising, as Audiard is not universally loved -- his Palme was one of the more contentious ones in my memory.

I think its contentiousness had almost nothing to do with the film and more to do with the behind the scenes feud between Joel Coen and Xavier Dolan. His previous (?) film, A Prophet, won the Grand Prix in 2009 (15 years ago!!!) and my recollection is it was a pretty popular film at the time.

[Greg]

As it is in competition for both, they will likely give Emilia Perez the Queer Palm, rather than the Palme d'Or.

[Mister Tee]

Mister Tee wrote
The buzziest title so far appears to be Jacques Audiard's Emilia Perez:

Looks like a love it/hate it film. David Ehrlich has it at a C+ but describes it as "not unmemorable." Still plenty to go but if enough people love it but unless something else knocks their socks off I could see this as something a Greta jury would dig.

The negative reactions (Ehrlich is far from alone) came after I'd posted this. Not surprising, as Audiard is not universally loved -- his Palme was one of the more contentious ones in my memory.

What I think is safe to say at this point -- and, yeah, a week to go, but, usually, hotter titles appear nearer the start than the finish -- is that this year's vintage is way weaker than the Anatomy/Zone/Killers batch from last year, and the prizes will likely be greeted with as much argument as acclaim.