Chris Knipp Writing: Movies, Politics, Art


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PostPosted: Sat May 25, 2013 7:00 am 
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Again I've collated D'Angelo's on-the-spot Cannes tweet reviews of all or nearly all the films he screened at the festival and put them in descending order or his numerical ratings. Note that the films he deems more important he reviews in much more detail in his daily AV Club pieces, which can be found starting here. And also note that in his rigorous numeral rating system, ones in the 50's can be a B (AV Club requires A to F ratings). And his rule for W/O (walkouts) is that he watches two reels or 40 minutes before deciding to leave. You can find French critics' ratings of the Competition and Un Certain Regard films on LE FILM FRANÇAIS and a collation of mostly English critics' ratings of the same films on SCREEN DAILY. The favorite was BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR, followed by INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS, NEBRASKA, and THE PAST.

D'ANGELO'S (MAY) 2013 CANNES TWITTER REVIEWS:

The Past (Farhadi): 82. Farhadi may be the best pure dramatist in the world right now. Theme's a bit blunt here (The Past!); still superb.

Only Lovers Left Alive (Jarmusch): 77. For close to an hour this was shaping up to be one of my favorite films ever. A bit heartbreaking.

All Is Lost (Chandor): 74. Just what I'd hoped for: A survival tale pared to its purely visual essence. Ambiguous ending's a tad cute. [Out of Competition]

Nebraska (Payne): 71. "Does he have Alzheimer's?" "He just believes things that people tell him." "Oh, that's too bad."

Blue Is the Warmest Colour (Kechiche): 69. Like CANDELABRA, a very basic rise/fall relationship tale. But the extra hour makes a difference.

The Selfish Giant (Barnard): 68. Had you shown this to me blind I'd have bet the farm it was Shane Meadows. Like SOMERS TOWN as tragedy. [Un Certain Regard]

Young & Beautiful (Ozon): 66. Character study of teen hooker inititally seems banal, but banality proves to be its secret weapon.

Shield of Straw (Miike): 64. Sure, this is schlock, but for a good while it's pretty terrific schlock. Why it's 2 hours plus is a mystery.

Bastards (Denis): 63. Like DEMONLOVER, weds magnificent form to vaguely disturbing, kinda inane content. Enthralling in the moment. [Un Certain Regard]

Venus in Fur (Polanski): 61. As elegantly directed as CARNAGE, but with a decent text this time (albeit on a subject I find uninteresting).

Go for Sisters (Sayles): 61. I've been saying for yrs he should do something trashy and this comes pretty close. Possibly too close.[Market]

A Touch of Sin (Jia): 59. Big chance of pace, 4-parter w/loads of explicit violence. Individual stories compel; juxtaposition a bit tract-y.

The Great Beauty (Sorrentino): 58. Folks who like Fellini more than I do will flip for this. Basically his DOLCE VITA. Lovely, rambling.

Inside Llewyn Davis (Coens): 57. A close cousin to O BROTHER, not just musically but in its picaresque semi-randomness (+ Goodman ogre).

The Immigrant (Gray): 56. Immediately rises to middle of Palme list. Possibly a James Gray film—think THE YARDS, WE OWN THE NIGHT.

Behind the Candelabra (Soderbergh): 55. A familiar trajectory distinguished only by its once-forbidden (in mainstream culture) milieu.

Michael Kohlhaas (Des Pallières): 54. Better than I'd heard. Certainly very...sedate, but with bursts of intensity, & Mikkelsen is superb.

Seduced and Abandoned (Toback): 52. Totally incoherent—is it about Cannes, financing, "the magic of the movies," death, what? But fun. [Special Screenings]

Borgman (Van Warmerdam): 52. Basic anti-bourgeois surrealism, with little real-world resonance that I can detect. Forgettably intriguing.

Touchy Feely (Shelton): 51. Dismayingly inorganic, w/lots of writer's heavy hand. Great cast still finds moments of authenticity. [Market]

Stranger by the Lake (Guiraudie): 50. Might be too straight for this, as it's pretty close to being gay porn w/an unusually hefty plot. [Un Certain Regard]

Blind Detective (To): 49. Responses will vary widely based on one's tolerance for super-broad HK comedy. I came around a little by the end. [Midnight Screenings]

Grigris (Haroun): 48. Well, it's somewhat lively, at least. But combining "falls for a hooker" + "steals from thugs" = cliché cité.

Heli (Escalante): 44. When bad things happen to made-up people. Like his previous films, as formally impressive as it is pointless.

Like Father, Like Son (Kore-eda): 42. Imagine a film abt parents who learn they were given the wrong baby 6 yrs earlier. This is that film.

Jimmy P.: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian (Desplechin): 35. I was not expecting to leave this film thinking fondly of GOOD WILL HUNTING.

The Bling Ring (Coppola): 32. Two words: Who cares? [Un Certain Regard]

Only God Forgives (Winding Refn): 17. Gratuitous sadism smothered in the same noxiously garish notion of "style" he used for FEAR X.

Stop-Over (Bakhtiari): W/O. Making a doc about Iranians stuck in Greece is like shooting 90 mins. of people waiting for a delayed flight. [Directors Fortnight]

Grand Central (Zlotowski): W/O. I'm 0-for-2 on Ms. Z so far. Details of working in a nuclear power plant are fascinating; nothing else is. [Un Certain Regard]

As I Lay Dying (Franco): W/O. Yeah, no. [Un Certain Regard]

Ain't Them Bodies Saints (Lowery): W/O. I have apparently lost all touch with what most people consider first-rate indie filmmaking. [Critics' Week]

Bends (Lau): W/O. Never even really got a sense of what this is, to be honest. Totally enervating. [Un Certain Regard]

Fruitvale Station (Coogler): W/O. Because I was totally fine w/cops killing civilians until I saw what a super-nice guy the victim can be. . . . LATER TWEET ON THIS: @b_wolo Bitch to my face, pal. And lol to @Power_Lloyd suggesting I have some moral obligation to endure crappy films about black people.

Forgot to note that I W/O'd of ZULU [Salle], which is unbelievably awful even by closing-film standards. That wraps it for me. Final post coming.

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