While he wasn't
leading the revolution against France's smoking ban, Sean Penn, this year's president of the Cannes Film Festival jury, had some mixed up words for another (would be) president. Penn, who has been an imaginative critic of George W. Bush and his
soiled blood soaked underwear, gave Barack Obama both an endorsement and a disparagement all the way from glamorous Cannes, France.
He
offered his opinion: "I’m certainly endorsing the excitement and hope that Barack Obama is inspiring." Penn then criticized Obama for “some phenomenally unconstitutional and inhuman votes on his part.
The 2007
Cannes Film Festival has concluded with the dispensing of the festival's top award, the Palme D'Or, to Cristian Mungiu's (pictured)
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, a drama that Variety
describes as "a stark, trenchant drama about a woman's experiences receiving an abortion in the waning days of Romania's communist era."
Taking second place (the Grand Prix) was
The Mourning Forest, "an ultra-arty, arid and slow French-Japanese co-production that had viewers and critics streaming for the exits early." Gus Van Sant, whose
Elephant took the Palme D'Or in 2003, was awarded the third place prize for his
Paranoid Park, a drama about a teenager trying to cope with having accidentally caused someone's death.
The biggest surprise according to many critics is that the Coen Brothers latest,
No Country for Old Men, failed to bring home any of the top honors though it was predicted to be a festival favorite. Based on the
Cormac McCarthy novel, the film's description sounds like classic Coen Brothers fare: "Violence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon some dead bodies, a stash of heroin and more than $2 million in cash near the Rio Grande." You can currently check out
five clips of the wry, dusty movie and decide for yourself if it was robbed of Cannes awards.
Source
For the most part critics are heralding Michael Moore's latest documentary
Sicko for providing an eye-opening look at the health insurance crisis in the U.S. Many are also uttering sighs of relief that Moore's political viewpoints are relatively subdued in the film, unlike his previous documentaries in which many found Moore's opinions shoved down their throats, ultimately undermining the messages of the films.
Curiously, even the Fox News website is giving Sicko a favorable review, though the critic is quick to note this is because Moore isn't "confronting" anyone. The most common complaint for Sicko is that in comparing American system to that of Cuba, Canada and England (among other countries), Moore paints an absurdly rosy picture of other systems in order to highlight just how horrifying things are here, but the rosiness isn't exactly accurate, either.
Check out some excerpts from various reviews of Sicko:
Variety:
“...An entertaining and affecting dissection of the American health care industry that documents how it benefits the few at the expense of the many.
Admittedly, I was nervous to read the reviews for
A Mighty Heart, a movie based on the horrific story of journalist Daniel Pearl who was kidnapped in Pakistan in 2002 and ultimately beheaded. The real-life story is heartbreaking, and I worried that a movie might trivialize rather than honor Daniel Pearl's story.
So far, the reviews have been positive with critics giving kudos for the respectful way in which the Pearls' story is told, though also mentioning that the movie presents moments of discomfort having to do with such ripped-from-the-headlines tales of torture and terrorism.
Since I'm not able to attend the
Cannes Film Festival this year, I'm scouring the Web for reviews of movies that look the most interesting. First on my list:
My Blueberry Nights, the first English-language film by director Wong Kar Wai which stars Norah Jones, Jude Law, Natalie Portman and Rachel Weisz.
Overwhelmingly, the critics' message is this: Wong Kar Wai is masterful at creating a visually evocative film, though the dialogue is lacking, thus making the performances feel empty and pointless. Some say the script's shortcomings are a result of language issues, but that in the end none of it matters because the film is so beautiful.
Today the
Cannes Film Festival kicks off in France, and starting things off is Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai's first English-language film,
My Blueberry Nights. The movie is about a lovelorn road trip and stars Jude Law, Rachel Weisz, Natalie Portman and... Norah Jones.
We can dig it. The lineup has been released for the 2007
Cannes Film Festival, which begins May 16 and where
Brad and Angelina will grace everyone with their presence. That's not totally random, since they both have movies in the festival, though neither of their films are competing for the top prize, the Palme d'Or.
Twenty other films are in competition for the Palme d'Or, however, including:
- Wong Kar Wai's first English-language film My Blueberry Nights (pictured), which kicks off the festival and weirdly stars Norah Jones alongside Jude Law and Natalie Portman.
