The best and worst of Cannes Film Festival 2017
Cannes 2017 introduced some marvellous films to the world – along with some not so marvellous ones
The Square ★★★★★ WINNER OF THE PALME D'OR
The director of Force Majeure announces himself as a major force with this dissection of society and its contradictions, a darkly comic drama that sets its sights on the pretentiousness of the art world.
Read more ...Good Time ★★★★★
You’d call this a guilty pleasure if it weren’t for the nagging sense that Good Time will end up a classic. Robert Pattinson plays a duplicitous bank robber in this unpredictable thriller from the talented Safdie brothers.
Read more ...The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) ★★★★★
Baumbach’s comedy of grownup children and childlike parents should hit plenty of nerves for anyone who could call their family ‘dysfunctional’, with many of those nerves being in the funny bone. A ferociously charming film about divorce and decline.
Read more ...Jupiter's Moon ★★★★★
Booed by the Cannes critics, Mundruczó’s film can sometimes feel over-ambitious. But at its best moments, this fable-like tale of a Syrian refugee with the power of flight is completely magical.
Read more ...A Gentle Creature ★★★★★
No one gets through A Gentle Creature unscathed: not the characters, and certainly not the audience. The subject is relentlessly absurd and miserable and the execution is unrelenting, but there’s something about this Russian odyssey that will make you want to put yourself through the pain again.
Read more ...Loveless ★★★★★ WINNER OF THE JURY PRIZE
Russian director Zvyagintsev’s clinically precise examination of a failing marriage becomes a subdued abduction thriller in its second half, and both halves are as cold and stark as the title suggests.
Read more ...Okja ★★★★★
A totally bananas and inconsistent ‘comedy’ from a director who likes to mix it up, Okja is both a Disney-esque tale of a child’s love for an animal and a satire on environmentalist issues. Goofy and dark, it’s a wonderful quirky mess.
Read more ...Happy End ★★★★★
After the surprise tenderness of Amour, it’s bracing to see Haneke return to the dread and irony of earlier work like Funny Games. This is ultimately a minor work in the director’s oeuvre, but that still makes it essential viewing.
Read more ...The Beguiled ★★★★★ WINNER OF BEST DIRECTOR
Sofia Coppola’s remake of the Clint Eastwood movie is baroque fun, with Colin Farrell playing the dreamy Civil War soldier kindling the desires of Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, and Elle Fanning.
Read more ...April's Daughter ★★★★★
Michel Franco's family drama eventually gains a delightfully dangerous edge as one of its characters starts acting off-script. We're not telling you which one, though...
Read more ...120 Beats Per Minute ★★★★★ WINNER OF THE GRAND PRIX
Robin Campillo's engaging drama is a heartfelt testament to the AIDS activists of the 1990s, bringing the period and the issues to vivid life
Read more ...The Killing of a Sacred Deer ★★★★★ WINNER OF BEST SCREENPLAY
Perhaps you’ll love the new film from the director of Dogtooth and The Lobster, but we found it exasperating and cute, without being half as grounded or sympathetic as his earlier work.
Read more ...Le Redoubtable ★★★★★
Hazanavicius directed Oscar-winner The Artist, a homage to the era of silent movies, and this is another film about film-making, this time with an entertaining biopic of notorious auteur Jean-Luc Godard.
Read more ...You Were Never Really Here ★★★★★
Ramsay’s film, based on a pulpy novella by Jonathan Ames, is a well-shot revenge movie worth watching for Joaquin Phoenix’s performance.
Read more ...Wind River ★★★★★
The scriptwriter behind Sicario and Hell or High Water makes his directorial debut with this unoriginal but intermittently gripping tale set in the snowy mountains of Wyoming.
Read more ...Ismael’s Ghosts ★★★★★
Don’t be fooled by a starry cast that includes Charlotte Gainsbourg, Marion Cotillard, and Mathieu Amalric: Desplechin’s film is an unsubtle and indulgent film driven by hollow symbolisms.
Read more ...Wonderstruck ★★★★★
Hayne’s follow-up to Carol is a kitsch drama about two deaf youths united by a cosmically-aligned trip to New York. Not Julianne Moore’s finest hour.
Read more ...L'Amant Double ★★★★★
This supremely silly rip-off of David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers is definitely tongue-in-cheek, but the director’s knowingness doesn’t make it worth two hours of your time.
Read more ...Based on a True Story ★★★★★
Polanski’s latest film was included in the Cannes line-up at the last minute. He shouldn’t have bothered. Bafflingly, it’s partly scripted by Olivier Assayas, who made the chilling and fascinating Personal Shopper – a film that is everything Based on a True Story isn’t.
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