CineCola's 68th Cannes Film Festival top 10

NOTE: This top 10 is in order of preference and only includes the films viewed during all the sections and parallel sections of the 68th Cannes Film Festival during the course of the festival. It does not include ones that were not reviewed on CineCola.com

10 - THE FOURTH DIRECTION by Gurvinder Singh

 

Gurvinder Singh's film is set in the eighties in india, in the midst of the conflict between Sikh militants and Indian authorities. Nevertheless, its examination of the resulting paranoia and distrust that resulted from the tense and violent atmosphere makes The Fourth Direction timeless and universally relevant. The narrative structure is a little baffling and may make The Fourth Direction seem lacking in focus as far as the story is concerned. Despite this, its stints in metaphorical storytelling is charmingly traditional and effective. On top of this, the cinematography is often quite stunning, mostly set in deserted and rural places of India, and occasionally adding a type of poetry that conceals a fundamental love of the director for his country.

7 - SONGS MY BROTHERS TAUGHT ME by Chloé Zhao

 

A rare and admirable example of a contemporary Native American community. Songs My Brothers Taught Me is more specifically set in Pine Ridge, an empoverished area of South Dakota plagued by alcoholism and general neglect. The narrative is not particularly original - a young man from the community dreams of getting away. Yet, first time feature director Chloe Zhao makes the viewing experience very rewarding by focusing on atmosphere, not least of all by taking advantage of the distinctive desertic setting, but also by revealing the fascinating community as a whole and with a closer examination of singular characters and their own distinctive personalities. This also prevents the film from seeming preachy, and feeling more like a tribute with an uplifting final message about the hope that rests in the hands of future generations. Songs My Brothers Taught Me is also a testimony to the great impact and enriching aspects of street casting. The lead players, mostly playing themselves, are incredible and add a great tinge of realism that would have been difficult to achieve otherwise.

6 - LOUDER THAN BOMBS by Joachim Trier

 

Joachim Trier's feature debut in the English language is not his best work, but it is exciting and infectuous nonetheless. The story revolves around the relationship between a father and his three sons, and follows them at around the time they are brought together under the same room shortly before a major exhibition is to pay tribute to their world acclaimed deceased war photographer wife and mother. Louder than Bombs is intuitive and exciting, structured with the impulsiveness of a beat novel, playing with its chronology and shifts in viewpoints but also revealing more cinematic influences that often seem to draw inspiration from more mainstream cinema, reformatted in the distinctive and intuitive arthouse language of Trier that only occasionally suffers from excesses. Gabriel Byrne in the role of the conflicted and confused good natured father struggling to fight estrangement from their sons delivers one of his best performances to date. Louder than Bombs is also shot on film, which adds texture to the colours and great general visual appeal.

5 - THE LOBSTER by Yorgos Lanthimos

 

The Lobster is set in a futuristic Orwellian world in which single people are given a set deadline to find their other half or be transformed into an animal. An intelligent and original depiction by Lanthimos, in his English language directorial debut, with a stellar cast headed by a great Colin Farrell, unusually ditching his bad boy looks for a more hopelessly single man's physique. It is also driven by a witty and often laugh out loud deadpan sense of humour. This approach strengthens the impact of the overall message which, due to its influences from politics and relationships in general, makes the film feel highly interactive and subjective from the audience point of view. It also represents an excellent and thought provoking level of balance between entertainment and arthouse cinema.

4 - MIA MADRE by Nanni Moretti

 

Funny and melancholic, yet brutally honest. No one makes films like Nanni Moretti, both in language and structure. This is very true and visible in the rhetoric lacking succession of humorous scenes with more dramatic ones. And while Mia Madre is neither his most ambitious nor best work, it is still excellent and disarmingly honest. Once again, the Italian filmmaker deals with death, and he does so by chronicling the life of a filmmaker who faces the struggles of keeping her film production together and live through other compelling aspects of her everyday life while her hospitalised mother is gradually dying. Her distraction leads her to frustration and an impending sense of guilt and moral emptiness. There is a sense of genuineness that is very true not only in the presentation of the themes, but also in the leading character of Margherita, who feels very real and dominates the narrative revealing her positive and negative sides - strengthenes by a career defining turn by Margherita Buy. A histrionic John Turturro, in a supporting role as a self-obsessed and obnoxious American actor, is a significant added treat.

3 - OUR LITTLE SISTER by Hirokazu Koreeda

 

King of quiet melodrama Hirokazu Koreeda returns to the big screen with a manga adaptation which chronicles the life of four sisters living an almost utopian lifestyle under the same room. More than being driven by conventional narrative schemes, Our Little Sister aims to represent its warm hearted atmosphere and shows extreme sensibility in revealing darker aspects of the sisters' difficult family past. This in turn leads to being a cohesive and admirable sensitive tribute to the bond of sisterhood and femininity that features very three dimensional feminine characters, with very different personalities. Koreeda's masterful touch ensures a balance of drama, excellent pacing and great warmth, while its occasional forays into more poetic approaches are beautiful and never overstated, therefore pleasant and delightfully cinematic. 

2 - CHRONIC by Michel Franco

 

A character study. A nurse taking care of the dying, who need him as much as he needs them, so good at his job as to arouse suspicions among his patients' family. Chronic is a film about death, but more rewardingly about people's behaviours when coming face to face with mortality. Michel Franco's disarming leniance towards realism, through still camerawork, cold lighting and lack of manipulative music soundtrack intensifies the ambiguity of the film and plays with the darker sides of this character driven story. This in turn is intensified by Tim Roth's leading performance, soft spoken and mysterious, leading to further ambivolence and psychological depth. In the end, Chronic may even be read as an audacious experimentation on the audience, distracted by the story and subjected to uncomfortable moments of portrayals of vulnerability induced by illness and impending death.

1 - THE ASSASSIN by Hou Hsiao-Hsien

 

Hou Hsiao-Hsien returns to the big screen after eight years and takes on the martial arts period drama. Rather than adapt to the nature of the genre, he adapts his low key style to it and adds great visual beauty through vivid cinematography, stunning art direction and by paying a careful attention to a soundtrack that drives the pace of the film and regales it with a meditative, musical and infectuously solemn rhythm. The story is set in China at the time of the Ting Dynasty and revolves around a formidable female assassin whose humanity and sensitivity is awakened by her failure to fulfill one of her missions. More intimate, political and thrilling aspects of the story are examined throughout in an intricate storyline, which is only demanding when followed in the traditional sense. The Assassin seems more like the type of movie that aims to achieve a metaphisical interaction with its viewer, who is invited to become immersed whole heartedly in the film and not only to strictly follow its narrative. This approach evokes influences and comparisons to other types of artforms, from paintings to ballet, and builds a infinitely rewarding sensual experience that is naturally absorbing and unique. Arguably Hou Hsiao-Hsien's most ambitious work to date.