May 19, 2015 CANNES — Neither Denis Villeneuve’s “Sicario” nor Stephane Brize’s “The Measure of a Man” was able to hold a candle to Todd Haynes’s latest masterwork “Carol.” Although “Measure” features a solid performance from Vincent Lindon as Thierry, an unemployed French father trying desperately to get a job to provide for his wife and special-needs son, the script doesn’t go far enough toward addressing the systemic issue of joblessness currently crushing the lives of millions, if not billions, of people around the globe.
“Sicaro” gives the muscular Emily Blunt space to stretch as an actress but the politically vague script, about corruption on all sides of America’s trademarked drug war with Mexico, drags and settles into a cheesy revenge-plot. Benicio Del Toro plays Alejandro, the “hitman” of the film’s title. Del Toro’s character plays all ends against the middle to avenge the brutal murder of his wife and daughter by a Juarez drug-lord who has learned every skullduggery technique the CIA has been busy teaching by example for decades.
Hot on a lot of people’s list is Amy Berg’s documentary “An Open Secret,” about young boys sexually abused by Hollywood managers, agents, and casting directors. The picture has been picked up for U.S. distribution; it opens on June 5th in Seattle and Denver, before rolling out to 20 other cities thereafter.
One of the great pleasures of the festival is its beach screenings of select classic films. What could be better than reclining in the sand in a beach chair and watching a film such as the one playing tonight, Bo Widerberg’s 1971 “Joe Hill,” about the
Still to come is Hou Hsiao-Shien’s “The Assassin” and Guillaume Nicloux’s “Valley of Love,” a two-hander starring Isabelle Huppert and Gerard Depardieu.
