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Venice Festivals by Year: Prizes, Juries, Favorites Other Fests: Cannes / Chicago
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Jurors: Sam Mendes (president), Laurie Anderson, Gemma Arterton, Giancarlo De Cataldo, Nina Hoss, Chiara Mastroianni, Joshua Oppenheimer, Lorenzo Vigas, Zhao Wei
 Competition Films I Have Seen:Ranked in order of preference My Golden Lion Arrival (USA/Canada, dir. Denis Villeneuve) - Oddly stereoscopic spectacle: one eye sees a conceptually ambitious puzzle, the other a web of underimagined platitudes. Paradise (Russia/Germany, dir. Andrei Konchalovsky) - Retains a noble austerity despite some showy directorial conceits. A few generic turns and figures. Vysotskaya very good. La La Land (USA, dir. Damien Chazelle) - Stone, Gosling are assets, increasingly. Really disliked the lighting and look. Chazelle shows off at his own expense. Jackie (USA/France, dir. Pablo Larraín) - An ordeal at first; I didn't jive to Portman. Becomes a shapeshifting puzzle set. I got intrigued but never fully enthused. Frantz (France, dir. François Ozon) - Starts to show more game and interesting ironies by the finish, but never as clever or well-executed as it seems to think. The Light Between Oceans (UK/New Zealand/USA, dir. Derek Cianfrance) - Resonant visual and emotional textures at the start, but softens and blurs when it should be tightening. The Bad Batch (USA, dir. Ana Lily Amirpour) - Kill Bill meets Gerry? High-Rise in a desert? South of the Borderland Tales? Signs of talent but tedious, unfocused. Nocturnal Animals (USA, dir. Tom Ford) - This is real this is fake no it's real my blue eyes no my blue eyes no my blue eyes rape death sad gallery owner.  Sidebar Selections I Have Seen:Ranked in order of preference Malaria (Iran, dir. Parviz Shahbazi) - Lovers-on-the-run drama builds impressive tension and rich character detail, especially around its edges. Why not released? Kékszakállú (Argentina, dir. Gastón Solnicki) - Rides a line between dull and slowly engrossing, enigmatic and insubstantial, but I appreciated its formal innovations. American Anarchist (USA, dir. Charlie Siskel) - As with Vivian Maier, a well-chosen subject gets a an incisive but uneven treatment, more limited as it goes. Are We Not Cats (USA, dir. Xander Robin) - Marches to the beat of its own-litterbox? That makes no sense. Often the movie doesn't, either. But it's unique. Heartstone (Iceland, dir. Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson) - Sympathetically in touch with pubescent romantic and sexual confusion, but too vague in insight and style, and too long. Prevenge (UK, dir. Alice Lowe) - Pregnant Alice Lowe directs herself as a woman gestating an audible, murder-minded fetus. Yep. The fun slowly winds down. Hacksaw Ridge (USA/Australia, dir. Mel Gibson) - A movie about a dove, made by and for wolverines with sentimental streaks. Technique up and down. Taste often poor. Films in the Main Competition: Ranked in order of interest; more on this year's lineup here (opens in a new window) The Untamed, Mexico, dir. Amat Escalante The Woman Who Left, Philippines, dir. Lav Diaz A Woman's Life, France/Belgium, dir. Stéphane Brizé Voyage of Time, USA, dir. Terrence Malick On the Milky Road, Serbia, dir. Emir Kusturica The Distinguished Citizen, Argentina/Spain, dirs. Mariano Cohn, Gastón Duprat Sidebar Films I'm Curious to See: Listed alphabetically The Age of Shadows, South Korea, dir. Kim Jee-woon Austerlitz, Germany, dir. Sergei Loznitsa Bitter Money, China, dir. Wang Bing Chuck, USA, dir. Philippe Falardeau Heal the Living, France, dir. Katell Quillévéré Hounds of Love, Australia, dir. Ben Young Planetarium, France/Belgium, dir. Rebecca Zlotowski Safari, Austria/Denmark, dir. Ulrich Seidl Sami Blood, Sweden/Denmark/Norway, dir. Amanda Kernell |
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