Antoine Chevrollier’s Block Pass captures its working-class milieu well but suffers due to its tired secondhand framing of queer suffering.
Block Pass. A Tyred Vintage.
Critics’ Week
Sauna Day. Intimate Masculinity on Display.
Sauna Day, Anna Hints follow-up to Smoke Sauna Sisterhood, trades female intimacy for male suppression, to eroticised and compelling results.
Capitalism Is a Locust
The twin spectres of China and capitalism haunt every frame of KEFF’s gangland debut Locust, with shades of Edward Yang’s A Brighter Summer Day.
The (Ex)perience of Love Has Music in It
The (Ex)perience of Love, playing in Critics’ Week, is a silly movie. But its fantasy premise is treated with smarts and sensitivity, making for a fun watch.
The Rapture Isn’t Arriving Today, Sorry.
An enigmatic first half is undone by a mid backend in mysterious French noir The Rapture, playing in Critics’ Week at Cannes.
Gonna Burst into Flames, It’s Raining in the House
The coming-of-age genre, told over a scorching summer, is imbued with cinematic flair in Paloma Sermon-Daï’s fiction debut.
Inshallah A Boy. Easy to Enjoy.
A social drama with smart dramaturgy and effective mise-en-scène, Inshallah A Boy piercingly critiques Jordan’s male-first inheritance culture.