CANNES 2023 - remote notes

[Chris Knipp]

Cannes..


[ASTEROID CITY (TOM HANKS, RIGHT)

ASTEROID CITY (Wes Anderson)
Peter Bradshaw in the GUARDIAN gives Anderson's Competition film four stars, calling the sci-fi "tale of earth-shattering events in a space-obsessed desert town" "an exhilarating triumph of pure style" that "leans nicely into its own artificiality," he says: "every delicious, microscopic detail is a delight." The film has a plethora of known actors including Tilda Swinton, Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johanssen and Jason Schwarzman and has a pervasive distinctive pastel-tinted look. Committed Anderson fans will of course love it, but some will be like David Rooney of HOLLYWOOD REPORTER who found it too lifeless and detached to relate to; he doesn't think Anderson himself seems all that engaged. (I have been finding the TRAILER off-putting.) David Erlich in INDIEWIRE says it's one of Anderson's best movies yet and of his comedies " the most cosmic and radical of them all." However this may be a minority critical opinion. Oswen Gleiberman in VARIETY finds the film "visually dazzling and dramatically inert." Consider: the Metacritic rating is 76%. There are some low ratings from those top writers. We'll just have to see...

The Cannes PRESS CONFERENCE FOR ASTEROID CITY was great and now I'm enthused about seeing it.