Sunday, May 16, 2010

Cannes Review: Heartbeats, Chatroom, Kaboom

Robert here, scouring the internet to give you the latest on the films premiering in Cannes.

Un Certain Regard

  • Heartbeats Canadian wunderkind Xavier Dolan (he's 21) directs this film about a youthful love triangle which is getting a bit of a mixed reaction, though most critics seem to agree, it's a film by someone who is, as The AV Club puts it "a born filmmaker, with the potential for greatness" though this film is more of a stepping stone.  Eric Kohn at IndieWIRE says it's "as hip as he intends it" but "occasionally feels too entangled in its own cool maneuvers"  Rounding out the mixed notices are Alex Billington of FirstShowing.net who declares "I'm in love with this film as much as I possibly can be" and Time Out Chicago who calls it, "a slight case of sophomore jinx."
  • Chatroom Anyone waiting for the first stinker of the festival should note that this Hideo Nakata's thriller is getting a resounding "LOL" from critics.  Over at In Contention, Guy Lodge doesn't appreciate the dated concept saying, "expect Nakata's equally brain-dead and cruddy-looking MySpace thriller to drop sometime around 2019."  Rope of Silicon's Brad Brevet is equally unamused, calling the film "a disastrous effort."
Special Screening



  • Kaboom Greg Araki's directs this film about a young slacker who thinks he's witnessed a murder while high.  It's being called "a back-to-his-roots, candy-colored cult thriller" by Anthony Kaufman of IFC who also suggests "for all of Kaboom's silliness, it never transcends it."  The Hollywood Reporter seems to agree calling the film "a case of a movie giving itself a little too much credit."  But Mike D'Angelo of The AV Club likes it. "It’s the kind of movie that finds you massaging your jaw afterward because it hurts from 90 straight minutes of grinning like an idiot" says he.

    8 comments:

    badmotherfucker said...

    Awesome! Mike D'Angelo and I are usually on the same page so my excitement for this movie has officially skyrocketed.

    Anonymous said...

    Having watched some clips on IMDB, i think the only thing i know for sure about these films is that i'm going to be lusting after thomas dekker for the next little while.

    notanotherblog said...

    Xavier Dolan is 21? I'm gonna kill myself.

    Eddney Todd said...

    I loved Xavier Dolan's look at the Croisette yesterday, but I was infatuated by Heartbeats trailer.

    Jorge Rodrigues said...

    Yes, Xavier Dolan was born in the same year as me. I feel so ashamed that he's so put together and contributing to the world in some way and I still feel so lost and unaccomplished... :D

    Dino said...

    Ditto on the Xavier Dolan jealousy and abashment. I've not seen anything of his but to be showing your work at Cannes by 21, damn, fuck my life. *Cue one of Harold's fake suicide scenes, actually just play all of them on repeat....

    NATHANIEL R said...

    @Dino... he showed last year too so he did it by 20

    @Everyone ... on the other hand, coming from money will get you a considerable leg up. I was reading one article about the trouble he had financing "I Killed My Mother", his debut so he put in $150,000 from his own savings to pay for it.

    If you have $150,000 in saving at the age of 20... you're already decades ahead of the vast majority of creative people struggling to make inroads into showbiz ;)

    Jorge Rodrigues said...

    Oh that explains a lot. If I had a trust fund like that I too would write and direct movies (provided I had the talent of course) :P


    Now that we're talking about troules in producing films... Have you ever noticed how criticized Jason Reitman is (bla bla bla, spoiled brat, had everything he wanted, born in a respected Hollywood family, never had to sweat) and despite all that it took him A LOT OF TIME to get someone to produce Thank You For Smoking? Wouldn't it be easy for him, in that logic, to produce the film? I was just thinking about it. I think he gets bashed a lot and he doesn't deserve it. Damn you media hype!