As the French like to say, OUF.

Bruno Dumont’s darkly satirical FRANCE got the first major boos of Cannes 2021. I dug it. A nihilistic portrayal of humanity through the eyes of a clinically depressed TV journalist. A Lynchian score by composer Christophe seems so out of place, but it only adds to the dramatic ambiguity of Dumont’s vision. The moral of this movie seems to be that life is shit.

Words cannot describe what I just witnessed. Julia Ducournau has reinvented cinematic body-horror via a combination motor fuel and sex. Singular, shocking, repulsive and incendiary. This was really something. A total midnight movie, through and through. There are so many implausibility issues but I frankly didn’t care. It was just a total blast. It’s rather very silly, but in the best of ways. An instant cult classic.

www.worldofreel.com/blog/2021/7/kjh6zovclr5xmbg9zkwv125d96xikd

I don’t think Wes Anderson has it in him to make a “bad” movie, but this one felt minor. Still, it’s visually STUNNING and I presume subsequent viewings will enhance its quality for me (as have all his other films). Benicio del Toro is the absolute MVP here. Nice little homage to journalism & French culture. A chaotic burst of madcap energy. Short stories shot in glorious retro black & white. Every frame felt like a painting. In fact, maybe Wes Anderson’s most detail-oriented film, and that’s saying something.