Cannes 2022

Quentin Grosset: The craziest and most adventurous film in Competition, and I hope it gets the Palme. Albert Serra films Benoît Magimel like we’ve never seen him before, exceptional as a disoriented politician on an island that becomes a labyrinthine hell

David Jenkins: Albert Serra’s lugubrious anti-thriller Pacification a visually rhapsodic portrait of a bullish politico facing down the apocalypse in Tahiti. Extraordinary, all-in performance from Benoit Magimel. Seeing this on a massive screen was a literal dream.

Guillaume de Seille: For the first time in competition at Cannes, Albert Serra presents his least convincing film: an endless succession of limp improvisations, the film proves above all that a screenplay is ultimately quite useful.

Eric Kohn: Nobody disassembles crude men in power like Albert Serra. PACIFICTION is on a continuum with THE STORY OF MY DEATH and THE DEATH OF LOUIS IX. Looking forward to dissecting it.

Mathieu Macheret: with Benoît Magimel in a state of grace, the new film by Catalan director Albert Serra is a magnificent paranoid thriller set against a backdrop of political fiction

Peter Bradshaw: It is a nightmare that moves as slowly and confidently as a somnambulist, and its pace, length, and Serra’s beautiful widescreen panoramic framings – in which conventional drama is almost camouflaged or lost – may divide opinion. I can only say I was captivated by the film and its stealthy evocation of pure evil.

Pete Hammond: Serra’s film is one of the more politically intriguing at this year’s Cannes, especially so because it is wrapped in such gorgeous packaging. Magimel seems made for this role, making this guy his own and it becomes another high point in this fine actor’s sterling 35 year career.

Robbie Collin: Well – I loved everything about Lukas Dhont’s miraculous Close, which I think might well win the Palme d’Or. Tried to explain the premise to someone earlier and couldn’t even get through that without sobbing. It’s an extremely special film.

David Ehrlich: deeply mixed on Lukas Dhont’s latest coming-of-age drama, which renders its young leads with great sensitivity only to come down on them with all the care of a sledgehammer.

Patrick Wellinski: Coup de Coeur. A sad, whispering film: closeness, friendship, the speechlessness, the search for guilt, the reproaches – all just in the game of looks. Crazy youth actors – as in Téchiné. Will be a small blockbuster.

Leslie Felperin: A tender heartbreaker with a stunning lead turn. Given the capricious unpredictability of juries, it may come away with nothing in Cannes but it will definitely be a serious contender at festivals and awards ceremonies going forward

Pascal Gavillet: A monumental slap! From a particular friendship between two young boys, the film falls into the most universal tragedy. Dhont manages the economy of his narrative masterfully. We come away upset. Deserves the Palme d’Or.

Wendy Ide: Lukas Dhont’s sophomore picture is an intimate, quietly devastating study of childhood friendship between two boys. A picture which is intimate in scope but which packs a considerable emotional wallop.

Wolf Rafael: Close by Lukas Dhont is my obvious Palme. A fusional friendship between two teenagers shattered by a tragedy. It’s devastatingly emotional, the staging is prodigious, the young Eden Dambrine nails you to the ground. it is for this kind of film that we come to Cannes

Jason Gorber: Lukas Dhont crafts a moving, heartfelt, emotionally rich coming of age tale, with astonishing performances by newcomers Gustav De Waele and Eden Dambrine. Beautifully shot and captured, one of the great films of Cannes 2022

Tim Grierson: Because boys aren’t taught how to talk about their feelings, they’re ill-equipped to grapple with their pain or those close to them. Lukas Dhont’s unconventional coming-of-age drama is about emotional development more than anything else. Reserved but affecting.

Francesc Vilallonga: The best film of the festival. An extraordinary prodigy of sensitivity. How difficult what the Belgian director does and what a marvel of actors. Skin-deep emotions. Lukas Dhont was the main cover of the official section. Palme??

Rafa Sales Ross: It’s strike two for Lukas Dhont with CLOSE, a collage of beaten melodrama tropes that works neither as an observation on the painstaking intensity of youth nor a rumination on the harmful ripples of structural constraints.

Isaac Feldberg: Kelly Reichardt sets Michelle Williams down in Portland’s art scene, lingering there to capture a community’s daily chaos as not simply a distraction from art but a font of creativity itself. Gentle, good-humored, absurdly great actors in every frame. I loved!

FilmLand Empire: Kelly Reichardt here at her most seemingly mundane yet most richly evocative perfectly captures the daily life of an artist and her simmering frustrations. Quietly affecting with an outstanding Michelle Williams. Film of the fest/year!

Tim Grierson: If I was on the Cannes competition jury, my vote for the Palme d’Or would go to Kelly Reichardt’s terrific new film.

David Jenkins: Kelly Reichardt’s Showing Up is Ordet in a liberal arts college. Michelle Williams stunning as after-hours sculptor with a naughty cat. An ambient “portrait of an artist” movie like no other, and surely as close to KR autobiog as we’ve had thus far. Funny too.

David Ehrlich: Michelle Williams is a stressed Portland artist who finds herself caring for a wounded pigeon in a Kelly Reichardt comedy so feather-light it makes Wendy & Lucy seem like a David Lean epic, but it all rings sharp & true.

Martyn Conterio: Kelly Reichardt’s Showing Up is a wee gem about class, money, creativity and rivalry. Hong Chau is ace as a flakey landlord and artist.

Jordan Farley: Kelly Reichardt’s lovely, low-key portrait of a sculptor preparing for an art show while nursing a pigeon. Great on the frustration of creation and professional jealousy, but a relatively slight Reichardt/Williams reunion.

Juan Barquin: Reichardt sculpts a lovely portrait of a woman living too close to the fire, so close to burning out. Life, family, work, art, landlords, friends, rivals, nature, and time (or lack thereof) all constantly draining us, but we keep existing for minor moments of beauty.

Catherine Bray: Had a really lovely time with the new Kelly Reichardt film Showing Up – the deceptively muscular but low-key work from all involved makes deft insights into the way that success intersects with our sense of self feel soft and sweet and effortless.

Christer Emanuelsson: Kelly Reichardt’s Showing Up is a different animal. After all the emotionally overwrought films that polluted the competition, it’s a relief to enjo a work that Dhont try to wring out sentimentality from every scene. Funny, humanistic, and made with a rare precision.

Jason Gorber: I was swayed by SHOWING UP, a very well realized film that kind of floats along. Broken people making broken art and trying to wrap it up so that it will fly. In other hands it would be appalling, but Reichardt/Williams infuse the socks/sandals aesthetic with style.