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Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Jennifer Lawrence and Dakota Johnson Enjoy a Girls' Night Out in N.Y.C. After Cannes Hangout
Jennifer Lawrence and Dakota Johnson arrived together for a dinner at a New York City restaurant on May 31 The two friends have been spotted together as recently as the Cannes Film Festival in May, where they both had movies premiere The actresses were dressed in similarly dressy casual looks for their night outJennifer Lawrence and Dakota Johnson are having a night just for the girls. The two actresses were spotted dining out together at a restaurant in New York City on Saturday, May 31. Arriving together in a car, The Hunger Games star, 34, and Madame Web actress, 35, almost matched in dressy casual looks, the former in an all-black ensemble and the latter in a black top, brown blazer and gray dress pants. They also both sported wavy hair and sideswept bangs. Lawrence accessorized with an oxblood-covered purse and gold necklaces, while Johnson opted for a gemstone necklace and bright orange handbag. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Johnson, who is currently dating Coldplay singer Chris Martin, an ex of Lawrence's, supported her friend recently at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. The actresses were photographed hugging and laughing together at the May 17 after-party for Lawrence's movie Die, My Love following its buzzy premiere at the fest. The duo's friendship is a bicoastal one; last October, Johnson and Lawrence grabbed beverages together in Los Angeles. The Silver Linings Playbook Oscar winner, pregnant at the time, has since welcomed her second child with Cooke Maroney, her husband since 2019. Johnson and Martin, 48, were first romantically linked in 2017. Last August, a rep for the 50 Shades of Grey actress debunked rumors that they had broken up, while a source noted that the couple "are both very independent and actually have lives outside of their relationship too." Lawrence costars with Robert Pattinson and LaKeith Stanfield in director Lynne Ramsay's Die, My Love, to be released by Mubi at a to-be-announced date. The actress-producer reportedly has The Wives, a murder mystery inspired by the Real Housewives reality franchise, in the works. Johnson stars with Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans in Celine Song's A24 romantic drama Materialists, in theaters June 13. She also features in Michael Angelo Covino's Splitsville, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 19 and will be released by Neon on Aug. 22. Read the original article on People
Elle
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Elle
The 15 Best Cannes Films That Will Dominate This Awards Season
With its clear blue Mediterranean waters, unpredictable May weather, red carpet glitz and glamour, and timed standing ovations, the Cannes Film Festival was once again a glorious sight to behold in its 78th edition. But as always, the real heroes were the movies themselves, as well as the artists who brought their cinematic offerings to the French Riviera. It's always hard to pick out the best titles out of a festival as richly multifaceted as Cannes. But out of the 40 features I was able to screen, here are 15 outstanding films you should look forward to in the coming months, through the awards season and beyond. (Shout-out to honorable mentions Sound of Falling and Yes!.) In what could be called a departure for the Turkish-German auteur of Head-On, Akın's classical Amrum follows a kid on the eponymous German island in the final days of WWII. He is Nanning (Jasper Billerbeck, a gifted newcomer), a burdened child raised by a Nazi mother, indoctrinated by the Hitler youth ideology against his will. But as he slowly discovers his own moral compass, he realizes that it's always been there to help him know right from wrong. Structured like a dark but graceful fable that follows Nanning across the island as he looks for basic supplies to feed his mother, Amrum (written by Hark Bohm and based on his own memories) becomes an act of generosity in featuring one such selfless good deed. It's a quietly soul-stirring watch. Fear the exploding fury of an unsatisfied new mother living in the sticks, and revel in one of Jennifer Lawrence's career-best performances. After Causeway (2022), it is still an unparalleled experience to see her embrace the freewheeling and risky corners of independent cinema, the Winter's Bone kind that made us fall in love with her in the first place. Wild, feral, and meticulously designed, Lynne Ramsay's fiercely original Die, My Love puts Lawrence and Robert Pattinson through the ringer as they sexily and boundlessly portray a ferocious couple. The buzz in Cannes coined this as a 'postpartum depression movie,' but that incomplete shorthand misrepresents the truth at the heart of Ramsay's film. Die, My Love is both a scorching dissection of coupledom, and a cinematic ode to every untamable woman in touch with her desire-filled heart and prickly mind—women who unapologetically want it the way they want it. Living in the ever-divided U.S. and witnessing some of the country's worst instincts around science-denying bigotry can make one go insane. In his follow up to Beau is Afraid's intoxicating odyssey into the human psyche, Ari Aster transforms that everyday American insanity into one of the most artistically complete and compulsively watchable doom-scrolls of the year. It's insightful, gloriously bonkers, and often very funny. (Perhaps it's time we acknowledge that Aster's sense of humor is just as sharp as his horror chops.) His Eddington is both the definitive COVID movie and a modern-day Western of sorts, culminating into a superbly directed and gradually darkening finale. Now an Aster mainstay, Joaquin Phoenix is unsurprisingly sensational here as his town's corrupt sheriff. As is Pedro Pascal, in the role of his primary adversary. Hermanus's beautiful 2022 film Living was a masterclass in tender restraint, and the same can be said for his pitch-perfect Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor starrer, steering a quietly epic love story between two young musicologists against the backdrop of WWI. While the matter-of-fact way Hermanus treats the love and longing between the two men as a given in a period movie is quietly radical, what's most special about The History of Sound is how timelessly classical it feels. Its continents-spanning scope and journey through the unique sounds and musical notes of the olden Americana (the soundtrack is achingly beautiful) put you inside the pages of a great, lost novel, all the way through the movie's richly earned, Atonement-like ending. Back in the '90s, we used to get this type of high-brow yet accessible prestige picture often enough. Today, it feels like a rare treat to luxuriate in. It was a historic event for Jafar Panahi to return to Cannes in person for the first time since 2003. The Iranian master who's been frequently targeted by the Iranian regime, arrested for years on end, and banned from filmmaking has never stopped challenging his government through groundbreaking work like This Is Not a Film (2011). Released from prison in February of 2023, Panahi now signs his name under one of his best and most personal films to date, following a group of everyday people as they try to determine whether the man they've captured is actually the one who's tortured them in prison. Initially a revenge thriller, then an expansive and dignified interrogation of notions like vengeance, forgiveness, morality, and closure, this year's deserving Palme d'Or winner makes an exquisite case for grabbing onto our humanity for dear life, whatever the circumstances might be. Movies as soulfully lived-in and intimately observed as The Little Sister are hard to come by. Led by a stunningly assured performance by Nadia Melliti (this year's Best Actress winner at the festival), Herzi's low-key meditation is a patient and compassionate little drama about a practicing Muslim girl in Paris, navigating the beats of her possibility-filled city, discovering her burgeoning identity as a lesbian, and trying to reconcile her needs and desires with the teachings of her religion. Among the film's finest achievements lies in Herzi's absolute refusal of cliches. Where a lesser movie would have milked the conservative Muslim family trope (which this Muslim critic has had enough of), The Little Sister fashions a beautiful mother-daughter scene where unconditional love is deeply felt, and packs a profoundly universal punch. What would a Kelly Reichardt heist movie look and feel like? You'll have your answer with the dazzling little caper The Mastermind, a gentle and wonderful dramedy of sorts enlivened by the spirit of the '70s cinema (but low-key and unfussy). Josh O'Connor touchingly and deviously plays an art thief in a New England town, both down on his luck and hampered by a series of poor decisions. With a winsomely jazzy score that brings out the idiosyncratic humor of the film, The Mastermind is a new American gem, and perhaps Reichardt's most commercial film date. The first Nigerian film to ever premiere at Cannes, Davies Jr.'s impressive debut tells a pressure-cooker of a story unfolding across a single day in 1993, following a mostly absent father (the incredible Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù) as he journeys from a rural town to Lagos with his two young sons who idolize him. With the backdrop of the country's presidential election, Davies Jr.'s introspective first film is an accomplished study of contrasts: violence juxtaposed against humanity, social unrest against the gentle and genial moments shared by the family, and a childlike wonder against the dire circumstances. The film is also a multilayered portrayal of Black masculinity, both adoringly seen through the eyes of the film's young characters and carried with poetic poise by Dìrísù. Linklater's elegant love letter to the influential era in French cinema (which even inspired the New Hollywood generation) would be a towering achievement even if it did no more than generously invite budding cinephiles to film history without intimidating them. But the American auteur of loose-limbed rhythms and organically flowy dialogues accomplishes a lot more with his joyously beautiful telling of the making of Jean-Luc Godard's game-changing Breathless. In stunning black and white, and with the grainy sound quality of the era, he gives new life to the period picture, making it romantic, exquisitely detailed, and timeless. With Guillaume Marbeck and Zoey Deutch's enthralling and uncannily exacting performances as Godard and Jean Seberg, the list of masters Nouvelle Vague honors (François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, Agnès Varda, and more) is as rich as the film that surrounds them. Linklater loves this period, and he wants to make you a lover, too. 'Sweet' probably wouldn't be the first word that a BDSM romance would bring to mind. Yet that word perfectly sums up Pillion, the new film from debuting writer-director Harry Lighton. Living with his supportive and amiable parents, Harry Melling's instantly lovable young chap tries to understand the full spectrum of his identity as a gay man, while (in the film's words) an 'impossibly handsome' Alexander Skarsgård portrays a hardcore motorcyclist that becomes Melling's object of attraction. There is kinky sex, instances of abusive dynamics, boot licking and some other shocking images throughout Pillion, fearlessly realized by the two performers. But thanks to the delicate tonal line Lighton radiantly walks with feeling and humor within a subculture, all that takes a back seat to the deeply resonant and disarming coming-of-age story at the film's core. A terrific debut that brings thriller vibes to an all-boys summer camp for water polo, The Plague asks timely questions about bullying, budding masculinity, and sportsmanship. Ingeniously utilizing the staple moves of the horror genre, this brilliantly written feature starts off as a Conclave of sorts among tween boys (complete with a restlessly pursuing camera and a seesaw-y score), to later on settle into a disturbing probe into the existential dreads of male adolescence. Everett Blunck is marvelous as the newly bullied kid infected by a symbolic and mysterious plague, as is Joel Edgerton with his limited screen time as the boys' coach. But the real showstopper is the chief tormentor of the camp, played by Kayo Martin in a performance that signals the arrival of a future movie star. The most adventurous and formally ambitious film of this year's competition (and one of the section's most gorgeous, too), Bi Gan's follow-up to Long Day's Journey Into Night feels like being inside a dream. And like a dream, it's hard to do justice to by mere words, and is perhaps even more impossible to classify. A chaptered yet fluid narrative takes us through a volatile journey throughout the history of cinema with nods to its varying styles, eras, and masters like Méliès and Murnau, while the film thrillingly reinvents itself at every turn. Stars Jackson Yee and Shu Qi are continually surprising, and the mind-blowing oner that Resurrection culminates into is a soul-stirring feat that will inspire generations to come. You won't see a better political thriller this year than Filho's ultra-chic genre entry, loosely in the spirit of a Costa-Gavras picture. On the heels of last year's Oscar-winning Brazilian masterwork I'm Still Here, this is another knockout set against the traumatic backdrop of the country's dictatorship. Recently seen in Civil War, Wagner Moura delivers a deeply enigmatic performance in his return to Brazilian cinema as a '70s-era tech man who aims to reconnect with his son in a small town, while assassins slowly close in on him. With an agile and gradually darkening script that traces a mysterious severed leg amid the corrupt enclaves of a country's harrowing past, The Secret Agent is poised to have a strong showing throughout the awards season (after already winning Best Director and Actor prizes in Cannes). Bonus: You'll love all the well-calibrated needle drops and nostalgic cinematic references that include Jaws. You've likely heard that singer Charli xcx declared the upcoming season as the 'Joachim Trier Summer,' a phrase immortalized by Elle Fanning with the stylish T-shirt she wore in Cannes. Well, let's also call this a 'Joachim Trier Awards Season,' as his deeply reflective film on generational trauma and familial healing through art and cinema is about to make a splash on the heels of his beloved The Worst Person in the World. Reuniting with his Worst Person star Renate Reinsve—she plays a feverish actress haunted by the past—and giving Stellan Skarsgård one of his career-defining roles as a dispassionate film director steering an unconventional personal project, Trier tells a heart-swelling and unexpectedly humor-filled tale that will break you before it makes you whole again. You might detect traces of Chekhov and hints of the best qualities of the director's Oslo Trilogy here, and leave the movie with a newfound gratitude for all that cinema can do. The future of British social realism in cinema looks more promising than ever, thanks to actor Harris Dickinson's directorial debut, telling the contemporary story of a homeless man in London and the dead-end cycle he finds himself in. The fact that Urchin studiously resembles the British classics isn't the least bit surprising, given it's steered by an avid cinephile who proudly wears a tattoo of Kes on his arm, and evidently knows his Ken Loach and Mike Leigh inside and out. Still, Urchin doesn't at all carbon-copy what came before it. Lifted up by Frank Dillane's searing breakthrough performance and deepened by Dickinson's profoundly humanistic writing, the actor-director's thoughtful vision is completely modern and his own. He might be the most exciting new auteur to watch since the Safdie Brothers.
IOL News
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- IOL News
The other side of motherhood: Jennifer Lawrence opens up about postpartum isolation
Jennifer Lawrence wearing custom Dior off white silk taffeta based on the Poulenc dress from 1949. Image: Supplied: Jennifer Lawrence in custom Dior Jennifer Lawrence, known for her fearless roles in films like "The Hunger Games", is now speaking out about a battle that many women endure in silence: postpartum depression. With an unfiltered honesty that's rare in Hollywood, Lawrence shared her personal journey during a press conference at the Cannes Film Festival for her latest movie, "Die, My Love". Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Next Stay Close ✕ The film, which explores the unravelling of Grace, a new mother battling postpartum depression and psychosis, hit particularly close to home for Lawrence. 'As a mother, it was really hard to separate what I would do as opposed to what (Grace) would do. And it was just heartbreaking,' Lawrence revealed, per "Variety". Lawrence, now a mother of two, including her 3-year-old son Cy and a newborn whose name has not been disclosed, admitted that the experience of motherhood and her role as Grace blurred into one. She described postpartum as an isolating and overwhelming experience, a reality she says many fail to fully understand. 'There's not really anything like postpartum,' Lawrence said. 'It's extremely isolating, which is so interesting because everyone tells you, 'Oh, it's the most natural thing in the world.' But the truth is, extreme anxiety and extreme depression are isolating, no matter where you are. You feel like an alien.' Lawrence's candour speaks a truth that is often minimised, that the emotional toll of postpartum depression doesn't discriminate. Whether you're a Hollywood star or a stay-at-home mom, the feelings of isolation and despair can be all-consuming. In "Die, My Love", Lawrence's character is physically isolated in Montana, but Lawrence points out that the emotional isolation of postpartum goes far deeper. 'She doesn't have her community, she doesn't have her people. But even if you do, postpartum anxiety and depression can make you feel completely alone,' she explained. Motherhood: brutal yet transformative For Lawrence, motherhood has been a paradox of extremes. 'It changes everything,' she said, reflecting on how her children have reshaped her life and career. 'It's brutal and incredible.' The 'Mother!' star revealed that becoming a parent influences every decision in her life, from the roles she takes to where and how she works. 'It's almost like feeling a blister so sensitive. I didn't know I could feel so much. My job has a lot to do with emotion, and having kids has changed me creatively in ways I never expected. I highly recommend having kids if you want to be an actor,' she said. In a 2023 chat with "Interview Magazine", Lawrence spoke about how motherhood amplified her anxiety and intrusive thoughts. 'I didn't have that much security before I had a kid, but once I had one, with my intrusive thoughts and anxiety, I wanted us to have security around all the time,' she said, as reported by "Yahoo Life". For many mothers, the pressure to live up to the idealised version of motherhood can feel suffocating, especially when compounded by postpartum depression, anxiety, or societal expectations to 'just give it time'. Lawrence's story is not just a personal confession; it's a rallying cry for greater awareness and empathy around postpartum depression. Too often, new mothers are told that 'motherly instinct will kick in' or that their struggles are temporary. These platitudes dismiss the depth of their suffering and prevent a broader conversation about the support they need. For mothers experiencing postpartum depression, the stakes are incredibly high. It's not just hair loss, cracked teeth, or physical exhaustion, it's the loss of self, the suffocating melancholy, and the feeling that you're utterly alone in a world that expects you to glow with maternal joy. At 34, Lawrence continues to balance her thriving career with her role as a mother, fiercely protecting her children's privacy while using her platform to advocate for mental health awareness. Her decision to speak out about postpartum depression and anxiety is a powerful reminder that even the most successful women are not immune to these struggles. While Lawrence and her art gallery director husband, Cooke Maroney, have kept their children out of the public eye, her willingness to share her experience as a mother offers a beacon of hope for others. Her message is clear: postpartum depression is real, isolating, and often devastating. But with open dialogue and greater understanding, mothers can begin to find the support they deserve. Whether you're a mother, an advocate, or simply someone looking to better understand the challenges others face, motherhood is not just a journey of joy; it's one of resilience, vulnerability, and, ultimately, connection. We need to stop minimising postpartum struggles and start listening.
Epoch Times
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Epoch Times
Jennifer Lawrence Details ‘Extremely Isolating' Postpartum Experience After 2nd Child
Jennifer Lawrence has garnered an Oscar for Best Actress since landing her breakout part in the 2010 thriller 'Winter's Bone.' But behind the scenes, her role is that of a doting mom, having welcomed her second child with husband Cooke Maroney earlier this year. 'Having children changes everything, it changes your whole life—it's brutal and incredible,' the actress, 34, The psychological drama, directed by Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay, premiered at the French film festival on May 17, drawing a six-minute standing ovation. In the film, Lawrence portrays a writer and new mother named Grace, who struggles with her mental health after relocating from New York to a rural Montana farmhouse with her husband, played by actor Robert Pattinson. 'Die, My Love' is an adaptation of Ariana Harwicz's Argentinian novella 'Matate, amor.' Originally published in 2012 and made available in English five years later, the book provides an intensely raw exploration of motherhood, plunging readers into the mind of a woman grappling with postpartum depression and psychosis. 'There's not really anything like postpartum—it's extremely isolating,' Lawrence said at the press conference. 'But the truth is, extreme anxiety and extreme depression are isolating, no matter where you are. You feel like an alien.' Related Stories 9/16/2024 9/29/2024 The 'Hunger Games' star drew upon her own experiences with postpartum depression for her new role. The actress, whose son, Cy, was born in February 2022, was around five months pregnant with her second child when production began on 'Die, My Love.' 'A part of what [Grace] is going through is the hormonal imbalance that comes with postpartum,' Lawrence said. 'But she's also having an identity crisis. Who am I as a mother? Who am I as a wife? ... And I think she's plagued with this feeling that she's disappearing.' The Cleveland Clinic However, postpartum depression, which is characterized by overwhelming feelings of sadness and loneliness, is a far more severe and prolonged condition, affecting roughly 1 in 7 mothers. If left untreated, it can persist for months or even years after childbirth. Gwendy Gregory, a certified birth and postpartum doula based in Tampa, Florida, told The Epoch Times that the intense emotional challenges women face after giving birth, though incredibly common, are often unspoken. 'After birth, many mothers feel like the world keeps turning while they are standing still. There's a surreal mix of love, exhaustion, vulnerability, and identity shift that can feel alienating,' the All Is Well Doula founder said. The hormonal fluctuations new mothers experience, including drops in estrogen, progesterone, and cortisol levels, only amplify these feelings. 'Isolation can quickly become overwhelming,' the mother of five said. 'We weren't designed to mother alone. We were meant to be surrounded, supported, and seen.' Columbia University 'It's a tender window where rest, nourishment, and support are essential for healing and bonding,' Gregory said. 'Unfortunately, our culture often celebrates the baby while forgetting the mother. But thriving babies need thriving mothers.' In addition to contending with the baby blues or postpartum depression, mothers can also face a slew of other complications, including difficulties breastfeeding, physical trauma from birth, and even grief over their former self. And like the fictional Grace, real-life mothers may also encounter psychosis, experiencing an altered sense of reality, marked by hallucinations, delusions, and paranoia, among other serious behavioral changes. The rare but serious mental health emergency affects about 1 in 1,000 women and carries an increased risk of suicide and harm to the baby, according to the Cleveland Clinic. 'Postpartum is sacred,' Gregory said. 'It's messy, beautiful, exhausting, and holy all at once. And when we honor it with intention—whether through community care, mental health support, or simply showing up with compassion—we give mothers the space to heal and thrive.' Touching on the joys of motherhood after navigating her own postpartum challenges, Lawrence said her children have given her a newfound outlook on her craft as an actress. 'I didn't know that I could feel so much, and my job has a lot to do with emotion,' she told the media at Cannes. 'They've opened up the world to me. It's almost like feeling like a blister or something, [it's] so sensitive. So they've changed my life obviously for the best, and they've changed me creatively.'
Los Angeles Times
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
The 10 best movies we saw at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival
CANNES, France — Saturday's awards ceremony put a capstone on another edition of the Cannes Film Festival, but the bruises we received from some of our favorite films are ones we'll be rubbing for a while. A more vicious Cannes? Undoubtedly. Directorial debuts were especially bold and if you were an auteur returning to claim the throne, let's hope you brought plenty of firepower. In the case of the 10 titles below, they certainly did. You'll hear us raving about these in the coming months. Proceed with caution. Some of them have a sting. If you've spent years waiting for Lynne Ramsay's films to come around — she's very cautious about committing — then you know how exquisite it is when they finally do arrive and they still knock you back. A dependable upsetter of expectations, Ramsay tries something completely different here, pushing an actor to the very edge of mania and dislocation. It helps that the actor is Jennifer Lawrence, who lately — especially in 'No Holds Barred' and the underseen 'Causeway' — seems to want to fling herself into new territory. 'Die, My Love,' about a new mom saddled with a husband she nearly hates and a rural home that feels like a tomb, turns its star into a casually violent supernova, throwing off sparks and pain and ruination. It's the most punk thing Ramsay has ever done and, for the maker of 'Ratcatcher' and 'We Need to Talk About Kevin,' that's saying something. — Joshua Rothkopf Everybody loves June Squibb, who, at 95, has only now landed her second starring role. (Her first, the crime-fighting comedy 'Thelma,' was just last year.) Squibb is great fun to watch cutting loose. Here, her incorrigible Eleanor barks at a grocery store clerk to fetch the kosher pickles and cackles with glee informing her grandson that his mother's high school nickname was the 'class mattress.' But Eleanor goes too far when, out of loneliness, she falsely claims to be a Holocaust survivor and doubles down on the lie rather than admit the truth. First-time director Scarlett Johansson grounds this small New York story in empathy. You sense that she's made the kind of character-driven charmer she wouldn't mind acting in herself in five decades. An easy, breezy recommendation, 'Eleanor the Great' makes only one stumble, a scene that blurts its themes outright, but I suppose that's in keeping with its leading lady's big mouth. — Amy Nicholson If forgiveness is sometimes the only way forward for those seeking justice, then memory is the enemy of that healing. And there are some things you just can't forget. Like the sound of a false leg, upon which every step becomes a little wheeze. We hear it right away — the guy with this leg has a family, a pregnant wife, a daughter and, on their drive home, some car problems. But the more he walks around (wheeze) and the more people hear it (wheeze), the more it becomes clear this isn't any old customer, but a former torturer who had his way with them in the old days. But can they be sure, even without their blindfolds? Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, jailed and banned frequently, has never allowed his work get mawkish. Yet this film is the closest he's come to expressing the rage of living under someone's thumb. It's his 'Death and the Maiden' and all the more major for it, with a gracefully devastating conclusion that you owe it to yourself to experience. — JR Leave it to Kelly Reichardt, who turned Michelle Williams into a seething sculptor with frenemy issues in 'Showing Up,' to make the gentlest, most self-deprecating heist movie imaginable. As such, she's invented a whole new genre. The year is 1970 but don't expect anything Scorsesian to go down here. Rather, this one's about a half-smart art thief (Josh O'Connor, leaning into loser vibes) who, after snatching canvases of a lesser-known modernist from an understaffed Massachusetts museum, suffers grievously as his plan unravels. Reichardt, herself the daughter of law enforcement, is more interested in the aftermath: hypnotically awkward kitchen conversations with disappointed family members who won't lend him any more money and would rather he just clear out. (The exquisite period-perfect cast includes Alana Haim, Bill Camp, Hope Davis and John Magaro.) Danny Ocean types need not apply, but if you hear skittering jazz music as the soundtrack of desperation, your new favorite comedy is here. — JR Director Harry Lighton's boundary-testing romance opens with a shy British lad named Colin (Harry Melling) in the back of his parents' car, gawking out the window at a leather-clad biker (Alexander Skarsgård). The soundtrack swoons with the '60s pop ballad 'I Will Follow Him.' Colin sure does — first to the local pub, then to a dark alley, then to the sexy stranger's house where the brute orders Colin to cook dinner, sleep on the floor and service him on command. Demeaning? Absolutely, but Colin is eager to please and genuinely loves to grovel. 'He says I have an aptitude for devotion,' the smitten boy beams, with his master's padlock chained around his neck. Lighton is curious to explore how submission gives Colin the confidence to go after what he wants. No one in the theater is in for a traditional love story, yet we, too, happily accept the terms of the deal. — AN The title of Kleber Mendonça Filho's Brazilian crime movie does it a disservice — put out of mind anything as creaky as Le Carré. Yes, bad things are happening in 1977 in the city of Recife: political disappearances, murder in the streets, a thorough sense of 'mischief,' as one early title card calls it. But the movie really rests on the soulful eyes of a superb Wagner Moura as a widower and scientist targeted by shadowy forces, someone who only wants to reconnect with his young 'Jaws'-obsessed son, who's beginning to forget his mother. Because this is Mendonça, the inspired maker of 'Bacurau' and 'Pictures of Ghosts' (a lovely ode to shuttered movie palaces), the new film is filled with vivid bits of cultural debris: tabloid stories about a disembodied leg that goes on a kicking spree of its own; or the sound of a theater audience screaming at 'The Omen.' This was the fullest meal I had at Cannes. — JR Somewhere on the road to nowhere, a group of semi-tough strangers roll into the desert in speeding trucks. Look for meaning if you must: There's some chat about 'the end of the world' and also a missing daughter somewhere. Neither matters all that much, nor is any kind of rationale necessary to fall sway to director Oliver Laxe's deliriously cool survival story, gassed by a pedal-to-the-metal need for speed and pounding EDM music which, if played at the proper volume, should rattle your rib cage. 'Sirât' seems poised at the finale of civilization, but everything about it (including one shocking moment of destruction) is offered in the pursuit of pure exhilaration. Unconcerned with smallness, the movie comes within scraping distance of Michelangelo Antonioni's cryptic 1970 'Zabriskie Point' and maybe 'Quest for Fire' too, except this is a quest for beats, even as bodies break down. I'm totally fine with this being the end of the world. — JR Michael Angelo Covino's sprightly comedy about self-destructing relationships opens with a bang: Carey and Ashley (Kyle Marvin and Adria Arjona) dodge a fatal highway crash, inspiring the latter to announce she's been cheating. Carey runs out of the car, into the wood and into bed with Julie (Dakota Johnson), his best friend's wife. Both couples claim they're hip enough to make non-monogamy work. Yeah, right. Everyone talks a big game to salvage their marriage and their pride and winds up looking ridiculous. (And while the hypocrisy is centered on the bedroom, it's applicable elsewhere, too). I'm unconvinced the naturalistic cinematography was the right call — it makes the script's fizzy hijinks come off a tad too mumblecore — but there's a fantastic sequence of Carey getting buddy-buddy with Ashley's lovers and a brawl that goes much further than you expect. People don't just lose their dignity: They lose their eyebrows. — AN The 28-year-old actor Harris Dickinson first came to Cannes in 2022 as the himbo lead of Ruben Östlund's 'Triangle of Sadness.' Now he's back with his own film about a streetwise addict and it turns out he's a heck of a director, too. Dickinson plays a supporting part in 'Urchin' as a feral bum who steals wallets and harangues shopkeepers, but what you really notice is his generous spirit. He's given the film's starring role to Frank Dillane, who delivers a career-launching, protean performance as the lively, moody, violent Mike. A true actor's director, Dickinson invests so much life into his bit characters that even players with only a line or two feel like they could spin off into their own movies. 'Urchin' is rich in confidence without a penny of do-gooder pity. And it has a sense of humor, opening with a sidewalk preacher who flogs her Bible app. — AN You can't take your eyes off Tel Aviv hipsters Yasmin and Y (Efrat Dor and Ariel Bronz). She's a wild sexpot, he's a hyperactive musician and together this hot-to-trot couple is the life of a party that's gotten a bit grotesque. They make a living kissing up to the rich and powerful — in the first 10 minutes, a wealthy woman literally commands them both to suckle her ears. But in the wake of the Oct. 7 tragedy and everything that's come since, their hangovers feel like death. Israeli director Nadav Lapid's audacious and dazzling 'Yes' thumps with dance music and the sound of people bouncing off the walls to distract themselves from pain. It's the first great film to grapple with the brainsick mental strain of enjoying a lovely day — the sun is out, the booze is flowing — while your phone dings with headlines of horrors happening elsewhere. Maybe you can relate. — AN
