Though the 2010 edition of the Cannes Film Festival continues for a few days yet -- and continues without me present, as I'm now back home after a week there -- it's already pretty obvious that this year's edition of the biggest festival in the world is going to go down as one of the edgier, more genre- and audience-friendly editions for the past while. There's a lot here to love this year and of what I saw, here are my three favorites.
The Housemaid
Coming from South Korea's Im Sangsoo, The Housemaid is a modernized remake of a 1960 classic thriller. Though the plot is nothing particularly unique -- a woman hired as a nanny and cleaner has an affair with the master of the house, sparking vicious retribution from the ladies of the house -- Im pulls it off with such a precise sense of style and such uniformly strong performances that it really stands as one of the best Korean efforts of recent years. Smart and sexy this one builds to one truly iconic image at the finale.
Somos Lo Que Hay (We Are What We Are)
Probably the most divisive film at the festival while I was there, Mexican cannibal drama provoked extremely strong reactions across the board. I absolutely love it -- as do the reviewers at The Hollywood Reporter and Variety -- while a good number of people whose opinions I respect and normally agree with ended up sharply at the other end of the spectrum. The split seems to be about fifty-fifty on this one and those on either side of the fence seem to be living on the love or hate polar extremes with very few landing in the middle. The story is about a lower class family in Mexico City left to fend for themselves when the father dies unexpectedly. This would be hard for any family to deal with, but that particular family practices a form of ritualistic cannibalism with father being the one tasked to bring home dinner. In his sudden absence, one of the young sons must step up to assume the responsibility or they all will starve. Like Let The Right One In, this is a genre film that plays equally as strongly as a family drama, though the tone and pacing here is significantly different. I actually caught this one at an earlier festival in Mexico a couple months back and it had stood as my favorite film of the year until I saw...
Carancho
The latest from Argentina's Pablo Trapero stars Ricardo Darin -- the lead of current Best Foreign Film Oscar winner The Secret Behind Their Eyes -- as a sleazy, ambulance-chasing personal injury lawyer working for a company that routinely swindles their clients out of most of their insurance payouts. It comes out eventually that he's not just chasing the ambulances to the accidents, but creating some of them himself -- and then everything starts down the slope to hell. Darin is one of the truly great actors in the world today -- he could be a major international star if he wanted, but he prefers to stay home and work in Argentina -- and he's in absolutely fantastic form here, as is director Trapero who easily balances out quieter character moments with larger action set pieces and bursts of shocking, graphic violence. There's remake potential in this one and people are already sniffing around it, but try and see the original first.