What the critics say
Kristen Stewart’s Directorial Debut Splashes Down
One of the buzziest movies going into the festival was The Chronology of Water, the feature directorial debut of Kristen Stewart. The movie, based on the memoir of the same name by Lidia Yuknavitch (played in the movie by Imogen Poots), follows Yuknavitch as a promising career gets derailed by drugs and alcohol. She eventually comes out of it, becoming an impressive writer and collaborator of Ken Kesey’s on his novel Caverns (in the movie, the author is played by Jim Belushi, which is oddly perfect).
Stewart (who also co-wrote the screenplay) and Poots hit the red carpet, causing a sensation, with The Chronology of Water, playing in the Un Certain Regard section of the festival. Before the festival began, Stewart had joked that she had barely finished the movie on time and had anticipated a potential big flop – the kind of Cannes debut that prompts boos, walkouts and general discomfort.
But that didn’t happen with The Chronology of Water, with most reviewers finding the movie a deeply felt debut. Our reviewer called the film, which was produced by Ridley Scott and his Scott Free production shingle, “Visually haunting, with disquieting snapshots of pain, abuse and addiction giving way to something approaching tentative tranquility, it’s a film that establishes Stewart as an exciting new filmmaker who we can only hope to see more of.” Critic Chase Hutchinson continued: “Her slow-burn treatment of the source material contends with how pain is a living, breathing history everyone carries with them. It’s not something that can be ignored, and not all poisons have easy antidotes.” Count us in.
Eddington
Eddington is Aster’s follow-up to his divisive Beau Is Afraid, which also starred Phoenix, and is being described as a drama, western, thriller and searing look at the stress fractures that formed all around the country during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Maybe those stress fractures were always there, but the pandemic cracked them open.) It’s set in a fictional New Mexico town, where a sheriff (Phoenix) is at odds with a mayor (Pascal). Considering this is an Aster movie, we’re sure it descends into madness – and violence.
Disturbing, profound, and, of course, very long (although probably not as long as you were imagining, at a comparatively svelte 145 minutes), Eddington is in the main competition at Cannes, which means that, if it strikes a chord with the jury members, it could take home the Palme d’Or. Reactions are varying wildly on social media, with some calling it the definitive work of art about the pandemic, while others dismissing it as messy and shallow. Our critic, Ben Croll, noted the film’s second half works better than its first.
Nouvelle Vague
DeadlineWith the truly wonderful Nouvelle Vague (New Wave), premiering today in Competition at Cannes (where else?), Richard Linklater smartly has not attempted a remake of Breathless but rather a certain regard and respect for the wildly creative cinematic period Godard and his contemporaries achieved with the French New Wave. A cinema revolutionary in spirit and deed himself — just watch his masterful Boyhood that was shot over 12 years or his currently in-production 20-year shoot of Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along — Linklater, working from a great and witty script by Holly Gent and Vince Palmo, instead has made a film about the making of Breathless in the exact style the original was made: in black and white with a 1:37 aspect ratio and completely in French. It succeeds beyond my wildest dreams and with great love and respect for this era and its giants in every way.
