Celluloid Diaries: Best and worst movies of the Cannes Film Festival {part 1}

Friday, July 4, 2014

Best and worst movies of the Cannes Film Festival {part 1}

Home horror movie

As promised, here's an overview of the best and worst movies of the Cannes Film Festival. If you missed my snapshots of the festival, you can find them here.

Home

A real estate agent investigates a house that appears to be haunted by the previous owner who unwittingly welcomed the devil into her life. Bland and banal, Home had that typical TV movie feel, but was never really boring either.

Honeymoon horror movie

Honeymoon

Two newlyweds travel to a lakeside cottage for their honeymoon. Shortly after arriving, the woman starts to wander through the woods in the middle of the night and ends up being confused and strange.Though not a masterpiece, Honeymoon is definitely better made than many other genre movies. A nice surprise.

Undiscovered Gyrl movie

Ask Me Anything

A teenage girl blogs about her life full of boyfriends, egoism, and self-discovery. The screenplay is well-written with exceptional detail to characterization and dialogue. The big mistake was to treat this movie as if it were a teen comedy (complete with matching music). With a more adult direction and a different soundtrack it would surely have lived up to its potential. Based on director Allison Burnett's novel Undiscovered Gyrl which was originally written in blog style.

The Trip To Italy Winterbottom

The Trip To Italy

This follow-up to Michael Winterbottom's The Trip follows once more actors Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon while on holiday. They joke about Jules Verne, Lord Byron, Alanis Morissette and Batman, among others, while impersonating a whole range of actors along the way. A funny and pleasing film that would prabably have been much more effective as a stage play. But then we wouldn't have all that lovely Italian scenery and food.

Quantum Love

Quantum Love (Une rencontre)

An author meets a man during a book party. They are instantly attracted to each another but decide not to tempt fate as one of them is married. Instead, fate decides to tempt them by offering several chance meetings. Will they be able to resist temptation? Quantum Love is a cute and absolutely charming romance that is sometimes unrealistically romantic and sometimes surprisingly down to earth.

White Bird In A Blizzard

White Bird In A Blizzard

When Kat's mother disappears, she initially seems to cope with the trauma and what preceded it. Little by little, however, the cracks in her sanity and in that of her family start to show. Because of its predictability and lazy execution, White Bird In A Blizzard was the least interesting of all Gregg Araki's movies. It does have a good vibe to it, though, which made it enjoyable nevertheless. Based on the novel by Laura Kasischke and starring Shailene Woodley.

Feed The Gods

Feed The Gods

Two brothers go looking for their lost parents after they see them on a video tape. They end up in a small village where the locals feed tourists to Bigfoot. Both director and actors aren't top-notch, but the concept is huge fun and the director knows how to keep the viewer's attention.

Frank Fassbender

Frank

A wannabe musician joins a band of eccentric pop musicians and discovers that there's a difference between making music out of passion and making music out of a need to escape. Frank could have been your typical British comedy, if not that the lead wears a huge fake head that he refuses to take off, even when sleeping or showering.That in itself turns Frank into an odd little film. Defininitely a good watch, but also a bit pointless. Fun fact: the mysterious Frank is played by Michael Fassbender, but because of the fake head, we never get to see his face except for the five final minutes of the movie.

Dark Summer

A 17 year old boy gets house arrest for the summer. When his mother is away on business, one of his friends commits suicide, and then stalks him as a ghost. Extremely repetitive and hackneyed. I fell asleep during this one.

Where The Devil Hides

Where The Devil Hides
 
After only a couple of minutes, it becomes clear that Where The Devil Hides was made with talent and a decent budget. It tells the story of a prophecy in a small village that on the eve of every girl's 18th birthday, the devil might inhabit her soul. Now, as the day approaches, six girls, all born on the sixth day of the sixth month, begin to mysteriously disappear one by one. Part slasher part prophecy movie, Where The Devil Hides is a little by-the-numbers but nevertheless entertaining and alluring. Definitely recommended if you're into movies such as The Haunting In Connecticut.

The Go-Go Boys

The Go-Go Boys

This onformative and entertaining biography tells the story of two Israeli-born cousins, Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, who turned Hollywood upside down, producing over 300 films and becoming the most powerful independent film company in the world. The Go-Go Boys examines the relationship between the two opposite personalities whose combined forces fueled their successes and eventual split.

Open Window Elijah Wood

Open Windows

Nacho Vigalondo and Elijah Wood stay in the same vein as their Grand Piano, but Open Windows is much less exhilarating. Elijah Wood plays an obsessed fan who won a date with his favorite actress through a contest. When she turns down the date, the campaign manager allows the fan to spy on her through camera's and a hack of her computer and cell phone. As the story progresses, a mysterious man on the phone continues to give him orders (similar to Grand Piano, right?) and it turns out that he's part of a much bigger plot than he originally though. No matter how much I loved Grand Piano (which I reviewed here), Open Windows irritated me from the very first minute and had me sighing all the way through. Problem is it's too far fetched and artificial both in terms of plot and direction.

Part two of my Cannes Film Festival reviews will follow in a few days.

24 comments:

  1. I've never seen any of these or even heard of them. I'm so out of the loop.

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  2. Feeds them to Bigfoot - sure.
    You know in real life, a movie about an avid blogger would be really boring.
    Thanks for the rundown!

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  3. I like the idea of feeding tourists to Bigfoot!

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  4. Too many horror movies for me. There always seem to be a lot of them at the Cannes aren't there?

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  5. hahahaha!! Wow! I have never even heard of any of those!!! Is that a bad thing? BOL!
    ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!

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  6. Quantum Love is one I'd like to see. How nice to feature movies that most of us had never heard of. Thanks for sharing!

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  7. I'd love to see the Trip to Italy, if for nothing but the scenery alone!

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  8. I like reading these critiques. I seldom go any longer but now..I may. And thank you for the visit these past several times. I was unsure how to get to you as I am not in Google + but here I am. :-)

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  9. Vanessa, very interesting reviews...I'm not familiar with some of them.
    Thank you for visiting us today.
    Hugs madi and Mom

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  10. My goodness - how did you have time to see all those movies? Thanks for sharing your adventures with us! :)

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  11. Home actually sounds good! I love ghost stories, although when it gets all demonic, it usually loses me.

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  12. Thanks for the reviews. A few of those movies sound really good. Though the one about feeding tourists to Bigfoot sounds like it should be on Syfy Channel! *LOL*

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  13. Great reviews! Thanks ;o) Wow, so many!!

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  14. I'll have to check out Feed the Gods and Frank -- that head looks hilarious.

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  15. I think I will have a look at that 'Where The Devil Hides'

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  16. I'm pretty much all over anything that has to do with Bigfoot (it's not like I believe the creatures are real, so I don't know why I love laughing about the legends so much), so "Feed the Gods" would definitely be something I'd watch with my husband.

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  17. Love the quick reviews. Quantum Love sounds like my kind of film.

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  18. It is a pity Dark Summer was not a success because based on your description, it sounds like it could have a lot of potent.

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  19. I'm intrigued by Ask Me Anything, though I'd probably enjoy Undiscovered Gyrl more. Thanks, Vanessa.

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  20. Fijn om dit eens uit te pluizen On a rainy day!

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  21. Where the Devil Hides looks interesting. I'd like to see more of these. The fake head looks creepy.

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  22. Some of those do look really good. And I had to laugh at the Bigfoot one. It sounds like something I'd enjoy watching for the horror cheesiness of the plot.

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