“Dheepan”
Synopsis: A Sri Lankan Tamil fighter flees to France with a new name and fake family and ends up working as a caretaker outside Paris.
What You Need To Know: When Oli Lyttelton reviewed this Palme d’Or winner from last year’s Cannes, he called it “certainly one of the highlights of the competition,” and for good reason. French auteur Jacques Audiard (“The Beat That My Heart Skipped,” “A Prophet”) is one of the most talented and exciting filmmakers working today, crafting one great film after another (even his last work, the messy “Rust and Bone,” has its share of great moments). The film’s mix of topicality and Audiard’s trademark gritty neo-realist genre aspirations packs a real punch while also being very of-the-moment. Thankfully it never falls into didactic speechifying or lazy melodrama. Instead, the film delivers a more experiential, immersive style that plays like Paul Greengrass’ take on “Taxi Driver,” but as an immigration story. A great film that doesn’t deserve to get lost in the shuffle, but just might. See it if you can.
Release Date: May 13th (limited)
“Money Monster”
Synopsis: After losing money on a stock tip, a disgruntled investor holds a Wall Street guru and a producer hostage on live television.
What You Need To Know: We’re finally seeing an echo of the rage and frustration that came out of the 2008 financial collapse where the U.S. government bailed out the banks for their own reckless mistakes. A few years back there was “The Wolf of Wall Street” and of course last year’s “The Big Short” was another Best Picture Oscar contender to tackle this subject, and then there was the more personal and intimate “99 Homes.” Now we’re seeing yet another iteration of these frustrations in this thriller from director Jodie Foster starring George Clooney. Co-starring Julia Roberts, Jack O’Connell, Dominic West, Giancarlo Esposito and Caitriona Balfe, “Money Monster” is set to premiere out of competition at Cannes before it opens stateside, so make sure to check our typically robust coverage of the festival coming soon for an early review.
Release Date: May 13th
“High Rise”
Synopsis: A doctor moves into a London skyscraper where rising tensions and class warfare lead to anarchy.
What You Need To Know: Director Ben Wheatley is a favorite around these parts. Imagine my disappointment when I saw this latest work, a bigger budgeted (for him at least) film adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s 1975 novel, at a festival last year and found it to be a huge mess. Wheatley is still one of my favorite up-and-comers, but this was a muddled, rushed, incoherent and flat-out dull experience. However, your mileage may run a bit better if you’re familiar with the source material, I’m told. But my opinion might be in the minority around here as Oli named it among the best films of 2015, calling it “terrific retro-futuristic dystopia, but as a delightfully blunt bit of agitprop about the way we live now… it’s Wheatley’s biggest, most mature and most impressive achievement to date, creating an extraordinary world and letting loose a cast that are a true ensemble, serving the whole rather than their individual showreels… It’s funny, sick, strange.”
Release Date: May 13th (limited)
“Love & Friendship”
Synopsis: In the 18th century, the seductive and manipulative Lady Susan uses devious tactics to win the heart of the eligible Reginald De Courcy.
What You Need To Know: Whit who? If you’re anticipating this latest film from the former indie stalwart simply (and most likely) because it’s a new Jane Austin adaptation (of her novella “Lady Susan“) coming to theaters, you may be asking that very question if you hear us cinephiles talking about this one. For context, take a look at our Whit Stillman retrospective. When we reviewed “Love & Friendship” at Sundance this year, we pondered, “has there ever been a purer match between author and adapter than Jane Austen and Whit Stillman?” Perhaps not, especially if you look at his earlier work that has updated Austen’s explorations of social values and romantic ardor among the upper classes and even debated her relevance at that time. But as Noel Murray writes, “the book and the movie do both extend Austen’s career-long explication of the plight of husbandless, penniless high-class women… That kind of insight, coupled with the amusing way that the heroine phrases it, make [the film] pleasurable to watch even when it all starts to feel like too much about too little… If there’s such a thing as ‘a rich trifle’, then ‘Love & Friendship’ is it.”
Release Date: May 13th (limited)
Erik- High-Rise, in my opinion, is probably better if you haven’t read the novel. There is so much substance to Ballard’s writing that while reading, one must thing (as I thought upon rereading), “[Ben] Wheatley is maybe the only one to correctly helm this adaptation.” So when I finally saw it, imagine my dismay. You’re 100% correct- it is a muddled, rushed mess. A pretty one, though- no?