Cannes Predictions

Palme: Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
Grand Prix: La Havre
Jury Prize: The Artist
Director: Joseph Cedar, Footnote
Actor: Thomas Doret, The Boy With a Bike / Antonio Banderas, The Skin I Inhabit
Actress: Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin
Screenplay: Drive

I imagine it will be some sort of combination of the above. I was thinking one of the unprecedented four female directors in competition could take a prize, but with all but Kevin (which should assure a safe win for Swinton rather than director Lynn Ramsey) underwhelming in reviews, it doesn't look like it'll happen. Pedro Almodovar is arguably the most overdue and recognizable of names in the lineup but I'm not sure if he can get it this year with such a fringey genre piece which some consider a bit over the top, but he definitely has a shot if Ceylon's Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, already at a disadvantage with such a late screening date, manages to disappoint. Otherwise Aki Kaurismaki's Le Havre seems like a safe frontrunner, although perhaps a bit too light for the jury to throw the top prize at.

Although the atmosphere of a Cannes festival can change by hours at a time (see: the implosion at the otherwise surprisingly accessible-seeming Melancholia at the hands of Lars von Trier's terrible attempts at comedy), just as last year when I was able to predict the victories of such films and figures as Uncle Boonmee and Juliette Binoche only the day they handed out their prizes.

The general wildcard will appear to be whether there's a sense to reward Terrence Malick, although it's reported that Olivier Assayas was the only jury member largely enamored by The Tree of Life. It's go big or go home for the film, which I doubt will take anything less than the very Palme D'Or should it win anything at all (a possibility I'm currently leaning against). Read more!

Review: Winnie the Pooh

Since John Lasseter stepped up to became the chief creative officer at Disney, you can see his influence in releasing refreshing, light and lovely children's entertainment not only monopolized by Pixar, at which he was also a big wig. Winnie the Pooh was a franchise long overdue for an uptick for today's youngest of youths, but the result in the new feature Winnie the Pooh movie doesn't come across the slightest bit as overly commercialized with money-grubbing intent. It seems made with an organic care and reverence for the original material, as close to the look and feel and conventions that worked for the series before. It's definitely nothing you haven't seen before, and doesn't do anything to break new ground. But at a solid G rating, you'd be hard pressed to find more child-friendly movie material all year. Generally, yes, it's not really for adults the way that general Pixar fare fires on all cylinders of possible demographics. It's for kids. But there is the occasional joke thrown in here and there of Spongebobian maturity to keep the parents generally entertained.

At a brisk 70 minutes, jam packed to the brim and ending on a note that never feels too soon or as if they stretched it out as far as they can, Winnie the Pooh is a tenderly crafted addition to the Pooh universe that should provide appropriate counter-programming to the major summer blockbusters of this year and perhaps leave Zooey Deschannel with a Best Song Oscar coming out of it all. Read more!

To Whom It May Concern:

Get Chico and Rita an American distribution as soon as possible. Read more!