Popular reviews

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  Review by davidehrlich ★★★★

  There are any number of memorable images from James Gray’s “Ad Astra,” a singularly introspective space adventure in which Brad Pitt journeys to the outer limits of our solar system just to hear Daddy Lee Jones tell him that he doesn’t care, but none have stayed with me quite like the shot of Pitt’s astronaut landing on the Moon — the very first stop on his interstellar voyage into the heart of darkness. Once the ultimate symbol of humanity’s possibility and the nearest proof of our species’ infinite reach, the Moon has since been reduced to a low-gravity version of Newark Airport, complete with American fast food restaurants and the general vibe of an upscale New Jersey outlet mall. The…

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  Review by The Oscar Expert ★★★★

  I hesitate to even call this nostalgic because it doesn’t seem very pleased with the past - and the present isn’t off the hook either. 

  Full review

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  Review by stevie ★★★½ 1

  James Gray has always been a slippery filmmaker — he is consistently lauded but you won’t find his films nominated for Oscars. You also won’t find them in the Criterion Collection or on any fashionable annual “Best Of” lists. I wouldn’t call him an overly indulgent director, but he’s certainly not a restrained one either. He often plays with genre but then makes a sharp 90 degree turn from formula. He exists in..well…a Gray zone…and even within such an odd place to sit as a filmmaker he is always confident, always assured and always churning out incredible performances from his entire ensemble even if the movie around them is only mediocre. 

  Here we find James Gray swimming in the atmosphere…

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  Review by Julian (The Film Seeker) ★★★★

  If you’ve been reading any of my Cannes reviews up to this point, you’ve probably heard my common observation: “More of the same.” This year’s main competition lineup was chock-full or returning faces, and for the most part, these faces returned with more or less the same expression—piercing or amusing as it may be—that we’ve come to expect. Park gave us exactly what you’d expect from Park. Mungiu did the same. Östlund, Hansen-Løve, Kore-eda, Denis, Cronenberg, the Dardennes; most of them may have resurfaced with some great work (for a select few of them, among their best, even), but nobody watching these films would hail any of them as a breath of fresh air for their lauded craftspeople. So what…

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  Review by Ella Kemp ★★★½

  Good Jews, gorgeous Jews ❤️

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  Review by Jackson Stern ★★★★½ 1

  James Gray wrote this in his blood. A modern American saga by way of The Catcher in the Rye (my favorite novel). 
  Truly an epic in emotional, personal, and thematic scope.

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  Review by Austin 7

  I feel like this is gonna be the movie of 2022 that everybody else thinks is mid but that I’m obsessed with. 2022’s Nomadland or The Power of The Dog.

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  Review by Marian64 ★★★½ 9

  And here's the final review regarding My Cannes marathon! Hope you all get to experience these movies when they get released if you're interested; and as always curious to see everyone's opinions :)

  Gray's latest is semi autobiographical, basically telling us his early teens in 80's Queens. At its best when telling a family drama: the main kid feels real, flaws and all with Gray never shying away from showing how annoying kids can be at that age; (Him basically mocking his mom/trying to command Chinese while she's doing dinner! 😤) and so does his parents: They're both loving and severe (sometimes too much), and believable. This is one of Anne Hathaway's best performances btw. And then there's the one…

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  Review by Jason Huang (黃擎元) ★★★★

  Most people in the festival have been calling this "Belfast but good", and I guess I'd have to agree. I don't dislike Belfast at all though, but this goes a lot deeper in its themes, and I feel like James Gray doesn't really look back on his childhood with rose-tinted glasses. Instead, it's a childhood filled with privilege and how he failed to truly realize how well off he was. His friendship with his black friend, Johnny, is the heart and soul of the film, and the film actually explores a lot of thematic elements involving race.

  I think the film does fall victim to certain childhood story cliches... you know, the mean teacher, the kind elderly figures (I swear…

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  Review by Madelyn ★★★★

  Licorice Pizza 2: Lost in New York

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  Review by aehunt ★ 1

  James Gray’s absolute peak form brought way way down by a loathsome, embarassingly To Kill A Mockingbird ending and its infantilized, symbolic Black character Johnny. 

  This had the overwhelmingly white Cannes audience in tears.

  This will be raved now, and only later be seen by a certain some as not having aged well. The rest of us will say we’ve told you so.

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  Review by Jack Hewitt ★★★ 3

  Is juvenile delinquency a reaction to political disarray, systemic bias or familial anarchy? François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows solicits that it’s a myriad of all three. Jean-Pierre Léaud’s Antoine Doinel steals, skips school and manipulates his parents, his actions are a product of social and familial disharmony, nonchalant towards the attitude by which they government children, leaving Antoine’s actions to be surveyed by the law. Illustrating a determined portrait of a society antagonised by responsibility, The 400 Blows zeitgeist defining portrayal of the 1960s delicately blends unlawful storytelling prose with French New Wave cinemas own individual rejection of film convention, firmly embracing themes of escapism, mischief, discipline, disobedience and noncompliance under Truffaut’s singular artistic vision. A muted time capsule to…