CAPSULE REVIEWS of  Select Films will be posted once embargoes have lifted.  Embargo dates listed.

 

This reviewer did not get the privilege of going to Cannes but thanks to the publicists at the PR Factory, and with them sending screeners, I am able to review their films on this site.  These are smaller but by no means less important films, films that are screened at the other sections in Cannes, such as the Un Certain Regard and Quinzaine Sections.   All embargoes are respected, and capsule reviews are only posted once the embargoes are lifted.

 

 

Capsule Reviews:

AMOUR APOCALYPSE (Peak Everything) (Canada 2025) 
Directed by Anne Emond

 Embargo lifted Sunday, May 18th, 15:00 / 3pm CET

 

CARAVAN (KARAVAN) (Slovakia/Czech Republic/Italy 2025) 
Directed by Zuzana Kirchnerova   

(Un Certain Regard)

embargo : Thursday, May 22nd, 16:00 / 4pm CET / Cannes time

 DEATH DOES NOT EXIST (LA MORT N’EXISTE PAS) (Canada/France 2025) ***
Directed by Félix Dufour-Laperrière

 

 

A seriously contemplative animated feature debating hope against regret.  After a failed armed attack on wealthy landowners, Hélène abandons her companions and flees into the forest. Manon, one of her friends and accomplices, returns to haunt her.  Hélène has to revisit her convictions and choices in a valley where metamorphoses and great upheavals disrupt the natural order of things.  If given a choice, which option should she revisit?  Abandonment or not.  She is confronted by Marc, who returns to her to taunt her with a possible future life involving marriage and children, but still with the past haunting her.  The animation is done, sparse and mostly in brown, red, and grey with a clear absence of blue but with a little green for the vegetation.   The director questions how legitimate violence is, of inequality, of commitment, and radicality feels especially relevant today.  A well-made animation feature that succeeds in its goal but might be too serious for some folk.

 

MILITANTROPOS (Ukraine/Austria/France 2025) ***
Directed by the Tabor Group

 (Quinzaine des Cinéastes)

embargo: Wednesday, May 21st, at 11:00am / Cannes time. 

 

 

 

DES PREUVRES A’AMOUR (Love Letters)(France 2025) ***½
Directed by Alice Douard

 (Semaine de la Critique)

(Capsule Review embargo lifted Saturday, May 17th, 5 pm 17:00 CET)

 Synopsis:

 Céline, 32, is awaiting the arrival of her first child.  But Céline isn’t pregnant. In three months, it is her wife Nadia who will give birth to their daughter.  By law, Céline has to gather testimonies (hopefully not all from lesbians, as her lawyer advises), assuring she will be a competent parent to adopt the child. 

 

A USEFUL GHOST (Thailand 2025)