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

Director Anne Emond tackles male trauma with her forty-year-old protagonist suffering from insecurity and a need for acceptance.  Adam is a kennel owner, Adam grappling with climate anxiety. Amid a natural disaster, he embarks on an adventurous, bilingual romantic journey to find her.  Adam has issues that the story blames in his affection-avoidant father, and lets his young assistant take advantage of his good nature.  To help combat his eco-anxiety, Adam orders a therapeutic solar lamp. Through the lamp's supplier's technical support line, he meets Tina, a radiant woman with a voice that soothes all of his worries.   The film is a strange love story of sorts.   Director Emond gets her character, Adam, to cry, mope, and come to terms with himself.  Her female characters, those that Adam encounters, like Tina and his kennel helper, have stronger personalities.  It is hard to identify with a protagonist with self-worth issues, but the film feels too like one with too much of a female slant.

DANDELION’S ODYSSEY (France/Belgium 2025) ***½

Directed by Momoko Seto

 (Semaine de la Critique)

 

Following the footsteps of the Oscar-winning animated FLOW from Latvia, DANDELION’S ODYSSEY is a stunning animation with little plot, though penned by three writers, but is more than made up by the imaginative journey that defies time and space.  Dendelion, Baraban, Léonto and Taraxa are four odd friends; four seeds used to belong to the same dandelion. Rescued from a nuclear explosion that destroyed the Earth, they find themselves hurled into the cosmos, travelling through planets and constellations. When they land on an unknown planet, they set off on an unforgettable adventure to find a new home and settle for good. through planets and constellations. When they land on an unknown planet, they set off on an unforgettable adventure to find a new home and settle for good.  The story is told through sounds and music, with a little cuteness thrown in as the seeds with their tentacles often dance in the wind.  This is director Momoko Seto’s first full-length animated feature after three shorts.

 

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.

 

I ONLY REST IN THE STORM (France/Portugal/Brazil/Romania) ***

Directed by Pedro Pinho

 

(Un Certain Regard)

 

The one thing that stands out in director Pesro Pinho’s odyssey of an NGO engineer sanctioned with an almost impossible task is its massive 211 minutes running time.   It is a sparse film that is a slow burn for the most part, with a lack of plot that is at least substantiated with some key observations and stunning photography.   A white Portuguese aid worker, Sérgio (Sérgio Coragem) arrives in Guinea-Bissau, driving through the desert from Europe, to help one particular NGO with their dealings.  He measures roads, engages in conversation but is constantly reminded of his colonial heritage.  The film is a hard haul, mainly for its length, though the time passes relatively easily.  To watch the film means sacrificing two others at Cannes, so whether it is worth the risk is up to the individual.

 

METEORS (France 2025) ***½

Directed by Hubert Charnel

 

Un Certain Regard

 

Directed by Hubert Charuel, known for his acclaimed debut Bloody Milk, the film explores the lives of three childhood friends in rural France (Languedoc).  Languedoc-Roussillon (often called "the Languedoc") is a historical coastal region in southern France, extending from Provence to the Pyrenees Mountains and the border with Spain.  Tony has become a construction mogul, dealing with the disposal of radioactive toxic waste, despite the consequences, while Mika and Daniel struggle with aimlessness.   Mika and Dan are arrested at the start of the film and have to go clean and prove themselves, for if not face jail time.  Their paths converge when they take jobs at a nuclear waste site, leading to a narrative that delves into themes of disillusionment and the search for purpose. The cast includes Paul Kircher, Idir Azougli, and Salif Cissé, all of whom deliver arresting performances that make the movie.  It is in a way a coming-of-age story where lessons in life and learnt, lessons that are difficult to learn, that sometimes do not result in desired outcomes.   A remarkable and arresting film!

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

 (Quinzaine des Cinéastes)

MILITANTROPOS captures the human condition through the fractured realities of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The word means a human soldier with the star of humans enters during the siege of war.  The film pieces together everyday lives transformed by war — those who flee, those who lose everything, (there is an eerie scene of a train from  Ukraine to Austria with lots of people on the platform, but the announcement gores that this is an ongoing train) and those who stay to resist and fight (a man insists that he will stay and fight and not be evacuated) — tracing both the instinct to survive and the need for closeness. Amid devastation and atrocity, the human is absorbed into war, and war, in turn, becomes part of the human.  An elaborate doc lasting close to 2 hours that achieves it purpose in showing the drastic effects of war on the human being.  Shot largely in Ukraine with English subtitles.

 

 

 

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

 (Semaine de la Critique)

 

Adopting a child is an emotional and difficult enough personal journey that in the case of the film’s protagonist, Céline, is complicated by the fact that she is lesbian and she and her wife wish to adopt a child.  The film’s setting is 2014 in France when same sex marriage is finally legalized.  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.  While doing so, she will confront her own definition of what a ‘good mother’ is.  Director Douard dispenses with cheap theatrics and meticulously examines the emotions Céline goes through.  Ella Rumpf plays Celine with controlled finesse.  It seems that the only advantage of adopting a child, besides having one, is being able to cut the queue when going to a dance club.  The film examines one’s belief that having a child is not only a bed of roses but with the thorns that come with it.  The film comes with two surprises.  One is a cameo from Félix Kysyl (from Alain Giuraudie’s MISERICORDIA) playing Yann, who passes out during a pregnancy delivery briefing and the film’s only funniest part at the film’s climax that packs quite the punch.  The French title DES PREUVRES A’AMOUR directly translates to PROOFS OF LOVE en Anglais.

A USEFUL GHOST (Thailand/Singapore/France/Germany 2025) **
Directed by Ratchapoom Boombunchachoke

Un Certain Regard

Described as a black comedy, A USEFUL GHOST is an over 2-hour slow-burning deadpan comedy that moves so slowly that it takes great effort to stay awake, especially when watching the film during a festival.   The film boasts a fresh idea.  March is mourning his wife, Nat, who has recently passed away due to dust pollution. He discovers her spirit has returned by possessing the vacuum cleaner. Being disturbed by a ghost that appeared after a worker's death shut down their factory, his family rejects the unconventional human-ghost relationship. Msrch’s family accepts the fact and allows him to communicate with the ghost vacuum.  Trying to convince them of their love, Nat offers to cleanse the factory. To become a useful ghost, she must first get rid of the useless ones.  It is weird to see actors talking or making out with a vacuum cleaner, and the director Ratchapoom Boombunchachoke uses the fact for the utmost effect.  The film is mildly amusing and one wonders the point in all of this.