TAGGED AS: Cannes, festivals, Film Festival, movies
The Cannes 2021 Movie Scorecard
Cannes made its splashy in-person return for 2021! The fest hosted the debuts of Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch, Paul Verhoeven’s Benedetta, Leos Carax’s Annette, and the Palme d’Or winner: Julia Ducournau’s Titane. See every movie that screened that got a Tomatometer (from in-competition to gala entries like F9) with our Cannes 2021 Scorecard! —Alex Vo
#36
Adjusted Score: 108321%
Critics Consensus: The Worst Person in the World concludes Joachim Trier's Oslo Trilogy with a romantic comedy that delightfully subverts the genre's well-worn tropes.
Synopsis: The Worst Person in the World is a modern dramedy about the quest for love and meaning in contemporary Oslo....
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#35
Adjusted Score: 104059%
Critics Consensus: The Velvet Underground takes a fittingly idiosyncratic approach to delivering a rock documentary that captures the band as well as its era.
Synopsis: The Velvet Underground created a new sound that changed the world of music, cementing its place as one of rock...
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#34
Adjusted Score: 105978%
Critics Consensus: A Hero finds writer-director Asghar Farhadi once again grappling with weighty themes -- with the audience emerging as the winner.
Synopsis: Rahim (Amir Jadidi) is in prison because of a debt he was unable to repay. During a two-day leave, he...
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#33
Adjusted Score: 95077%
Critics Consensus: Discomfiting and dreamy, Clara Sola brings a sensual surreality to a story of oppressed autonomy, with debuting star Wendy Chinchilla Araya providing a mesmerizing focal point.
Synopsis: In a remote village in Costa Rica, 40-year-old Clara endures a repressively religious and withdrawn life under the command of...
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#32
Adjusted Score: 96112%
Critics Consensus: Drawing on another terrific performance from Honor Swinton Byrne, The Souvenir Part II continues its story with profound emotional complexity and elegant storytelling.
Synopsis: In the aftermath of her tumultuous relationship with a charismatic and manipulative older man, Julie begins to untangle her fraught...
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#31
Adjusted Score: 102427%
Critics Consensus: Thrillingly provocative and original, Titane reaffirms writer-director Julia Ducournau's delightfully disturbing vision.
Synopsis: Titane: A metal highly resistant to heat and corrosion, with high tensile strength alloys, often used in medical prostheses due...
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#30
Adjusted Score: 99986%
Critics Consensus: Led by Simon Rex's magnetic performance, Red Rocket is another vibrant, ground-level look at modern American life from director/co-writer Sean Baker.
Synopsis: The audacious new film from writer-director Sean Baker (The Florida Project, Tangerine), starring Simon Rex in a magnetic, live-wire performance,...
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#29
Adjusted Score: 93609%
Critics Consensus: Everything Went Fine faces serious themes with an effectively light touch -- and the estimable talents of its brilliant veteran stars.
Synopsis: When André (André Dussollier) contacts his adult daughter, Emmanuèle, (Sophie Marceau) with a devastating final wish, she is forced to...
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#28
Adjusted Score: 97916%
Critics Consensus: Lingui, the Sacred Bonds uses one family's fraught story to offer a forceful rejoinder to the oppressive norms of patriarchal culture.
Synopsis: On the outskirts of N'Djamena in Chad, Amina lives alone with her only 15-year-old daughter Maria. Her already fragile world...
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#27
Adjusted Score: 99581%
Critics Consensus: An absorbingly reflective documentary that benefits from its subject's self-chronicling, Val offers an intimate look at a unique life and career.
Synopsis: For over 40 years Val Kilmer, one of Hollywood's most mercurial and/or misunderstood actors has been documenting his own life...
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#26
Adjusted Score: 84218%
Critics Consensus: Mothering Sunday works at a frustratingly chilly remove, but involving performances and solid overall craft mean it's rarely less than engaging.
Synopsis: On a warm spring day in 1924, house maid and foundling Jane Fairchild (Odessa Young) finds herself alone on Mother's...
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#25
Adjusted Score: 84224%
Critics Consensus: Annette's experimental approach to its emotional extremes marks an ambitious, if not peculiar, return for director Leos Carax.
Synopsis: Los Angeles, today. Henry (Adam Driver) is a stand-up comedian with a fierce sense of humor who falls in love...
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#24
Adjusted Score: 96271%
Critics Consensus: Memoria finds writer-director Apichatpong Weerasethakul branching out into English-language filmmaking without forsaking any of his own lyrical cinematic vocabulary.
Synopsis: Ever since being startled by a loud 'bang' at daybreak, Jessica (Tilda Swinton) is unable to sleep. In Bogotá to...
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#23
Adjusted Score: 90930%
Critics Consensus: A loving ode to the spirit of journalism, The French Dispatch will be most enjoyed by fans of Wes Anderson's meticulously arranged aesthetic.
Synopsis: THE FRENCH DISPATCH brings to life a collection of stories from the final issue of an American magazine published in...
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#22
Adjusted Score: 84455%
Critics Consensus: Stillwater isn't perfect, but its thoughtful approach to intelligent themes -- and strong performances from its leads -- give this timely drama a steadily building power.
Synopsis: Unemployed roughneck Bill Baker (Academy Award® winner Matt Damon) travels from Oklahoma to Marseille to visit his estranged daughter Allison...
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#21
Adjusted Score: 93615%
Critics Consensus: Precariously walking a tightrope of varying genres and tones, Benedetta provokes salient questions about sexual freedom and its relationship to faith.
Synopsis: Based on a true story, a 17th-century nun becomes entangled in a forbidden lesbian affair with a novice. But it...
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#20
Adjusted Score: 100360%
Critics Consensus: A stark and emotionally resonant look at the life of a farm animal, Cow simply yet insistently asks the viewer to reconsider their relationship with their food.
Synopsis: Academy Award-winner Andrea Arnold returns with an intimate portrait of one dairy cow's life. The film highlights the beauty and...
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Starring:
#19
Adjusted Score: 101472%
Critics Consensus: Although its reach occasionally exceeds its grasp, After Yang yields rich rewards for those willing to settle into its low-key wavelength.
Synopsis: When his young daughter's beloved companion -- an android named Yang -- malfunctions, Jake (Colin Farrell) searches for a way...
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#18
Adjusted Score: 59243%
Critics Consensus: An unforgettable blend of the conventional and the singularly strange, Aline is definitely odd, but it's also oddly entertaining.
Synopsis: For Aline Dieu, nothing in the world matters more than music, family and love. Her powerful and emotional voice captivates...
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#17
Adjusted Score: 77707%
Critics Consensus: Led by a typically brilliant performance from Juliette Binoche, Between Two Worlds takes a pointed yet possibly patronizing look at the human face of economic inequality.
Synopsis: Famed author Marianne Winckler (Juliette Binoche) goes undercover to investigate the exploitation of the working class in Northern France. She...
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#16
Adjusted Score: 90598%
Critics Consensus: Minor but charming, the well-acted Bergman Island uses the titular filmmaker's legacy as the launchpad for a dreamlike rumination on romance and creativity.
Synopsis: BERGMAN ISLAND follows a couple of American filmmakers, Chris (Vicky Krieps) and Tony (Tim Roth), who retreat to the mythical...
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#15
Adjusted Score: 76713%
Critics Consensus: An occasionally uneasy blend of human drama and message movie, Ahed's Knee forcefully reaffirms that the personal is political.
Synopsis: A celebrated Israeli filmmaker named Y arrives in a remote desert village to present one of his films at a...
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#14
Adjusted Score: 98263%
Critics Consensus: Nitram asks viewers to face a gut-wrenchingly grim moment in Australian history -- but rewards that effort with a gripping, well-acted character study.
Synopsis: Nitram (Caleb Landry-Jones) lives with his mother (Judy Davis) and father (Anthony LaPaglia) in suburban Australia in the Mid 1990s....
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#13
Adjusted Score: 87997%
Critics Consensus: Minor but engaging Audiard, Paris, 13th District explores millennial love through a visually compelling lens that's partly undercut by its episodic narrative structure.
Synopsis: Émilie meets Camille who is attracted to Nora, who crosses paths with Amber. Three girls and a boy -- they're...
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#12
Adjusted Score: 63433%
Critics Consensus: Although it's frustratingly casual with the line between facts and conjecture, JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass reaffirms Oliver Stone's gifts as an engaging raconteur.
Synopsis: Thirty years after his film JFK, filmmaker Oliver Stone takes viewers on a journey though recently declassified evidence in the...
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#11
Adjusted Score: 74718%
Critics Consensus: F9 sends the franchise hurtling further over the top than ever, but director Justin Lin's knack for preposterous set pieces keeps the action humming.
Synopsis: Vin Diesel's Dom Toretto is leading a quiet life off the grid with Letty and his son, little Brian, but...
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#10
Adjusted Score: 80687%
Critics Consensus: Blue Bayou can be indelicate in its attempts to tug the heartstrings, but solid acting and a genuinely affecting story make this drama difficult to ignore.
Synopsis: From award-winning writer/director Justin Chon, Blue Bayou is the moving and timely story of a uniquely American family fighting for...
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#9
Adjusted Score: 68766%
Critics Consensus: France might have benefited from a more passionate approach to its themes, but Léa Seydoux leads an amusing send-up of celebrity culture.
Synopsis: In FRANCE, a satirical drama set in contemporary Paris, Léa Seydoux stars as France de Meurs, a seemingly unflappable superstar...
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#8
Adjusted Score: 42617%
Critics Consensus: Flag Day benefits from powerful performances and a moving fact-based story, but it's largely lost in the movie's melodramatic din.
Synopsis: Jennifer Vogel's father John was larger than life. As a child, Jennifer marveled at his magnetizing energy and ability to...
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#7
Adjusted Score: 50167%
Critics Consensus: Lacking the essential spark of director Nanni Moretti's best work, Three Floors does a dreary disservice to its laudable themes.
Synopsis: The lives of three families living in the same apartment building in Rome's Prati neighbourhood....
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#6
Adjusted Score: 31815%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Rehana, an assistant professor at a medical college, strains to combine her complex roles as a teacher, doctor, sister, daughter,...
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