The Venice Film Festival 2021 Movie Scorecard

Critics Consensus: A strikingly assured debut for writer-director Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Lost Daughter unites a brilliant cast in service of a daringly ambitious story.

Synopsis: Alone on a seaside vacation, Leda becomes consumed with a young mother and daughter as she watches them on the beach. Unnerved by their compelling... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, Peter Sarsgaard, Jessie Buckley

Directed By: Maggie Gyllenhaal

Critics Consensus: A brilliant forum for Penélope Cruz's talent, Parallel Mothers reaffirms the familiar pleasures of Almodóvar's filmmaking while proving he's still capable of growth.

Synopsis: Two women, Janis and Ana, coincide in a hospital room where they are going to give birth. Both are single and became pregnant by accident.... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Penélope Cruz, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Milena Smit, Israel Elejalde

Directed By: Pedro Almodóvar

Critics Consensus: Its premise may resonate most with hardcore film fans, but Official Competition's tight focus and sharp humor have a universal appeal.

Synopsis: Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas star as two egomaniacs commissioned by a millionaire to make a movie together in this sharp comedy skewering wealth, art,... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Penélope Cruz, Antonio Banderas, Oscar Martínez, Carlos Hipólito

Directed By: Mariano Cohn, Gastón Duprat

Critics Consensus: A tough but rewarding watch, Happening puts a personal face on an impossibly difficult choice and its heart-rending aftermath.

Synopsis: France, 1963. Anne is a bright young student with a promising future ahead of her. But when she falls pregnant, she sees the opportunity to... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Anamaria Vartolomei, Kacey Mottet Klein, Luàna Bajrami, Louise Orry-Diquéro

Directed By: Audrey Diwan

Critics Consensus: A hard-hitting drama that feels disconcertingly real, 7 Prisoners blends sharp storytelling with a searing social conscience.

Synopsis: 18-year-old Mateus (Christian Malheiros) hopes to provide a better life for his working-class family in the countryside. Accepting a new job in São Paolo, he... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Christian Malheiros, Rodrigo Santoro, Cecilia Homem de Mello, Vitor Julian

Directed By: Alexandre Moratto

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: Clémence, the fearless mayor of a town near Paris, is completing the final term of her political career. With her faithful right-hand man Yazid, she... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Naidra Ayadi, Jean-Paul Bordes, Soufiane Guerrab, Isabelle Huppert

Directed By: Thomas Kruithof

Critics Consensus: Masaaki Yuasa fans will come to Inu-Oh expecting a visual feast -- and this musical animated extravaganza won't leave them disappointed.

Synopsis: From visionary director Masaaki Yuasa, hailed by IndieWire as "one of the most creatively unbridled minds in all of modern animation," comes a revisionist rock... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Avu-chan, Mirai Moriyama, Kenjiro Tsuda, Yutaka Matsushige

Directed By: Masaaki Yuasa

Critics Consensus: Brought to life by a stellar ensemble led by Benedict Cumberbatch, The Power of the Dog reaffirms writer-director Jane Campion as one of her generation's finest filmmakers.

Synopsis: Severe, pale-eyed, handsome, Phil Burbank is brutally beguiling. All of Phil's romance, power and fragility is trapped in the past and in the land: He... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee

Directed By: Jane Campion

Critics Consensus: Dune occasionally struggles with its unwieldy source material, but those issues are largely overshadowed by the scope and ambition of this visually thrilling adaptation.

Synopsis: Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, must travel to a dangerous planet in the universe... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin

Directed By: Denis Villeneuve

Critics Consensus: A rewardingly unsettling watch, The Box handles its sensitive themes with intelligence and empathy.

Synopsis: Teenager Hatzín travels from Mexico City to collect the remains of his father, found in a communal grave in Northern Mexico. But a casual encounter... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Hatzín Navarrete, Hernán Mendoza, Elián González, Cristina Zulueta

Directed By: Lorenzo Vigas

Critics Consensus: Centered on a mother's struggle to provide care for her son, The Other Tom highlights the difficulty of meeting a child's mental health needs.

Synopsis: Elena is a single mother who relies on Social Services. Her son Tom has behavioral issues and is stigmatized at school as a "problem child"... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Israel Rodríguez, Julia Chávez, Leah Miller, Malicia Domínguez

Directed By: Rodrigo Plá, Laura Santullo

Critics Consensus: Led by Oscar Isaac's gripping performance, The Card Counter adds another weighty chapter to Paul Schrader's long inquiry into man's moral responsibility.

Synopsis: Redemption is the long game in Paul Schrader's THE CARD COUNTER. Told with Schrader's trademark cinematic intensity, the revenge thriller tells the story of an... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish, Tye Sheridan, Willem Dafoe

Directed By: Paul Schrader

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: In 2014, Ukrainian surgeon Serhiy enlists to fight Russian military forces in the Donbass region, where he is captured by enemy soldiers. Now a prisoner... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Roman Lutskyi, Stanislav Aseyev, Oleksandr Danyliuk, Roman Lutskiy

Directed By: Valentyn Vasyanovych

Critics Consensus: Elevated by its stars' magnetic chemistry, True Things mines complex, character-driven drama from an ill-advised romance.

Synopsis: Bored by the daily tedium of her office job, Kate (Ruth Wilson) is sleepwalking through life when a chance sexual encounter with a charismatic stranger... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Ruth Wilson, Tom Burke, Hayley Squires, Elizabeth Rider

Directed By: Harry Wootliff

Critics Consensus: Sundown's emotionally muted wavelength may be difficult for some viewers to tune into, but it's enlivened by Tim Roth's strong central performance.

Synopsis: Neil and Alice Bennett (Tim Roth, Charlotte Gainsbourg) are the core of a wealthy family on vacation in Mexico with younger members Colin and Alexa... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Tim Roth, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Iazua Larios, Henry Goodman

Directed By: Michel Franco

Critics Consensus: Il Buco is a visual marvel that reaffirms the old adage about a picture being worth a thousand words.

Synopsis: During the economic boom of the 1960s, Europe’s highest building is being built in Italy’s prosperous North. At the other end of the country, young... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Paolo Cossi, Jacopo Elia, Denise Trombin, Nicola Lanza

Directed By: Michelangelo Frammartino

Critics Consensus: Hallelujah doesn't presume to be a comprehensive view of Leonard Cohen's career, but it effectively conveys his artistry through an admiring retrospective on one of his most iconic works.

Synopsis: Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song is a definitive exploration of singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen as seen through the prism of his internationally renowned hymn,... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Leonard Cohen, John Cale, Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright

Directed By: Daniel Geller, Dayna Goldfine

Critics Consensus: Although it struggles to maintain its thrilling early momentum, Last Night in Soho shows flashes of Edgar Wright at his most stylish and ambitious.

Synopsis: In acclaimed director Edgar Wright's psychological thriller, Eloise, an aspiring fashion designer, is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s where she encounters a dazzling wannabe... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Thomasin McKenzie, Matt Smith, Terence Stamp

Directed By: Edgar Wright

Critics Consensus: Although The Hand of God isn't Sorrentino's best work, this beautifully filmed coming-of-age story sings in a beguiling, albeit minor, key.

Synopsis: From Academy Award-winning writer and director Paolo Sorrentino (Il Divo, The Great Beauty, The Young Pope) comes the story of a boy, Fabietto Schisa, set... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Filippo Scotti, Toni Servillo, Teresa Saponangelo, Marlon Joubert

Directed By: Paolo Sorrentino

Critics Consensus: With an outstanding cast and a thoughtful story that makes the most of its limited setting, Costa Brava, Lebanon reaffirms that the personal is the political.

Synopsis: The free-spirited Badri family escapes the toxic pollution and social unrest of Beirut by seeking refuge in a utopic mountain home they've devoted years to... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Nadine Labaki, Saleh Bakri, Nadia Charbel, Ceana Restom

Directed By: Mounia Akl

Critics Consensus: The Last Duel's critique of systemic misogyny isn't as effective as it might have been, but it remains a well-acted and thought-provoking drama infused with epic grandeur.

Synopsis: The Last Duel is a cinematic and thought-provoking drama set in the midst of the Hundred Years War that explores the ubiquitous power of men,... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer, Ben Affleck

Directed By: Ridley Scott

Critics Consensus: Halloween Kills should satisfy fans in search of brute slasher thrills, but in terms of advancing the franchise, it's a bit less than the sum of its bloody parts.

Synopsis: Minutes after Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), her daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) left masked monster Michael Myers caged and burning... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Anthony Michael Hall, Andi Matichak

Directed By: David Gordon Green