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Julia Ducournau’s ‘Alpha’ Is a Stunning Disaster [Cannes]
Spike Lee’s ‘Highest 2 Lowest’ Earns Positive Reviews [Cannes]
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Lee Chang-dong Ey 2026 with New Feature ‘Possible Love’ — Set to Shoot This Fall
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Kleber Mendonça Filho’s ‘The Secret Agent’ Earns Raves — 86 on Metacritic [Cannes]
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Tom Cruise Intends to Keep Making Action Movies Into His 100s: “I Will Never Stop”
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Aug 19, 2019
3-Hour ‘Midsommar' Director's Cut Screened in NYC
Aug 19, 2019

This year’s 12th edition of the Scary Movies festival at Film at Lincoln Center premiered Ari Aster’s extended version of “Midsommar” this past Saturday.

Aug 19, 2019

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Julia Ducournau’s ‘Alpha’ Is a Stunning Disaster [Cannes]

May 19, 2025 Jordan Ruimy

NOTE: I’ve only caught a small glimpse of the reviews for “Alpha,” but I can’t imagine there will be many positive takes. This is not a good film. So far, pans coming in from THR, Variety and IndieWire.

Four years ago, Julia Ducournau arrived at Cannes like a meteor. Her second feature, “Titane,” roared into the festival with its transgressive imagery and unclassifiable energy earning her the Palme d’Or. It was only the second time a woman had won the festival’s top prize. Ducournau’s victory came with a film in which a woman has sex with a car. “Titane” was pure overload—operatic, grotesque, fearless.

Now comes “Alpha,” Ducournau’s follow-up, and it’s the kind of film you admire even as it leaves you emotionally stranded. This is a movie that screams to be seen, to be felt, to be wrestled with. It doesn’t settle for ideas—it assaults you with them. The result is exhausting and frustrating.

“Alpha” is a horror-inflected parable set in the shadow of the AIDS epidemic. But even that description feels reductive. This is a genre mashup, a coming-of-age tale, a family tragedy, a surreal medical nightmare—all rolled into one fever dream of a film.

At its center is a 13-year-old girl, “Alpha” (Mélissa Boros), who gets a tattoo with a dirty needle in the opening minutes and may or may not have contracted a fatal disease. Blood seeps and spurts throughout the film from Alpha.

Ducournau renders the AIDS crisis in bold visual metaphors: the infected slowly turn to marble, transforming into statues frozen in beauty and decay. It’s a potent image—part classical art, part body horror. The problem is that in Ducournau’s world, everything is turned up—emotion, sound, symbolism.

Visually, the film has a gritty look. Ducournau and cinematographer Ruben Impens paint with a palette of urban rot: fluorescents, graffiti, blood-red. As it goes back and forth between timelines, the colors start changing.

There’s a sequence in a school pool—blood in the water, heads cracking on tile—that rivals much of the body horror we’ve seen the last decade. Golshifteh Farahani, as Alpha’s overwhelmed mother, is not bad as the tragic woman in a world falling apart. And Boros, in her first screen role, holds the film together with real magnetism.

And yet, “Alpha” deeply suffers from its own ambition. There are so many ideas—so many great ideas—that they blur into noise. The film doesn’t so much explore them as toss them into a blender. The result is uneven and at times incoherent. One moment we’re in a hospital crumbling with marble corpses; the next, we’re back in time, or in a dream, or maybe in a hallucination. At some point, you just give up caring.

“Alpha” has a strong first half, focusing on specific drama and clear timelines. However, in the second half, it deteriorates and becomes a film with virtually no direction. Ducournau begins to veer into Lynchian territory—and we all know no one does Lynch better than Lynch himself.

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Spike Lee’s ‘Highest 2 Lowest’ Earns Positive Reviews [Cannes]

May 19, 2025 Jordan Ruimy

Not much time to collect my thoughts on Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest,” but early critical reception seems generally positive.

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Lee Chang-dong Ey 2026 with New Feature ‘Possible Love’ — Set to Shoot This Fall

May 19, 2025 Jordan Ruimy

According to a new report out of Naver, Lee is gearing up to shoot his next feature, “Possible Love,” as early as this fall. The hope? To land a coveted Cannes 2026 premiere.

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Kleber Mendonça Filho’s ‘The Secret Agent’ Earns Raves — 86 on Metacritic [Cannes]

May 19, 2025 Jordan Ruimy

I’m an admirer of Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho, whose “Aquarius” and “Bacurau” pulse with life, rebellion, and a distinct cinematic voice.

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Tom Cruise Intends to Keep Making Action Movies Into His 100s: “I Will Never Stop”

May 19, 2025 Jordan Ruimy

“I actually said I’m going to make movies into my 80s; actually, I’m going to make them into my 100s,” he recently told THR.

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Julia Ducournau’s ‘Alpha’ Has A Teaser!

May 19, 2025 Jordan Ruimy

Can Julia Ducournau win the Palme d’Or again? Here’s our first teaser for “Alpha,” Julia Ducournau’s anticipated follow-up to “Titane,” which screens tonight at Cannes.

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Wes Anderson & Richard Ayoade Writing New Film Together [Cannes]

May 19, 2025 Jordan Ruimy

Anderson will once again team up with Roman Coppola, his frequent co-writer, along with Richard Ayoade, who starred in “The Phoenician Scheme,” in a total scene-stealing performance.

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Box Office: Andrew DeYoung’s ‘Friendship’ Scores Big With $23K Per-Theater Average, Set for Major Expansion Over Memorial Day

May 19, 2025 Jordan Ruimy

After a buzzy six-screen debut last weekend, Andrew DeYoung’s “Friendship” pulled in a spectacular $1.4M from just 60 theaters in its second frame

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Denzel Washington Earned $35M Salary to Star in Spike Lee’s ‘Highest 2 Lowest’

May 19, 2025 Jordan Ruimy

Netflix is also shelling out a massive $35M to lock in Denzel for the newly announced crime thriller “Here Comes the Flood,” which will also star Robert Pattinson and Daisy Edgar-Jones.

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Guillermo del Toro Says His ‘Frankenstein’ Is More Heart Than Horror

May 19, 2025 Jordan Ruimy

Guillermo del Toro is steering his adaptation of “Frankenstein” away from traditional horror and leaning into something far more personal and emotional.

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Safdie, Baumbach, Berger, Guadagnino and Lanthimos Tipped for Venice

May 19, 2025 Jordan Ruimy

We’re only halfway through Cannes, but chatter has already shifted to what might surface on the Lido later this year. It’s looking like a strong lineup of films will be unveiled.

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Andrew Garfield in Talks to Lead Paul Greengrass’ Peasant Revolt Epic ‘The Rage’ as Focus Eyes $11M U.S. Deal

May 18, 2025 Jordan Ruimy

Andrew Garfield is now in active negotiations to take over the lead role from Matthew McConaughey, who had previously been attached. 

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Daniel Craig Offered Lead Role in Damien Chazelle’s Prison Movie

May 18, 2025 Jordan Ruimy

The “prison film” was originally set up at Paramount in April 2024 and described as a mid-budget drama with action elements.

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Wes Anderson’s ‘The Phoenician Scheme’ is Beautiful, Puzzling and Sorta Empty [Cannes]

May 18, 2025 Jordan Ruimy

I haven’t had the time to write a review for Wes Anderson’s “The Phoenician Scheme,” but at first viewing, I’m underwhelmed by it. As it stands, it’s one of his lesser efforts.

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‘Die, My Move’ Sells to MUBI for $20M

May 18, 2025 Jordan Ruimy

The first major deal out of Cannes has landed—and it’s a big one. MUBI has snapped up U.S. rights (along with several other territories) to Lynne Ramsay’s latest

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Justine Triet’s Next Film “In English With Some Major Stars”

May 18, 2025 Jordan Ruimy

Following her Palme d’Or win and Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, Justine Triet—the French filmmaker behind “Anatomy of a Fall” —has been attracting serious attention from Hollywood.

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Box-Office: ‘Final Destination’ $53M, ‘Sinners’ Beats ‘Thunderbolts’

May 18, 2025 Jordan Ruimy

To think, ‘Bloodlines’ was initially planned as a streaming-only release on HBO Max, and only switched to theatrical in August 2024. Goes to show how important theatrical can be for a film.

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Sylvain Chomet’s Next Film is ‘Triplets of Belleville’ Sequel

May 18, 2025 Jordan Ruimy

We’re eagerly anticipating Chomet’s “The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol,” set to be his first animated feature in 15 years. The film premiered yesterday at Cannes.

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Kathryn Bigelow Involved in A24’s ‘Near Dark’ Remake Series

May 17, 2025 Jordan Ruimy

“Near Dark,” Kathryn Bigelow’s awesome 1987 vampire neo-Western is being developed as a series over at A24. Bigelow herself is involved in some capacity.

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‘Die, My Love’ Elevated by Jennifer Lawrence’s Extraordinary Performance [Cannes]

May 17, 2025 Jordan Ruimy

Jennifer Lawrence has never been one for half-measures, but it’s been a while since we’ve seen her go this raw, this unfiltered, this dangerous.

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