With the 2008 Festival de Cannes right around the corner, we thought we'd give you a preview of the films we're most excited about watching at this year's fest. From Indy to Angelina, there's something for everyone this year -- and while Cinematical's James Rocchi and Kim Voynar set up camp in France (daily coverage starts Wednesday), here are the ten films we're looking forward to the most. To get started, just click on any of the images below to find out more about that film ...
DIRECTED BY: Kelly Reichardt STARS: Michelle Williams, Will Patton
WHAT IT'S ABOUT
Wendy and Lucy, helmed by Old Joy director Kelly Reichardt, stars Michelle Williams as Wendy, who's traveling by car with her dog Lucy, on her way to Alaska for a summer gig at a fish cannery, when her car breaks down somewhere in Oregon. Wendy's dog is taken to the pound, her threadbare finances start to unravel, and she has to make a series of "increasingly dire economic decisions."
WHY WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT IT
Reichardt's Old Joy was one of the best films of 2005 and showed her flair for making small feels that delve deeply into intimate relationships. Wendy and Lucy screens in the Un Certain Regard section of the fest and, according to Screen Daily, is the only film in competition that was received by post, unsolicited by the festival. If it stood out enough to the Cannes programming staff to make the cut as an unsolicited submission, we're betting on it being as good, or even better than, Old Joy.
DIRECTED BY: Woody Allen STARS: Scarlett Johannson, Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz
WHAT IT'S ABOUT
Woody Allen's first film shot in Spain uses Barcelona as the backdrop for a tale of two young Americans, Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johannson). Vicky's the straightlaced one, Cristina's the "sexually adventurous free spirit." The pair meet an artist (Javier Bardem, sporting a much better hairdo -- and, hopefully, attitude -- than he did in No Country for Old Men) and his lovely but insane ex-wife (Penelope Cruz). Much sexual trysting, including a reportedly hot sex scene between Johannson and Cruz and a three-way with the two ladies and Bardem, ensues. This being a Woody Allen film, we don't know a whole lot else about the plot at this point, but really, do we need to?
WHY WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT IT
Aside from the promise of those steamy sex scenes, a Woody Allen film is always intriguing. He can be a little uneven from film to film, sure, but watching a new Woody Allen film for the first time is a lot like opening a Christmas present from your wacky, eccentric old aunt: you never know whether you're going to get something really cool, like a gorgeous piece of heirloom jewelry -- or an olive-drab, hand-crocheted toilet paper cozy. But it's still fun to unwrap it and see what's inside.
A photographer (Campino) comes to Palermo, Italy, and tries to reconcile his career with his happiness. Including a host of luminaries (like Milla Jojovich, Patti Smith and Lou Reed) playing themselves, The Palermo Shooting promises to be a look at life and fame from a director whose previous looks at geography and personal history have included Wings of Desire, Buena Vista Social Club and Paris, Texas.
WHY WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT IT
Because it's Wim Wenders -- really, what more reason do you need? Wenders is a brilliant filmmaker, and his previous movies have all managed to mesh very real senses of place with thoughtful, human explorations of the human condition; this film looks a little higher on the glitz-and-glam index than some of his earlier work, but that's not a cause for concern; Wenders has tackled everything from hard-bitten realism (Paris, Texas) to to rueful fantasy (Wings of Desire) to weird science fiction-ish mysteries (The End of Violence); if his take on the modern world of fame and fortune's as good as those, we'll be very lucky.
DIRECTED BY: Charlie Kaufman STARS: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Michelle Williams, Samantha Morton, Tilda Swinton
WHAT IT'S ABOUT
Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman makes his directorial debut with this film, which stars the ever-excellent Philip Seymour Hoffman as Caden, a playwright who finds that his autonomic functions are shutting down just as he begins a new play. We don't know much about it, other than it explores Caden's relationships with the various women in his life around the backdrop of the staging of the play, and that Catherine Keener plays his first wife, Michelle Williams his second wife, and Samantha Morton his lover. Like the previous films Kaufman has written, this one is supposed to explore blurrings of reality, and it's been described as kind of like a horror film, but not really. Trippy.
WHY WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT IT
With talent like this, what's not to be excited about? Hoffman is consistently good in every film he takes on, the female roles are filled by women who excel in strong roles for women, and the quirky, brilliant Kaufman has penned some of our favorite films ever (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Adaptation, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Being John Malcovich). Kaufman wrote the script for Synedoche, NY, and reportedly signed on to direct after Spike Jonze, who was pegged to helm the film, decided to take a walk on the wild side with Where the Wild Things Are. It's going to be interesting to see if Kaufman's directorial eye is as sharp as his pen.
WHAT IT'S ABOUT It's a small, intimate, art-house film about feelings and regret ... oh, no; sorry: It's the return of one of the best-loved action-adventure franchises of all time, with Harrison Ford back as archaeologist Indiana Jones, dragooned into the hunt for a famed artifact of power by Cate Blanchett's raven-haired Russian agent Irina Spalko. Along for the ride are Shia LaBeouf, Ray Winstone and Karen Allen, and every trailer and advance piece suggests the fights, chases, insanely complex ancient deathtraps, globe-trotting international intrigue and narrow escapes we've come to love are all in the mix.
WHY WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT IT To paraphrase Sir Walter Scott, breathes there the person with soul so dead that their heart doesn't beat just a little faster at the sound of John Williams' classic theme? Yes, Ford is older -- and, really, aren't we all? Some early mutterings have suggested that "the kids" aren't enjoying Crystal Skull; when you consider that "the kids' made Transformers and 300 box-office smashes, that seems more like a hearty endorsement than dire warning. Minority Report demonstrated that Spielberg's still got terrific action chops, and while a certain sense of nostalgia's certainly involved for many, there are fairly solid odds that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull might actually be good, too.
DIRECTED BY: Abel Ferrara STARS: Ethan Hawke, Bijou Phillips
WHAT IT'S ABOUT
Combining fictional characters with archival footage, Chelsea on the Rocks is a look at the famous (or is that infamous?) Chelsea Hotel, where the bohemian clientèle has been immortalized in song and story. The Chelsea's history is both sparkling and squalid; it's where Bob Dylan wrote "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands," it's where Arthur C. Clarke wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey, and it's also where Sid Vicious' girlfriend Nancy Spungen was found stabbed in 1978. The Chelsea's been a temporary home for everyone from Mark Twain to Joni Mitchell, and considering how many things that have happened there have subsequently become legend, Ferrara's mix of fact and fiction seems like an excellent approach.
WHY WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT IT
Because, love him or hate him, Abel Ferrara (King of New York, The Funeral) has never been boring; and for those cynics who suggest that Ferrara's glory days are behind him, well, you could say the same thing about the Chelsea -- and what could be more intriguing than one faded New York icon's look at another faded New York icon? Add in plenty of potential told tales and bohemian Manhattan gossip, and you've got the strong possibility of a chatty, catty flick about some of the most interesting (and troubled) writers, artists and hangers-on of American pop culture.
DIRECTED BY: Steven Soderbergh STARS: Benicio Del Toro, Franke Potente
WHAT IT'S ABOUT
A four-and-a-half hour long epic combining Soderbergh's Guerilla and The Revolutionary, Che looks at the life of Che Guevara (played by Benicio Del Toro). The first half examines Che's role in the Cuban revolution; the second, his later-life failed attempt to inspire similar events in Bolivia. With a supporting cast including Franke Potente, Lou Diamond Phillips, Benjamin Bratt and Julia Ormond, and shot with high-resolution digital cameras, Soderbergh's two Che films promise an intriguing take on the traditional bio-pic, as the life and times of a wildly controversial figure are brought to the big screen by one of our most talented directors.
WHY WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT IT
Well, it's Soderbergh and Del Toro tackling a complicated topic; the last time that happened, with Traffic, the end result was fairly impressive. Add in the epic length, the possibilities offered by the use of high-definition video -- it's nearly impossible to imagine these films getting made with the cost dynamics of film -- add the on-screen presence of Del Toro, and you've got a series of elements that are guaranteed to get film fanatics ready, willing and excited to sit down for 278 minutes of storytelling about a revolutionary in the hope of enjoying some revolutionary storytelling.
DIRECTED BY: Clint Eastwood STARS: Angelina Jolie, John Malcovich
WHAT IT'S ABOUT
Clint Eastwood's latest directorial effort, written by Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski, is a late-1920s period drama about a real-life kidnapping and murder case. Angelina Jolie stars as Christine Collins, a working-class mother whose 10-year-old son disappears. When her son is "found" some months later, she knows the boy police say is her son is a different child, but no one will believe her, and she can't get police to try to solve the case. The police chief has the distraught mom locked away in a psych ward, and a fiery Presbyterian evangelist, Gustav Briegleb (played by John Malkovich) rallies public support for Collins to find out what really happened to her son.
WHY WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT IT
Eastwood's directorial efforts of late have been solid and satisfying. He had a bit of a directorial lull after 1992's stellar Unforgiven, but since then has made critically acclaimed films with Million Dollar Baby, Letters from Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers. While we're not entirely sure how we feel about Straczynski penning a period drama, his solid character and storyline development with Babylon 5 speaks to his talent as a writer, and Jolie is a solid choice to play the lead. Changeling looks to be one of the most interesting films in the competition at Cannes.
DIRECTED BY: Fernando Meirelles STARS: Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo
WHAT IT'S ABOUT
When a mysterious affliction -- "The White Sickness" -- leaves over 90% of the population blind, people try and cope with the fractures left in society. Meanwhile, one woman (Julianne Morre), untouched by the illness, has to hide her ability to see so she can better help her husband (Mark Ruffalo) as everything falls apart around them. Will Moore's sight be their salvation, or their ruin? And is there any possible cure for "The White Sickness?"
WHY WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT IT
Meirelles (perhaps best known for City of God) is a director to watch; his first big-studio film, The Constant Gardener, was tragically overlooked. Blindness may have an impressive big name cast (Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover and Alice Braga), but the fact that the screenplay adaptation of José Saramago's Nobel Prize-winning novel is by Don McKellar is just as exciting. McKellar's demonstrated a warm-yet-weird sensibility with similarly apocalyptic material in his earlier film Last Night, and the literary and cinematic roots of this project promise a film worth getting excited about.
Directed by: Atom Egoyan Stars: Arsinée Khanjian, Scott Speedman, Rachel Blanchard, Devon Bostick
WHAT IT'S ABOUT
A high school French teacher (Egoyan's wife, Arsinée Khanjian, who has been in many of his films) gives her class an assignment to translate a news story about a terrorist who plants a bomb on his pregnant girlfriend and puts her on a plane. One of her students, Simon (Devon Bostick), becomes obsessed with the story, imagining himself to be the couples' child. He creates a new identity on the internet to allow him to discover the truth about his family.
WHY WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT IT
The Canadian director is best known for The Sweet Hereafter, which debuted at Cannes in 1997 and earned him duel Oscar nods, as well as Exotica and Ararat. With Adoration, Egoyan returns to making a smaller, more intimate film, after a bigger Hollywood effort with 1995's Where the Truth Lies. The storyline sounds potentially a bit convoluted, but given our own adoration of most things Egoyan, we're excited to see what he does with it.
I've been fortunate enough to have been able to go to Cannes for the past four years now, and I'm getting ready for my fifth. And, as I often say when explaining film festivals to people who've never been to one, it's not just an adventure; it's a job. Cannes is a "get-away" the same way running from a burning building is "a tour of the grounds"; there are plenty of movies, plenty of work, and the overall emotional tone of the event is a mix of exhaustion and exhilaration. The heady moments of pure movie magic come fast and furious with the muck-and-money reality of international financing and distribution happening all about you.
Going to Cannes means seeing at least 40, maybe 50 or more movies in 10 days, never mind actually thinking and writing about them; you'd think that that kind of pace would soon turn into a blur, and it does, but it's a glorious one. Here's some of my favorite movie going moments (highly subjective, of course -- I've not included last year's ridiculously strong quartet of Persepolis, No Country for Old Men,The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, as they're still so fresh in my mind) from the past four years of the Cannes Film Festival; think of these as the rushed recollections of a film critic who knows exactly how lucky he's been.
While Hong Kong filmmakers have a gift for action, they tend to overdo it in the melodrama department, at least when it comes to watching their films through Western eyes. Perhaps the worst Hong Kong film I've seen to date is Jackie Chan's Heart of Dragon (1985), which features Jackie caring for his developmentally disabled brother (played by goofball Sammo Hung, who co-directed). All the heartstring tugging made me want to claw my eyes out. Or take another look at a masterpiece like John Woo's The Killer and you'll see an operatic hugeness to the emotional scenes -- especially between men -- that an American would never even dream, much less dare. These folks have an extremely high tolerance level for sentimentality; it takes an enormous amount before their sap detectors begin going off.
The same goes for action director and one-man HK film industry Johnny To (also known as "Johnnie To Kei-Fung"). To was a fairly minor director during Hong Kong's exciting late 1980s/early 1990s heyday, when imported films began to tantalize American viewers bored with big explosions and Vietnam rescue flicks. His biggest credit was as co-director on the exceptional supernatural superhero movie The Heroic Trio (1992). But after the 1997 handover to China, when most other filmmakers withdrew or abandoned ship, To flourished and eventually became the country's most successful and exciting filmmaker. His action hits included: The Mission (1999), Running Out of Time (1999), Help!!! (2000), Fulltime Killer (2001), Running Out of Time 2 (2003), Running on Karma (2003), Breaking News (2004), Election (2005), Triad Election (2006) and Exiled (2007), along with some 40 other films.
With only a handful of films to his credit, Sixth Generation Chinese director Jia Zhang-ke has become one of the world's great master filmmakers, and he has the lack of distribution to prove it. Like many other greats from Orson Welles to Hou Hsiao-hsien, he has struggled to get spectators and his movies together at the same place and the same time. His film Still Life won the Golden Lion at the 2006 Venice Film Festival and promptly sat on the shelf. It received a cautious and limited release in New York earlier this year, but since it never turned up on the West Coast, the San Francisco International Film Festival picked it up as an entry in the 51st fest (after failing to secure it for their 50th), and it opens at the end of this week at the Roxie Cinema. It's by far the best film I've seen in this year's fest, and it probably would have been the best of last year too.
I know I poked some fun at New York City in some of my earlier posts, but I'd by lying if I said I didn't have a good time covering the Tribeca Film Festival this year. (I ate lots of good food!) Davis and I hung out for a bit here and there, but we were mostly knee-deep in work-stuff -- so a hearty thanks to Joel Keller of TV Squad for stepping in and helping out with the coverage. (Cinematical newbie Eric Kohn also threw in an assist!) Additional thanks to all the Tribeca folks -- from the press office people to the theater volunteers and every one in between -- who made the week run so smoothly.
Here you'll find a recap of all our Tribeca coverage. Reviews, interviews, live reports and a few random pieces of stupidity from yours truly. Then after the jump we'll remind you of all the Tribeca 2008 award winners. And then we can all have some milk and cookies.
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I know I poked some fun at New York City in some of my earlier posts, but I'd by lying if I said I didn't have a good time covering the 
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