Surveillance may involve three separate interviews about the same event, but Rashomon it most certainly is not. Ascertaining the truth through multiple narratives is certainly central to Jennifer Lynch's long-delayed follow-up to 1993's polarizing Boxing Helena. The three accounts provided, however, aren't juxtaposed or in real conflict; rather, they coalesce to form a tale about the fateful affairs that led FBI agents Anderson (Julia Ormond) and Hallaway (Bill Pullman) to a middle-of-nowhere New Mexico police station to investigate a horrific crime. That offense is initially shrouded in mystery, with details elucidated slowly through the agents' briefing and subsequent interviews – conducted simultaneously by Anderson and local cops, and monitored via closed-circuit video feeds by Hallaway – of the surviving eyewitnesses: traumatized 12-year-old Stephanie (Ryan Simpkins), defiant junkie Bobbie (Pell James) and combative officer Bennet (Kent Harper). It's the set-up for a rather routine procedural. Yet in a development that will stun no one who's seen Boxing Helena or any of her father's films, Lynch isn't interested in straightforward genre mundanity, and even during Hallaway's first appearance – his face twitchy, his speech halting, his eyes nervous and his comportment slightly askew – there's an underlying sense that this ordinary reality is somehow off-kilter, corrupted.

There will be crunch this fall. "Crunch" as in furiously intense action from Thailand. "Crunch" as in Tony Jaa, madder than ever. "Crunch" as in Ong Bak 2, directed by and starring Jaa, now set to enliven the autumn theatrical release schedule. And if you can't wait until October 23, well, you can sit at home and watch the movie on September 25, according to Wise Kwai's Thai Film Journal.

Magnolia Pictures acquired rights to the film for its genre label Magnet in February and it was showcased at South by Southwest the following month. As I wrote at the time, Ong Bak 2 "features numerous insanely awesome fight scenes. Jaa explodes in every direction, his arms and legs delivering lethal blows as he lays waste to a variety of opponents, employing all manner of martial arts, straight fighting skills, and amazing dexterity with a variety of bladed weapons." To be fair, the pace is sometimes lumbering, and narrative clarity is not a strong suit, but those fight scenes are something glorious to behold.

Wise Kwai points to the official U.S. web site, which is only a placeholder right now, and to Mark Pollard's comments at Kung Fu Cinema about Magnolia's plan to make the film available on cable VOD, Amazon, and Xbox Live one month before the theatrical release. That's in line with how Magnolia has marketed and released other recent releases, and, in view of the modest returns for the original Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior a few years ago, makes good business sense. Meanwhile, Ong Bak 3, which will hopefully clear up some of the loose threads from OB2, is scheduled for release in Thailand in December.

Lately, we have seen documentaries with a huge range of subjects, from war to religion, from art to video games. Those subjects are interesting and newsworthy and perhaps even moving or entertaining, but there are only two subjects that directly affect the people of the world on a daily, hourly basis. The first is the climate crisis, for which folks need to learn how to adjust their lifestyle in order to prevent further damage and encourage healing. But even more urgent is the issue of food. Every living man, woman and child eats, or thinks about eating, every single day, several times a day. Yet, as the new Food, Inc. points out, most of us know very little about our food. A very deliberate veil has sprung up between us and what we eat. Fortunately, little by little, we're learning.

The Cannes Film Festival drew to a close on Sunday evening with the presentation of the Palme d'Or to Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon. Filmed in black and white, it's "a two-and-a-half hour parable of political and social ideas set entirely in a north German village in 1913 and 1914," says Dave Calhoun at Time Out London. Haneke "solidly resists answering the 'what's it all about?' question and makes you work hard to make sense of what you're seeing." David Hudson at IFC's The Daily has gathered the reviews, some of which endeavor to answer the "What's it all about?" question.

As is often the case, the nine-member jury passed out awards to as many films as possible. The Grand Prix (or runner-up) went to Jacques Audiard's A Prophet; Special Jury Prize to Alain Resnais for Wild Grass; and Best Director to Brillante Mendoza for Kinatay. Christoph Walz won Best Actor for his performance in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds and Charlotte Gainsbourg won Best Actress for Lars von Trier's controversial Antichrist. The complete list of winners can be easily viewed at indieWIRE. The festival's official site has a great set of award ceremony photos.

Here's a roundup of Cannes films we can expect to see in coming months. Corrections and updates will be appreciated.

CANNES TITLES WITH U.S. DISTRIBUTION

• Antichrist (IFC)
• A Prophet (Sony Pictures Classics)
• Bright Star (Bob Berney and Bill Polhad)
• Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (Sony Pictures Classics)
• Drag Me to Hell (Universal)
• Humpday (Magnolia Pictures)
• I Love You Phillip Morris (Consolidated Pictures Group)
• Inglourious Basterds (Weinstein Co.)
• Looking For Eric (IFC)
• Precious (Lionsgate)
• Taking Woodstock (Focus Features)
• Tales From the Golden Age (IFC)
• Thirst (Focus Features)
• Up (Disney Pixar)
• The White Ribbon (Sony Pictures Classics)

You can access all our Cannes coverage via this handy link.

If an alcoholic wreck ever looks you in the eye and says, "Trust me," one word of advice: Don't, especially if her name is Julia Harris. Even if that clear-eyed glint appears genuinely sincere, and a wave of empathy impulsively washes over you for the magnificent woman who may still be residing deep within her soul, try to resist, because Julia will let you down every single time, the same way she's let herself down for her entire life.

Of course, when Julia is careening out of control in the person of Tilda Swinton, it's a much dicier proposition to turn your back on her. Swinton gives another odd, strangely magnetic performance in Julia, directed by Erick Zonca (The Dreamlife of Angels), which opened yesterday in New York. She's alternately a repulsive leech and a charming sexual creature, driven by her primal desires. She resembles a giant bug with corrosive acid running through her veins, like the Queen in Aliens; instead of defending her young, she's defending herself and her own warped view of priorities.

"Wreck" is an apt description for her character: her physical appearance is ravaged by neglect and alcoholism; her mental capacity is damaged to the point she can barely think straight; and her emotional stability is fried as though she were in a high-speed collision, bleeding out on the highway with all her parts scattered to the wind.

So why does she inspire such a strong impulse to embrace her warmly?

Oh, us Americans. Even when we turn out for the movies with the words on the screen, we still can't seem to stand those words on the screen. After all, why else would Variety say that an English-language remake in the works for both last summer's art-house hit Tell No One as well as District B13, which kicks ass in any language?

The former was based on a crackling mystery by American author Harlan Coben, albeit one transplanted to a French setting, and was most noteworthy for one sweet foot chase and a fairly loopy denouement. (Here's a thought: have the bi-lingual Kristen Scott Thomas reprise her role here.)

The latter was pretty much one sweet foot chase drawn out to feature length, with some punches and kicks thrown in for good measure, as a cop and a criminal parkour their way through post-apocalyptic Paris. (Don't believe me? After the jump... pun moderately intended.)

You know what? Let's combine the two. A doctor under suspicion for the murder of his wife -- who appears to be very much alive -- goes on the run to clear his name AND deactivate a nuclear weapon. With a plot like that, who needs words?

They claim that Seppuku Paradigm did the score for the harsh-as-hell horror flick, Martyrs (now on DVD -- beware the Blockbuster cut!), but I don't remember hearing any music... just Scott Weinberg screaming and squealing and squirming about when we saw it at Fantastic Fest last year. It was pretty much like watching The Love Guru with him all over again.

Well, those handy-dandy fellas over at Twitch say that the film's composers, Alex and Willie Cortés, have made their score for the film freely available online. In fact, their only other score -- for the unseen-by-me sci-fi mystery Eden Log -- has ALSO been made available to all. It's a veritable festivus for soundtrack junkies!

And why? Hell if I can tell, though tempted as one may be to throw around the phrase 'economic generosity' these days, I won't. Maybe these are just two cool guys who made two cool scores that they'd rather have people to listen to than pay for. It's a downright hippie stance, if you ask me, but we'll let it slide this time -- but only because, y'know, it has something to do with movies.

Full disclosure: I was a junk food junkie. Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me made me stop and think when I eventually saw it -- after an intervention -- and gradually I've reduced my intake. But, of course, it's not just fast food that can cause health problems, it's everything we put into our bodies. So when Cinematical debuted the poster for the new doc Food, Inc. earlier this month, I got intrigued.

Directed by Robert Kenner, Food Inc. "uses reports by Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser and The Omnivore's Dilemma author Michael Pollan as a springboard to exploring where the food we purchase at the grocery store really comes from, and what it means for the health of future generations." Well-intentioned as it sounds, in the wrong hands the film could easily have been churned into a piece of shrill, self-righteous propaganda preaching entirely to the choir.

Not so, says Russ Fischer at CHUD. Instead, it's "an informative, well-crafted film that wants it's audience to understand where food is coming from ... It's a film that is deeply suspicious of practices that bring food to our table every day. And rightly so." He found the first three and a half minutes of the film on YouTube, which we've embedded below. The credits are cleverly displayed as gentle music plays in the background and narrative voices raise questions that will be addressed. Take a look and see if this clip doesn't whet your appetite. More information is available at the official site. The film opens in theaters on June 12.

Hypocrites beware: Kirby Dick will have none of your shenanigans. His Oscar-nominated Twist of Faith dealt with sex-abuse cover-ups within the Catholic Church, and This Film Is Not Yet Rated let the irrational and inconsistent MPAA ratings board have it with both barrels. Now, in the engrossing, revelatory new Outrage, the message is clear. If you're a politician who publicly oppresses the gay community while secretly belonging to it, Kirby Dick will kick your closet door down and tell the world what a hypocrite you are.

The incendiary but thoughtful filmmaker presumably has no beef with politicians who put up a straight facade while secretly gayin' it up when their voting record doesn't suggest anti-gay sentiments. It's only when they spend their days voting against gay marriage and domestic-partnership benefits and filling their speeches with anti-gay rhetoric that Dick believes their private deeds ought to be made public. Outrage is based on the premise -- which Dick assumes we agree with before he begins -- that such votes are tantamount to homophobia, and that voters therefore deserve to know what their elected homophobes are up to after hours.

And that is Outrage: a series of U.S. politicians with anti-gay voting records are dragged out of the closet. Dick avoids sensationalism, even though the material is inherently steamy, and even though his last name is Dick, for crying out loud. If my last name were Dick and I were making this movie, there's no way I'd be able to keep it classy.

"At the end of the ice age, a machine came. It came from outside. It came from space. It came with one purpose -- to change man into mutants..."

Those are very much the first lines of Mutant Chronicles, and it's a fair indication as to just how seriously our filmmakers are going to take their silly story. "Have faith" is a recurring mantra (hell, it's even the tagline), but speaking as someone who could get behind the genre-blending likes of Doomsday and Outlander, it's keeping the faith that the ambition of Chronicles may defeat its limited budget that proves a struggle mightier than that which our heroes face.