HOPE: Biggest mystery at #Cannes this year is how this steaming load of dodgy CGI and inane plotting managed to make it into the Palme competition, when so many worthier options were available. Na Hong-jin’s menagerie of alien invaders runs amok in a Korean DMZ border town and the real casualties amid the relentless gore are brain cells and any sense of creativity — there’s nothing here the trash specialists of Troma haven’t done better, although there’s some decent action at the outset. Why Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander signed on to be part of this is big mystery No. 2. #Cannes2026
The official pages of films are up on Cannes site! More than half of competition is longer than 2,5 hours. This had to be nigthmare to create schedule!
Grisebach 167'
Sorogoyen 135'
Fjord 146'
Farhadi 140'
Na 160'
Harari 139'
Calvo/Ambrossi 155'
Zvyagintsev 135'
Nemes 130'
Marre 155'
Koreeda 126'
Hamaguchi 196'
#Cannes2026
What's hilarious is that The Room is actually one of the best arguments against AI as it has more character and personality than any of the most advanced slop being produced.
I’ve yet to see a single compelling cinematic scene made by AI. It’s all anonymous generic trailers for movies that look horribly mid. This video proves exactly what Ben said about AI being the mean.
The issue is the central genre of his training and formative experience, which was irrefutably hiphop.
Those “production music” techniques, which is what we call it in the biz, are applied to traditionally-orchestral timbres with sample libraries. Meaning notes are drawn in midi. Plugin effects, like special reverbs, distortions, tremolos, filters, etc are then applied to create textures or surreal presentations of those traditionally-acoustic instruments. Synths are layered on top. Drum beats spliced and pasted around the timeline…
Then those midi files are typically sent to an orchestrator, who then has to comb through and fix 90% of it, rearrange, etc, so that it’s actually comprehensible and playable by live players.
Not only is it suboptimal due to ignorance, the results are actually MUCH less expressive than being able to write directly for players reading your music off a music stand.
The other issue is that typically there are no themes that the audience takes home with them. That’s a business failure, as we know that hit movie scores rake in additional millions for the composer and production
Ludwig did not learn proper orchestration, harmony, or the like. They do not teach that properly at USC! He doesn’t play an instrument at a high level, which limits his musical vocabulary. It’s why he, just like Hans, needs 14 other guys to hold his hand through the process.
The movie I thought about during One Battle After Another was The Place Beyond the Pines. The invisible legacy of parents in their children, whether wanted or not.