Coming in to the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, three films loomed large: George Miller’s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” and Kevin Costner’s “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1.” To varying degrees, they all fell short of the impossibly high expectations cinephiles had put on them. Fortunately, the Cannes lineup boasted more than 120 other movies for critics to sink their teeth into, ranging from an ultra-bloody beauty-standard satire (“The Substance”) to Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or-winning whirlwind romance (“Anora”), in which an exotic dancer and a rich Russian playboy get hitched in Vegas.
With a team of six critics on the ground, gorging on as many films as possible, Variety presents their favorite discoveries. Indian director Payal Kapadia’s second feature is a wise, gently lambent portrait of two roommates, both Mumbai nurses, at different points in their romantic lives. Spanning the city and the seaside, an understated yet profound bond grows between them despite different ages and outlooks, and both actresses are outstanding.
But it’s Kani Kusruti, playing the elderly woman facing the social and personal void left by her far-off husband, who is the breaking, mending heart of this dreamlike, daybreak-at-sunset movie. (Read the full review by Jessica Kiang .) Director Sean Baker describes “Anora” as a Cinderella story, but that’s only true to the extent that his Walt Disney World-adjacent “The Flori.
