Cannes: Leos Carax's Holy Motors is fantastic -- a crazy meditation on the changing role of cinema in our lives that's both deeply sad and wonderfully inventive, the latter quality serving as the film's own counterargument. Most of the hardcore cineastes here really love it, although a few don't, and there's a contingent of people still scratching their heads about it. As narratively strange as the film can be, I found its emotional throughlines completely clear. At the end of the movie, Carax channels Pixar; one friend loved the movie but hated that scene. For me, it was just a witty capper. Andrew Dominick's Killing Them Softly is also very good. The idea of using a small-time crime venture as a metaphor for American capitalism is not new, but it's always effective, and Dominick really shovels the politics on, overlaying much of the movie with white noise from the 2008 election. If you want to know what the post-Obama age feels like, this movie is it. Maybe it's the beachside setting, but Jacques Audiard's Rust and Bone, which is also very strong, has the shambling feel of a '70s West Coast relationship movie. There's a bit of a Hal Ashby vibe, or maybe Ivan Passer's Cutter's Way, here, even though the crime subplot sits way in the background. I'd write more, but I'm running out the door to see On the Road. More on the blog...

See you next week.

Best,
Scott Macaulay
Editor

FINAL SUBMISSION DEADLINE THIS WEEK: SPOTLIGHT ON DOCUMENTARIES Friday May 25th marks the final submission deadline for Spotlight on Documentaries - the doc strand of IFP's Project Forum of Independent Film Week, one of the most desirable forums in North America for buyers to vet new U.S. docs prior to public exposure. Sixty doc projects will be presented to accredited industry professionals from the U.S. and abroad during four days of one-on-one pitch meetings, pitch presentation screenings, festival programmer roundtables and social events. Be sure to seize this opportunity if you have a project relevant for submission this year. Recent alums of Spotlight on Documentaries include Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman's Academy Award-nominated If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (Oscilloscope Pictures, P.O.V. ), Lauren Greenfield's The Queen of Versailles (Magnolia Pictures, Bravo); Bess Kargman's First Position (Sundance Selects); Marie Losier's The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye (Adopt Films), Rebecca Richman Cohen's War Don Don (HBO Documentary Films), David Redmon and Ashley Sabin's Girl Model (P.O.V.; First Run Features), and Angelo Guglielmo's The Woman Who Wasn't There (Investigation Discovery). For more information go here.