The 82nd Venice Movie Pageant has yielded no less than one standout, unanimously appreciated by critics and audiences, turning it into the most popular ticket for an occasion that additionally welcomes public ticket-buyers: Park Chan-wook’s “No Different Selection,” which Neon already has for stateside launch.
The South Korean “Outdated Boy” and “The Handmaiden” filmmaker has by no means been nominated for an Oscar, however this exuberantly well-directed satire starring Lee Byung-hun as a literal paper-pusher pushed to the murderous brink by a depressed job market is a well timed, invigorating catch for Venice. Man-soo (Lee) is laid off from his job, and units about killing off the competitors to make himself the one standing specialist in his discipline.
Led by filmmaker Alexander Payne and together with grasp, embellished administrators like Romania’s Cristian Mungiu and Iran’s Mohammad Rasoulof, the jury will no query award “No Different Selection” a prize. Whether or not that’s the Golden Lion for finest movie, finest director Park, or finest actor Lee is anybody’s guess, but it surely’s nearly sure to be one in all them. IndieWire additionally earlier declared “No Different Selection” an Academy Awards contender; Neon, although, has a really busy worldwide slate with Cannes winners “It Was Simply an Accident,” “Sentimental Worth,” “The Secret Agent,” and “Sirat,” which may all be within the operating for the Finest Worldwide Function shortlist.
However again to Venice: Netflix has premiered two out of its three competition titles to date, Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly” and Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein.” Jacob Elordi has earned robust essential notices for his bodily transformative portrayal of Victor Frankenstein’s monster; critics, in the meantime, like George Clooney’s flip as a well-known Hollywood actor on the finish of his tether effectively sufficient in Baumbach’s comedy. However essential response has been cut up on the latter, which is extra sentimental and misty-eyed than Baumbach’s previous movies. In different phrases, for those who’re a “Margot on the Marriage ceremony” fan, this one’s not for you, however phrase has been excessive again in Colorado in Telluride.
Head juror Payne is shut with Clooney after directing him to an Oscar nomination in “The Descendants,” however Adam Sandler is the standout (and with the narrative backing him) within the film as Clooney’s supervisor. I may think about the Venice jury going the sudden route — bear in mind when Lucrecia Martel’s jury awarded “Joker” the Golden Lion? — and honoring Sandler.
Of the Netflix choices to date, Aussie main man Elordi, who has steadily been constructing an ideal profession out of “Euphoria” and since, appears like a worthy contender for a Venice performing prize, too. Del Toro, in the meantime, gained the Golden Lion in 2017 for “The Form of Water”; Venice is a hospitable atmosphere to the beloved Mexican filmmaker, whose new movie has its vary of ardent followers and admirers even when some opinions are much less eager on his newest, high-budget gothic imaginative and prescient.
Swept apart attributable to its place as the primary screening of the competition after Paolo Sorrentino’s muted opener “La Grazia,” László Nemes’ post-World-Struggle-II, “Come and See”-esque coming-of-ager “Orphan” hasn’t elicited a lot chatter. It’s a skillfully shot and disturbing portrait of Budapest 1957 a few younger boy assembly the surly man who claims to be his long-lost father. Nemes hasn’t hit the zeitgeist since his 2015 perspectival Holocaust survival drama, “Son of Saul,” which gained the Finest Worldwide Function Oscar.
The battle in Gaza has been a spotlight of this yr’s competition between protests and press-conference remarks; that Nemes spoke out towards Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar speech for “The Zone of Curiosity” addressing the Israel-Palestine battle final yr has left some unable to separate artwork from artist at this juncture, however the jury’s job is to have a look at the movies on their very own phrases.
Yorgos Lanthimos’ sci-fi satire “Bugonia,” starring Emma Stone as a CEO govt kidnapped by conspiracist Jesse Plemons as a result of he thinks she’s an alien, made a powerful early impression on the competition. However Lanthimos gained the Golden Lion for “Poor Issues” in 2023; as a lot because the jury shouldn’t be biased towards previous wins, I don’t see this extraterrestrial-among-us hostage thriller taking the highest prize.
Olivier Assayas’ “The Wizard of Kremlin,” with Paul Dano as a fictional kingmaker to Jude Legislation’s Vladimir Putin, premiered on Sunday and has earned tepid opinions. Homegrown Italian filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi’s black-and-white documentary “Under the Clouds,” a portrait of Neapolitan everyday-ers beneath Mount Vesuvius, may stand to earn some type of filmmaking prize for its ruminative black-and-white cinematography and affected person modifying. That the Biennale is extra beneficiant towards together with documentaries in competitors than, say, Cannes, is beginning to quantity to one thing. Laura Poitras’ “All of the Magnificence within the Bloodshed,” in spite of everything, gained the Golden Lion in 2022; her piercing journalism portrait “Cowl-Up” performed out of competitors right here.
There’s nonetheless a lot to return, from “The Brutalist” Oscar nominee Mona Fastvold’s historic musical drama “The Testomony of Ann Lee” (which Brady Corbet co-wrote and produced, as Fastvold did 2024 Venice winner “The Brutalist”) to Benny Safdie’s A24 solo directing outing “The Smashing Machine” and Kathryn Bigelow’s Netflix thriller “A Home of Dynamite.” Tonight, Jim Jarmusch’s newest, “Father Mom Sister Brother” will premiere. However proper now, the best mark for those who’re predicting a Venice award winner is, full cease, Park Chan-wook’s “No Different Selection.”
Keep tuned for updates on this put up as extra Venice contenders shake out.