We are now into the double-digits of Cannes. It’s hard to remember who we were before the festival started and what state we’ll be in once it’s done. Oh well, let’s get on with it!
“Victorian Psycho” Makes Cannes Clutch Its Pearls
Zachary Wigon’s “Victorian Psycho,” starring reigning scream queen Maika Monroe (of “It Follows” and “Longlegs” fame) as a 19th-century murderess, premiered at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section of the festival. And the response to “Victorian Psycho” was immediate – visceral, even.
The film, which also stars Thomasin McKenzie, Ruth Wilson and Jason Isaacs, earned a five-minute standing ovation according to one report. But it’s unclear if it was adoration that the clapping was signifying or some kind of shell shock, considering the movie contains “bloody axe attacks, murdered infants and much, much more gore.” The teaser trailer, released today, prominently features a severed ear, ghoulish corpse and literal buckets of blood. Watch it below.
Originally the film, based on the novel of the same name by Virginia Feito (who also wrote the screenplay), was meant to star Margaret Qualley and be distributed by arthouse darlings A24. When Qualley dropped out, so did A24. When Monroe took over, Bleecker Street took on domestic distribution duties, with a fall 2026 set.
But is this new configuration any good?
Our own Chase Hutchinson said that Monroe is, in fact, what makes “Victorian Psycho” “worth your while.” “She gives a performance that’s right up there with Mia Goth in “Pearl” while also building a uniquely unsettling creation all her own. There’s nothing that ends up proving terribly surprising or ambitious in how the rest of the film unfolds around her, but there’s no denying just how committed Monroe is to the performance,” Hutchinson wrote.
We’ll know soon enough whether “Victorian Psycho” is a mere curio or if there is something more on its bones (besides, of course, rotting flesh).
Netflix Scoops ‘In Waves’ Out of Cannes
“Iron Boy” Gets Picked Up
By all accounts this year’s Cannes Film Festival is chock full of wonderful, deeply moving animated features, including “In Waves” (which was recently acquired by Netflix), the Seth Rogen-produced “Tangles,” Kohei Kadowaki’s “We Are Aliens” and, now, “Iron Boy,” which was just acquired by Sony Pictures Classics, for North America, Latin America, India and Southeast Asian TV.
“Coming into Cannes, we knew the film would be well received, but its success exceeded even our expectations both in terms of sales and reviews from the international press. It feels only natural that ‘Iron Boy’ has found a home in the U.S. with SPC. Over the years, we built a strong working relationship with Tom, Michael, and Dylan. They are not only exceptional distributors, admittedly among the very best in the industry, but also people of great sensitivity and taste. They will take this film very far,” said Nicolas Brigaud-Robert, co-CEO of Playtime, who negotiated the deal, in an official statement.
The film, done in a traditional hand-drawn style and playing as part of the Un Certain Regard program at Cannes, marks the solo directorial debut of Louis Clichy, who worked at Pixar on movies like “WALL•E” and “Up” before returning to France and directing 2014’s “Astérix: The Mansions of the Gods” and 2018’s “Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion” (both with Alexandre Astier). Clichy based “Iron Boy” on his own life and is a sweet, coming-of-age tale set in the French countryside.
Our review of the film out of the festival noted that Clichy “makes something truly magical from the everyday.” “While ‘Iron Boy’ is not the best animated film of the festival, as that’s still ‘We Are Aliens,’ it’s a mighty close second and a spectacular reintroduction to Clichy and company. That it is uninterested in talking down to potential younger viewers and instead invites them to reflect on the many complexities of life only makes it that much richer a work,” wrote critic Chase Hutchinson.
Could “Iron Boy” become another Best Animated Feature Oscar spoiler, in the tradition of the Oscar-winning “Flow” or the Oscar-nominated “Arco” (both of which also premiered at Cannes)? It’s unclear – this year is absolutely loaded with potential contenders, from Pixar’s “Hoppers” (and their upcoming “Toy Story 5”) to DreamWorks’ “Forgotten Island” and Netflix and Skydance’s “Ray Gunn,” from animation legend Brad Bird. But one thing’s for sure – if the rapturous response at Cannes is any indication, it’s definitely going to be a part of the conversation.
Some more reviews!
Rami Malek appeared in Ira Sachs’ new drama “The Man I Love,” which received an eight-minute standing ovation (according to reports), and which our critic Chase Hutchinson really loved, calling it “poetic, profound and patient.” “The film, set in a wonderfully textured 1980s New York, is about more than just the destruction of AIDS on the queer community,” wrote Hutchinson, singling out Ramek’s performance. Ramek is even allowed to sing in “The Man I Love,” unlike whatever he was doing in “Bohemian Rhapsody,” a moment “so alive that you can practically feel his voice echoing through you.”
Also, there was a documentary devoted to Bruce Dern, the legendary performer and raconteur. “Dernsie: The Amazing Life of Bruce Dern” from filmmaker Mike Mendez, looks to immortalize the man and his career – and according to our own Steve Pond, he does just that.
“Dernsie” “is as entertaining as it is because the guy is also one heck of a long-distance talker,” wrote Pond. The documentary also features talking head interviews with filmmakers like Joe Dante and Quentin Tarantino (who have both worked with him in films they have directed), plus Dern’s daughter Laura Dern and contemporaries like Billy Bob Thornton and Walton Goggins.
