The Movies ‘Screen Talk’ Is Most Looking Forward to at Cannes

The Cannes Film Festival begins on Tuesday, May 14, so what are we looking forward to most? IndieWire’s “Screen Talk” podcast hosts Anne Thompson and Ryan Lattanzio set the stage for the 2024 edition in the latest episode.

What does it mean that so many competition entries are without buyers? There’s Francis Ford Coppola’s self-funded science fiction epic “Megalopolis” looking for a home. Ditto Paul Schrader’s “Oh, Canada,” the “First Reformed” director’s ode to aging, starring Richard Gere and Jacob Elordi. Some films have been bought in the days just before the festival, like Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance” (MUBI), starring Margaret Qualley and Demi Moore.

Qualley stars in another Cannes premiere already headed to the festival with a home, Searchlight Pictures’ “Kinds of Kindness,” directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. The triptych film features the same troupe of actors — Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Joe Alwyn, Mamoudou Athie, and Qualley — in different roles and different stories with overlapping themes. Lanthimos wrote the film with Efthymis Filippou, his writing partner from the days of “Dogtooth,” “Alps,” “The Lobster,” and “The Killing of a Sacred Deer,” which should tell you that “The Favourite” or “Poor Things” this movie is not.

One movie Ryan has his eye on at Cannes? “Miséricorde,” the new film from “Stranger by the Lake” director Alain Guiraudie. The dark comedy about a man returning to his hometown for his late boss’ funeral brings the usual psychosexual intrigue from the French filmmaker. It’s playing out of competition.

Ahead of the Cannes preview, we also discuss why “The Fall Guy” underwhelmed at the box office despite the star wattage of Ryan Gosling as a stuntman in the action/comedy/romance. A couple of reasons, despite the A- CinemaScore: Mainstream audiences aren’t interested in movies about movies and their making (this was billed as a love letter to stunt folks), and there may have been too wide a gap between the film’s buzzy SXSW premiere and theatrical opening.

Watch the full episode above or listen to it below.

Screen Talk is produced by Azwan Badruzaman and available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify, and hosted by Megaphone. Browse previous episodes here, subscribe here, and be sure to let us know if you’d like to hear the hosts address specific issues in upcoming editions of Screen Talk