By Dave McCoy
MSN Movies

May 20-22, 2006

The first weekend at Cannes brought heavy, heavy winds (especially problematic if you're staying on a wobbly catamaran as we are), more major stars and some highly anticipated debuts.

Al Gore was in town promoting the horrifying documentary about global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth." The cast of "X-Men: The Last Stand," including Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin, Rebecca Romijn and Famke Janssen, rolled into town for their Monday-night premiere. Also here were Sarah Michelle Gellar and The Rock — yes, you read that correctly — who are promoting Richard Kelly's follow-up to "Donnie Darko," "Southland Tales" (more on that in a bit).

The other thing that blew in to town was a clear-cut frontrunner for the Palme d'Or. Halfway through Cannes '06, Pedro Almodóvar's domestic drama "Volver" ("Return") is the talk of the town. I've yet to meet a person who hasn't loved it. The Spanish director/screenwriter (an Oscar winner for his screenplay for "Talk to Her" and Best Director winner at Cannes in 1999 for "All About My Mother") is beloved here in Europe and especially at this festival — one colleague called him "Cannes' prom king." People cheered when his name first hit the screen, but the biggest eruption came as the credits were rolling.

"Volver" is arguably the director's most accessible film, and after a series of flashy stylistic experiments, it's also his most narrative-driven. His focus, as in most of his best films, is women (there are barely any men in the film, and those who exist are louts), specifically three generations trying to compensate for errors and tragedies. At the center is Raimunda (Penélope Cruz), a tempestuous mother of a teenage girl, who is married to a worthless, unemployed man. Her sister, Sole (Lola Duenas), works as a hairdresser, and both women are trying to get over the recent fire that killed their parents. However, when their mother (Carmen Maura) returns (thus "Volver") and appears to Sole, it forces all of the women to confront their secrets. While this sounds like heavy stuff — and it is very poignant — Almodóvar handles it with his usual mix of deft humor (thought thankfully minus the camp), music and blinding color. All of the women are fantastic, but Cruz is a revelation. I have no idea how Almodóvar pulled this complicated performance out of the starlet, but she shows depth, attitude and warmth here that we've never seen.

In fact, you can add Cruz to the growing list of dazzling lead-female performances here at Cannes. It's been ladies' week. Lei Hao in "Summer Palace," Cruz here and Kate Dickie in "Red Road" are all crowding the field for Best Actress honors. Dickie's turn is my favorite of the three, and "Red Road" is by far the best discovery of Cannes (and my current favorite). Shot and set in Glasgow, Scotland, "Road" is the feature-film debut from Andrea Arnold (an Oscar winner in 2003 for her live-action short, "Wasp"). Dickie plays Jackie, an emotionally dead woman still stinging from a catastrophic family tragedy. Appropriately, Jackie works as a CCTV operator, where she watches the daily lives of others on dozens of TV screens and reports any wrongdoing to the police. Jackie, completely cut off from life, is the ultimate voyeur: someone who'd rather watch life play out than live it. It's less painful that way. But one day she notices someone familiar and is forced to confront her demons. The less said about the plot, the better, as "Red Road" reveals its mysteries slowly and assuredly.

"Red Road" is the first of three projects for Lars von Trier (winner of the Palme d'Or in 2000 for "Dancer in the Dark") to be shot in Glasgow by different directors using the same cast members. That explains the no-frills, claustrophobic, Dogme 95 style of "Red Road" — as well as the heavy use of shaky, hand-held camera. Von Trier's women seldom find peace, and though Jackie may not find it either, in the end, it's at least slightly visible in the distance.

Big Fizzle

Sunday morning should have been a dream come true for me. For starters, I was going to finally walk up the famed, red-carpet-overlaid Palais steps and see a film at the 2,200-seat auditorium known as Grand Theatre Lumiere. And the film I was going to see? Richard Kelly's long-awaited follow-up to "Donnie Darko" called "Southland Tales." Now, anyone who knows me knows that "Darko" is, so far, my favorite film of the new millennium. So my expectations were through the roof.

The screening was at 8:30 a.m. and I walked those steps around 8. First disappointment: Like most celebrities, the red carpet is much smaller in real life than on screen. In fact, it's only 20 steps. The theater, however, is gorgeous. Seats are comfortable, sound is great (Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue" greeted us) and there are even little trays for critics with notepads. All movies should be shown for the first time on this gigantic screen ... even muddled messes such as "Southland Tales."

Simply put, it's a train wreck ... but one that meanders along for 2 hours, 40 minutes and loses its cars along the way. I can't give you a proper review, because it's against my ethics. I don't review movies that I walk out on. And two hours into "Southland Tales," I bailed (good thing, otherwise I'd have missed "Red Road"). Instead, I can give you a brief sketch of what made me walk out of a film that I'd been excited about for five years.

Kelly is his own worst enemy. Sophomore slump doesn't even begin to describe this accident. Why someone didn't yell "Stop!" and ask for rewrites is beyond me. When you read the description of the movie, it sounds like another large-tapestry examination of Los Angeles a la "Short Cuts" or "Magnolia" (at least it's not as offensive as "Crash"). However, Kelly's set his picture in the future — 2008 to be exact — and it takes place three years after a terrorist nuclear explosion has destroyed many American cities. Because of this, fuel is non-existent, the government is even more corrupt, and an underground revolution is trying to influence the next election (some guy from Texas is trying to win the White House ... hmmmm).

Nice set-up, yes... but it's all downhill from there. See, "Southland Tales" is a broad satire that features The Rock as its lead (he's not bad, actually), Sarah Michelle Gellar as a porn-star idealist (she is bad), folks like Jon Lovitz and Kevin Smith as goofy character actors and Seann William Scott as twins. Oh, and Justin Timberlake narrates the whole thing, and takes time out to do a musical number.

Kelly ambitiously tries to make a commentary on America's current chaotic state, and it is admirable. But there is no structure here. There are no fully drawn characters as with "Darko." And worse, it's not funny! The jokes died repeatedly in the large auditorium, and it was just too painful to watch.

Kelly said in the press conference that T.S. Eliot's "The Hollow Man" influenced the picture. Indeed, it opens with "This is how the world ends" repeated three times. And then he twists the last line to "Not with a whimper, but a bang." I can only hope that Eliot's original line doesn't predict Kelly's career, because right now, it's a quiet whimper, at best.

Next time: John Cameron Mitchell follows "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" with the orgy-fueled "Shortbus"; Bruno Dumont unleashes "Flanders"; and weird parties and street scenes from Cannes '06.

A demain...

What Cannes selection interests you most? Would you be excited to attend the festival if you had the chance? Write us at heymsn@microsoft.com.

Dave McCoy is lead editor for MSN Movies.