Yorgos Lanthimos’s madcap follow-up to Poor Issues zips us from a mind-bending Victorian London to the current—or, not less than, a (characteristically bonkers) model of it—during which double Oscar winner Emma Stone dances with reckless abandon as vehicles are practically crashed and our bodies are dragged down hallways. A 3-part sci-fi anthology which additionally stars Hunter Schafer, Joe Alwyn, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Jesse Plemons, and Mamoudou Athie, it seems to be set to be a surreal romp from an auteur who’s, undeniably, on the peak of his powers.

The Apprentice

After making a splash at Cannes in 2018 with the Swedish fantasy Border, after which once more in 2022 with the Persian-language thriller Holy Spider, Ali Abbasi returns to the Croisette with one thing much more typical, although no much less thrilling: an account of Donald Trump’s rise in ’70s and ’80s New York, with Pam & Tommy’s Sebastian Stan donning prosthetics and a blonde wig to play a youthful iteration of the previous president. In the meantime, a still-very-much-Kendall-Roy-adjacent Jeremy Robust takes the function of Roy Cohn, the prosecutor and fixer who acted as Trump’s mentor, whereas Borat Subsequent Moviefilm’s Maria Bakalova turns into the aspiring actual property tycoon’s first spouse, Ivana, and Martin Donovan his father, businessman Fred Trump. With the subsequent presidential election looming and the movie’s real-life topic nonetheless neck and neck with Joe Biden within the polls, this examination of corruption and deceit couldn’t really feel extra well timed.

Megalopolis

A ardour undertaking that’s been over 20 years within the making, Francis Ford Coppola’s first big-screen launch since 2011 is well the competition’s most-talked-about Palme d’Or contender: a debauched and decadent cautionary story about America’s future, with a star-packed solid that includes everybody from Adam Driver and Aubrey Plaza to Giancarlo Esposito, Chloe Fineman, and Nathalie Emmanuel. Early viewers’ responses have ranged from shock and bafflement to euphoria, although all agree that the 135-minute epic—which has, tellingly, nonetheless not secured a distribution deal—is an audacious piece of labor. Cannes will likely be essential to figuring out its destiny: there’s an opportunity it may dazzle audiences and scoop the highest prize (as one other long-gestating and as soon as seemingly cursed Coppola undertaking, Apocalypse Now, did again in 1979), or it could possibly be a serious misfire. Both means, the complete trade will likely be watching with bated breath.

Emilia Perez