After Jeff Bezos rented out the city for his gluttonous wedding, which the locals were not happy with, Venice is back to normal with the annual Venice International Film Festival, its 82nd edition. It’s a jammed lineup with plenty of big names playing, including Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grazia opening the festival, Noah Baumbach, Jim Jarmusch, Julian Schnabel, Park Chan-wook, and Werner Herzog arriving with their latest work. Jury President, Alexander Payne, along with Fernanda Torres, RaMell Ross, and Cristian Mungiu, will lead the different juries in looking at all the films coming into the Venice Lido. Here are some of them to be aware of.
After The Hunt – Dir. Luca Guadagnino
Still on a heater with film after film being made, Guadagnino will show his next film, out of competition, in Venice with a thriller featuring Julia Roberts as a college professor who’s faced with a personal crisis. After hearing about a colleague (Andrew Garfield) being accused of sexual assault, the professor has to confront her past dealing with a similar situation. Ayo Edebiri, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Chloe Sevigny also star in Guadagnino’s exploration of the ripple effect that any accusation causes, whether it is true or not.
Bugonia – Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos
Jesse Plemons and Emma Stone are back with Yorgos Lanthimos in a film that fits the bill for Lanthimos’ kind of surrealism. In a remake of the South Korean film Save the Green Planet, two men kidnap the CEO of a pharmaceutical company, believing that she is an alien. On that premise alone, it requires a visionary to turn that idea into a story that captures all the satire and all the absurdities inherent in the themes from Lanthimos’ beehive. Just have to sit and wait to see what Yorgos will bring, especially as a former Golden Lion winner.
Frankenstein – Dir. Guillermo del Toro
It’s the latest adaptation of Mary Shelley’s legendary Gothic novel, but being Guillermo del Toro, a master of monsters, everyone is anticipating what he’s going to do with this. Oscar Isaac plays Victor, the mad scientist who brings to life his shocking creation, played by Jacob Elordi, and starts a path of destruction. Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz, Felix Kammerer, and Lars Mikkelson also star in del Toro’s 2.5-hour drive to be faithful to the source as he was with Nightmare Alley, coincidentally getting the Criterion treatment and joining del Toro’s other masterful monster films.
A House of Dynamite – Dir. Kathryn Bigelow
It’s been eight years since she released her last film, the lackluster Detroit, but Bigelow has returned with a new political thriller about a worst-case scenario for the country. A deadly missile is heading towards the United States, and with time ticking away, the White House must make some consequential decisions. A new release from Netflix (like Frankenstein), Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Jared Harris, Tracy Letts, Anthony Ramos, and Jason Clarke star in Bigelow’s drama with shades of Sidney Lumet’s Fail Safe and, unfortunately, coincidental timing of actual missile launches in the real world today.
The Smashing Machine – Dir. Benny Safdie
The Safdie brothers split up to make their own sports films; Josh has the upcoming Marty Supreme, while Benny will be in competition for this biopic on Mark Kerr, a wrestler-turned-UFC fighter in the sport’s early years. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson plays Kerr as he becomes one of the sport’s earliest stars, but struggles with substance abuse and the injuries he sustains with his style of fighting. Considering that most of the supporting cast are former mixed martial arts fighters and current boxing Heavyweight champion Oleksander Usyk is here as well, The Smashing Machine will certainly feel as real as watching an MMA fight in the octagon.
