2023 Cannes Film Festival: 21 Must-See Movies To Watch

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Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Todd Haynes is the latest auteur to use Cannes as a launching pad for a potential Oscar contender, debuting his delicious dramedy “May December” at the festival on Saturday. Premiering less than one hour after Martin Scorsese’s 202-minute “Killers of the Flower Moon” conquered Cannes, the torrential downpour on Saturday night couldn’t keep many patrons away from taking in the Haynes movie. And not just because the movie reunites the director with his muse Julianne Moore, who he worked wonders with on “Safe” (1995) and “Far from Heaven” (2002), the latter which earned an Oscar nomination for Moore’s performance and one for Haynes’ script.

There’s trouble in the paradise of Savannah, Georgia, where the skeins of Spanish moss-draped over corridors of trees wave in the gentle coastal zephyrs with each night’s picture-perfect sunset. Spouses Gracie (Julianne Moore) and Joe (Charles Melton) have opened their palatial home for a backyard BBQ; he’s manning the grill, and she’s darting about trying to make everything just right, each well aware of their role to play.

CANNES – Perhaps it was the fact we’ve reached the halfway point of the 2023 Cannes Film Festival and the media have reached an inevitable breaking point with lack of sleep. Or maybe it was the often (but not talways) demure personalities of “May December’s” Oscar-winning stars, Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman.

May December, Todd Haynes’ film that received an eight-minute standing ovation at Cannes late on Saturday evening, is a film all about transgression, Julianne Moore told the press on Sunday. 

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter A scandalous age-gap relationship plays out at the center of “May December,” which debuted on Saturday to raves at the Cannes Film Festival. In the starry romantic drama directed by Todd Haynes, Julianne Moore plays the “December” to Charles Melton’s much-younger “May,” whose character was just 13 when the two fell in love. It’s a complicated dynamic, Moore admits, because of the time in their lives when they first met. “An age gap is one thing, but a relationship between an adult and a child is a different thing entirely,” Moore said at Sunday’s press conference for “May December,” which was embraced in the Grand Palais the day prior with an enthusiastic six-minute standing ovation.

CANNES (Reuters) - Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore anchor director Todd Haynes' attempt at a fourth Palme d'Or in the drama "May December," which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday night. Moore plays an older star who became tabloid fodder two decades earlier because of her relationship with a much younger man, played by Charles Melton - best known for "Riverdale.

Todd Haynes returned to the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday night with his latest, May December, playing in competition. The complex melodrama starring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore scored an eight-minute standing ovation inside the Grand Theatre Lumière.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic In the experimental montage that opens “Persona,” a bare-chested teenage boy caresses a screen upon which the faces of two women slowly morph back and forth. It’s easy to imagine Todd Haynes being tempted to start his deep-as-you-want-to-go rabbit-hole drama “May December” the same way, seeing as how this endlessly fascinating movie focuses on the blurring of the lines between a Hollywood star (Natalie Portman) and her Heartland subject (Julianne Moore), who was caught in a sexual relationship with a 7th grader at the age of 36. The movie wants to know: Can playing this Mary Kay Letourneau-like tabloid sensation really answer what makes such a woman tick? A heady director whose entire oeuvre feels ripe for film-studies dissertations, Haynes makes movies not merely to be watched, but to be analyzed and deconstructed after the fact. From the rich Douglas Sirkian pastiche of “Far From Heaven” to the queer twist on classical “woman’s pictures” provided by “Carol,” his style can be chilly and distancing. Not so “May December.” As layered and infinitely open-to-interpretation as any of his films, it’s also the most generous and direct, beginning not with Ingmar Bergman references (those come later), but with footage of monarch butterflies. They’re symbols of transformation, too, but also something nice to look at (and listen to, underscored by a lush reworking of the piano theme from “The Go-Between”) before these two women meet.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Todd Haynes brought delicious psychodrama to the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday, with the world premiere of his “May December” starring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore. Captivating the Cannes crowd the film earned a 6-minute standing ovation at the festival’s Grand Palais. “May December” stars Natalie Portman as Elizabeth, an actor who heads to Savannah to study the lives of Gracie (Moore) and Joe (“Riverdale” star Charles Melton). Years prior, Gracie and Joe’s scandalous cross-generational affair sparked a national controversy due to their age gap and the fact that Gracie was Joe’s boss at a local pet store. Twenty years later, Elizabeth is playing Gracie in a film version of the scandal, but her arrival puts a disruptive pressure on Gracie and Joe’s marriage.

Todd Haynes has a way with female stars. I would even call him the new-age George Cukor in that regard. Whether in Carol with Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, or his HBOlimited series Mildred Pierce with Kate Winslet, or his homage to the director of so many so-called “women’s pictures” of the ’50s Douglas Sirk in Far From Heaven with Julianne Moore, he seems to be in his comfort zone with women. That has never been more apparent than his latest, May December, a deliciously entertaining showcase for Natalie Portman and Moore (her and Haynes’ fourth film together), which just had its world premiere Saturday in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director The 2023 Cannes Film Festival is jam-packed with buzzy world premieres, from Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” to Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City.” Todd Haynes is also back to unveil “May December,” featuring the A-list pairing of Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore, while Disney is bringing Harrison Ford to the Croisette for “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” New films from Pedro Almodovar, Jessica Hautner, Jonathan Glazer, Catherine Corsini, Hirokazu Kore-eda and more are also set to make their debuts at Cannes this year. Cannes is often seen as a launching pad for Oscar season. Warner Bros. in 2022 kicked off its lengthy awards run for Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” on the French Riviera, with the film going on to land eight Academy Award nominations, including best picture. Palme d’Or winner “Triangle of Sadness” also picked up Oscar nods for best picture, director and original screenplay. Two international film nominees, “Close” and “EO,” launched at last year’s festival, while “Aftersun” best actor nominee Paul Mescal got his awards start in the Directors Fortnight sidebar. All of this is to say the industry will be closely watching the buzz on all of this year’s world premieres.

Natalie Portman has reflected on her debut role in Léon: The Professional, referring to the film as “cringey”.In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the actress spoke about the 1994 Luc Bensson-directed film where she starred as Mathilda Lando, a lonely 12-year-old who befriends Léon, her neighbour and Italian hitman.“It’s a movie that’s still beloved, and people come up to me about it more than almost anything I’ve ever made,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “It gave me my career, but it is definitely when you watch it now, it definitely has some cringey, to say the least, aspects to it. So, yes, it’s complicated for me.”The film was Portman’s acting debut, and she was cast when she was 11 years old.

In 2023, Natalie Portman is one of the biggest stars on the planet. However, back in the mid-‘90s, she was a pre-teen actress looking for her first major break.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Few films at Cannes this year have indie pedigree and star power behind them like “May December,” Todd Haynes’ examination of a cross-generational couple who caused a tabloid scandal and the actress studying their family to portray the woman in a forthcoming movie about their lives. Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman lead the way, but the project is a significant launchpad for “Riverdale” alum Charles Melton. Playing opposite Moore as a character who’s about to become an empty nester at 35, Melton dishes about his Cannes debut and walking dogs before he hit stardom. Will this be your first Cannes? This will be my first film festival. I’m so excited to reunite with Julie and Natalie and Todd Haynes and everyone that was a part of making the film. I’m grinning from ear to ear right now.