Black Flies,” the Sean Penn and Tye Sheridan film about emergency medical first responders, smacked the Cannes Film Festival in the face with a brutal world premiere on Thursday.
Splattered brains, dead dogs, an addict giving birth with a needle dangling from her arm — these and a litany of other horrors confronted Penn and Sheridan, who play veteran and rookie paramedics, respectively, at the New York Fire Department.
Interestingly enough, the black-tie screening at the Grand Palais enjoyed the dose of reality, giving the film a five-minute standing ovation. “We carry the misery,” a weary Penn tells Sheridan in the film of their chosen profession.
That’s an understatement, as chaos unfolds neighborhood by neighborhood in a portrait of an unforgiving city. “Black Flies” stars Sheridan as Ollie Cross, a young paramedic in New York City who is mentored by Penn’s more-experienced EMT.
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