‘The Animal Kingdom’ Review: A Family Fights to Stay Together Amid a Trippy Coronavirus Pandemic

Studiocanal has nearly sold out worldwide on Andrew Garfield-Florence Pugh romantic drama “We Live in Time,” executive produced by Benedict Cumberbatch. Owned by Vivendi’s Canal Plus Group, Studiocanal has also closed half the world on both James McAvoy’s “Control” and Thomas Cailley’s Un Certain Regard opening film “Animal Kingdom,” a critics’ favorite at this year’s festival.   The banner sales news, replicated across other titles on Studiocanal’s broad sales slate, follows quick on the heels of two signature deals at Cannes: A24’s U.S. pickup on “We Live In Time”; a pact with Sony Pictures for the U.S., Canada and much of the world for “Paddington in Peru.”

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic If you’ve ever wondered when it was that Michel Gondry, the gifted French director of “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” became the world’s most annoying filmmaker, you might say the answer is, “He always was.” Yet no one, including me, quite thinks of him that way. That’s because the few works of his that have come to prominence possess a special combination of facility and charm. I adore “Eternal Sunshine,” a virtuoso movie that bends your brain and breaks your heart at the same time. You might simply choose to characterize it as the masterpiece of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, but the truth is that Gondry directed it ­— the leaps in time, the emotionally convulsive performances of Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet — with a masterful sense of play and gravitational control.

Jill Dillard is the latest Duggar daughter to speak out about growing up in her ultra-conservative Christian family. A new Prime Video docuseries,, shares with viewers how the family became a reality TV sensation before scandal shook the foundation of their deeply held belief system.Like her sister, Jinger Vuolo's, recent book, starts with a focus on disgraced pastor Bill Gothard and the Institute in Basic Life Principles, or IBLP, a non-denominational Christian organization that espouses homeschooling, female subservience and conservative values. “IBLP and the teachings draw in people like my dad, who want this control," Jill notes. «It can foster this cult-like environment.

This is not a drill! We finally got the first photos of Kylie Jenner and Timothée Chalamet! And we are not talking about just a picture of her SUV in his driveway – an actual photo of them together!

Making a commitment? Pete Davidson and Chase Sui Wonders seemingly hit a major milestone in their romance — getting a dog together.

A union representing teachers in Dumfries and Galloway has warned that levels of pupil anxiety and depression have “greatly increased” since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic “It’s been about 25 years since I stood on this stage,” since Shania Twain, not long after the kickoff to her set Sunday night at the Hollywood Bowl. She had that figured about right — the calendar shows she last played America’s most favored amphitheater on May 6, 1999. That was a few weeks shy of the moment that her signature song among all signature songs, “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!,” peaked on the charts. When she pulled it out as her inevitable final encore number Saturday, it still felt like it was cresting. It’s a song that may never have truly peaked until all the generations represented at the Bowl this Memorial Day weekend have passed away and/or the day the prerogative to have a little fun has been codified into the criminal as a felony. For as long as there are women, and gay men, and straight men relaxed with themselves enough to buy “Let’s go, girls” T-shirt and diode-blinking pink cowboy hats, Twain will own rights to the ultimate ladies’ night anthem, just as surely as she owns the federal trademark on exclamation points. (She does, doesn’t she?)

The Ultimatum: Queer Love (★★★★☆) is the latest in Netflix’s line of reality dating shows. This one is not hosted by Nick Lachey, but JoAnna Garcia Swisher, who is immediately clocked for being straight, and truthfully isn’t around that much.

Variety‘s critics pick the most notable dozen. Distributor: Neon One of seven women filmmakers in competition, Justine Triet has taken a familiar genre (the court- room drama) and turned it on its head. A frustrated writer dies of suspicious causes, leaving behind clues that implicate his wife (Sandra Hüller).

is giving viewers the classic fairytale with several modern-day tweaks. The Rob Marshall-directed musical stars Halle Bailey as the titular, headstrong princess, a drastic departure from her previous depiction that initially garnered racist backlash.But Bailey's casting is only one of the changes made to the new live-action adaptation, which also stars Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, and Javier Bardem as King Triton, with Daveed Diggs as the voice of Sebastian the crab, Jacob Tremblay as Flounder, and Awkwafina as Scuttle.Here are 15 ways the remake differs from the original.

Dennis Harvey Film Critic Released to theaters in the theatrical dog days of mid-2020, Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion’s “Becky” became a home-formats hit, its gleefully tasteless home-invasion thrills a guilty-pleasure tonic for COVID captives going a bit stir-crazy. Now Lulu Wilson is back as that title character, more or less the sole survivor of her prior screen outing. You can be sure in “The Wrath of Becky” that age hasn’t dulled her pissed-off homicidal verve, and that fate will surely provide another crop of ne’er-do-wells to tempt its exercise.  However, a different writing-directing duo is in charge this time, Matt Angel and Suzanne Coote. Their efforts generate rewards that are somewhat diminished, if still diverting. Quiver is releases this SXSW-premiered sequel to U.S. theaters, with home-formats dates as yet unannounced. 

Already a big enough hit in the U.K. to earn a second season, anyone who has watched even a few minutes of the NBA Playoffs on TNT has seen the ubiquitous ads for “The Lazarus Project,” premiering June 4th, and probably wondered what the heck is going on.

A new family will make their debut in Walford next month when the Knights arrive to join new Queen Vic landlady Elaine Peacock in the Square. The clan haven't even arrived yet but speculation is already mounting on what could be in store for the trio.

There has been a lot of talk in recent years about cooking as a form of care, an idea intrinsically linked to the feminist revaluation of the work usually performed by women, which is most often unremunerated yet essential to day-to-day living.

Guy Lodge Film Critic All of life, including death, is in the lengthy, unbroken shot that opens Thien An Pham’s bewitching debut feature “Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell.” We begin on the sidelines of a local soccer match in Saigon’s city center, observing the play from a cool distance before following a shuffling mascot, dressed in a wolf suit, to the adjoining bar. There, crowds watch a 2018 World Cup fixture while a group of young men, turned from the TV, drink and discuss matters of faith, existence and ennui. Thien (Le Phong Vu) is quiet and morose, only half-invested in a conversation already beset with distractions: the sales pitch of a bubbly beer rep, the burst of a sudden summer thunderstorm, a metallic screech and grim thump as the camera again drifts serenely over to reveal the aftermath of a fatal motorcycle crash. In the ensuing rhubarb of bystander concern, Thien stays put.

Cordon bleu is the warmest color in Tràn Anh Hùng’s long but surprisingly light soufflé of a movie, a highly watchable Aga saga that’s so artful, charming and non-boat-rockingly old-school that it might make you wonder, even in a non-ironic way, what Lasse Hallström has been up to lately. In Cannes film festivals gone by, it could arguably have provoked the bidding war of the fortnight, given the track record of such foodie faves as Le Grand Bouffe, Babette’s Feast and Eat Drink Man Woman, which also debuted on the Croisette. But that’s faint praise for a story that, although it’s almost all about fillings, trimmings and toppings, doesn’t seem to have that much content or, more importantly, depth.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent A bold departure from France’s cinema tradition of social realism, Thomas Cailley’s widely ambitious sophomore outing “The Animal Kingdom” is equally a creature-filled dystopia, an emotionally charged father-and-son drama and a coming-of-age tale. The character-driven film world premiered to warm reviews at the Cannes Film Festival where it bowed the Un Certain Regard section. “The Animal Kingdom” is represented in international market by Studiocanal and was produced by Pierre Guyard at Nord Ouest Films, and co-produced by Artemis. “The Animal Kingdom” takes place in an undetermined future in France which has been swept by a genetic disease causing people to transform into creatures that are being hunted down and killed or institutionalized by authorities. Kircher, the breakout star of Christophe Honoré’s “Winter Boy,” plays 16-year-old Emile whose mother was institutionalized after showing first signs of a genetic mutation. He lives with his father Francois (Romain Duris) who is struggling to overcome grief.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic Depending on where you come down on the question of its main character’s guilt or innocence, Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” could be seen as a kind of “Gone Girl” in reverse: A frustrated writer dies of suspicious causes, leaving behind clues that implicate his wife (Sandra Hüller). If the man’s death was a suicide — and the bilingual (half-English) movie strongly points in that direction — then there’s a terrible cruelty to what follows, as his grieving wife is hauled into court and tried for his murder. Their 11-year-old son is obsessed with trying to make sense of what happened, whereas it’s the death of the marriage, not the husband, that preoccupies Triet. Can any couple’s relationship withstand the kind of scrutiny this one is subjected to, as old fights and infidelities are dragged into the open?

CANNES – Imagine the world completely changing over the span of just two years. No, there hasn’t been an apocalyptic nuclear war.

It’s a measure of the state we’re in today that Thomas Cailley’s follow-up to his 2014 debut Love at First Fight could be described as a metaphor for just about anything you like. It takes the surreal premise of Yorgos Lanthimos’ 2015 Cannes hit The Lobster and, through a peculiar kind of cinematic alchemy, makes a surprisingly credible family drama out of it. Its overarching themes of love and tolerance go a long way, and it’s by no means a stretch to see a bunch of current hot-button topics — the world refugee crisis, climate change and trans rights to name but three — refracted through Cailley’s lens.