'Only God Forgives' and 'Nebraska' have mixed receptions at Cannes

Two movies with U.S. theatrical releases later this year are receiving mixed reviews from Cannes. At the festival, writer/director Alexander Payne's Nebraska elicited some tepid reactions. The Drive
follow-up from Ryan Gosling and director Nicolas Winding Refn, Only God Forgives, was booed by at least some members of the audience.

Paramount Vantage has given Payne's Nebraska a November 22 release date, right in the heart of awards season. Based on the screening, THR predicts the distributor "should be able to ride accolades for this very fine Cannes competition entry to respectable specialized returns in fall release." Not everyone was impressed, though. Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeff Wells called the movie a "a double. Maybe even a single" in a tweet, dubbing it a "minor Payne." "Thompson on Hollywood" also called the film "wistful but slight." But both Variety and THR gave generally positive notes. They may have been looking over each other's shoulder, because both made separate references comparing parts of the father-son road trip to The Last Picture Show and the movies of Preston Sturges. The black-and-white drama stars Bruce Dern and Will Forte as father and son, and a cast of relative unknowns reportedly fills out the supporting characters nicely.

The violence in Only God Forgives may have been the biggest turnoff to Cannes audiences. Variety's Justin Chang noted that "early rumors that Only God Forgives had been slotted in competition at the producers’ insistence" seemed confirmed by the movie's poor showing, while also conjecturing that "it would no doubt have been greeted with less hostility" in the "Midnight Screenings or the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar." New York's "Vulture" blog observed that most of the negative reactions had to do with the "ultra-violence," while joining a chorus of other critics hailing Kristin Scott Thomas' performance as Gosling's character's mother. Only God Forgives comes out July 19th through Radius/Weinstein Co, which should cover both Winding Refn cinephiles and violence-hungry VOD audiences. THR, for one, predicts the feature "will not disappoint devotees of the Nicolas Winding Refn church of fetishistic hyper-violence."

For more out of Cannes, check our posts by J. Sperling Reich on Screener.