[imagesource: Warner Bros.]

A Brooklyn sex worker’s fairy-tale romance involving a Russian oligarch’s son, a biopic on Donald Trump in his younger, pre-fascist years, and a musical involving drug cartels.

These are just a few of the buzzier titles unveiled at the Cannes Film Festival that kicked off on May 14, and we haven’t even got to Cate Blanchett communing in a forest with a giant brain yet.

There are tons of great movies showing this year, featured at Cannes, and we’ve skimmed the already skimmed cream of this year’s Cannes crop to bring your attention to some of the films that will have to be a must-see on all our lists.

Beginning with Blanchett and the brain.

Rumours

The logline of Guy Maddin’s new dream-like fable (co-directed by Maddin’s longtime collaborators Evan and Galen Johnson, and produced by Ari Aster) is that a group of world leaders has gathered for the annual G7 summit.

Then the night before a presentation, they all get lost in the woods, and … who knows what happens next. Blanchett, Alicia Vikander, Denis Ménochet, Nikki Amuka-Bird, and Charles Dance are among those stuck in this waking nightmare.

Anora

Writer-director Sean Baker, known for Tangerine, The Florida Project, and Red Rocket, brings his latest work to Cannes: a romantic comedy about a Brooklyn sex worker, played by Mikey Madison (Better Things), who stumbles into a real-life Cinderella story after meeting a wealthy Russian Prince Charming. It seems like a dream come true—until, of course, the clock strikes midnight and reality comes crashing back in, just as it did for Cinderella.

There’s no official trailer for Anora, so go ahead and read IndieWire’s review that notes Madison’s “all-time performance in a brilliant comedy that starts as a fantasy romp before making a laugh-out-loud funny pivot into “Uncut Gems” territory.”

The Apprentice

You’ve definitely heard the story of the real estate mogul who transitioned into reality TV and then ventured into politics. Holy Spider director Ali Abbasi tackles the rise of Donald J. Trump, focusing on his early power moves with the aid of a seasoned power broker. Sebastian Stan takes on the role of a young Trump, Maria Bakalova (Borat) portrays Ivana Trump, and Jeremy Strong embodies the infamous Trump enabler, Roy Cohn. Expect these screenings to stir up plenty of controversy – Trump is obviously really ruffled.

Emilia Perez

Jacques Audiard has created a lot of buzz with her interesting movies, from a remake of James Toback’s Fingers (The Beat That My Heart Skipped) to a weirdo Western (The Sisters Brothers) to the greatest prison movie of the past 20 years (A Prophet).

All we know about this latest project – which is a musical, nogal – is that it involves a lawyer (Zoe Saldana), a cartel drug lord yearning “to become the woman he has already dreamt of being,” and Selena Gomez.

Furiosa

In the vein of powerful women, George Miller gives us the origin story of Mad Max: Fury Road‘s female cohort, the mighty Imperator Furiosa.

Anya Taylor-Joy dons Charlize Theron’s battered, dusty boots to portray a younger version of the post-apocalyptic anti-heroine. Joining her is Chris Hemsworth, playing the intriguingly named Demetrius; Tom Burke from The Souvenir, as the town’s toughest road warrior; and a host of stunt performers risking it all for some analogue, go-for-broke screen mayhem.

Kinds of Kindness

Then we have Yorgos Lanthimos’ follow-up to Poor Things, titled Kinds of Kindness, which is just some more of his disturbing absurdism that will likely leave us reeling.

It’s a triptych of stories that features a to-die-for cast, including Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Jesse Plemons, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn, Hunter Schafer, and Mamadou Athie, many of whom play different roles in all three chapters. ‘Kindness’ is always a relative term in Lanthimos’ universe, so take that word’s inclusion in the title with a boulder-sized grain of salt.

Oh Canada

The current It guy Jacob Elordi (Saltburn) along with Uma Thurman and Michael Imperioli stars in the latest from Paul Schrader (First Reformed, The Card Counter, Master Gardener).

Schrader tackles another work from the late, great novelist Russell Banks, the same author who gave him the source material for 1997’s Affliction. In Oh Canada, writer (Richard Gere) decides to make peace with his past as an American who moved to the Great White North to avoid being drafted during the Vietnam War. His decision to tell all does not sit well with his friends and loved ones, however.

This year’s Cannes selection is packed with goodies, so head over here to check all the movies out.

[source:rollingstone]