Whenever I am staying in a hotel and have a little time to kill, I usually end up watching terrible television. With the limited channel selection and subpar early afternoon HBO programming, there’s not a lot to choose from. But Marriott hotels are looking to change that by offering Netflix streaming on the in-room television. Unfortunately for some, you have to be a Netflix subscriber to use the service, but it is definitely a cool little perk to make the business or pleasure stay more pleasurable. The service is already employed in a few hotels in New York and California, with a full roll-out expected in 2016. So, if you find yourself at a Marriott with Netflix this weekend, check out what you should be watching, along with new streaming suggestions elsewhere on the internet.

Netflix

A Most Wanted Man (Anton Corbijn, 2014)

One of the most underrated films of 2014, A Most Wanted Man boasts a slick spy game look and fantastic performances from Philip Seymour Hoffman (in his last lead performance) and its ensemble cast. Only Anton Corbijn’s third feature film, he fully controls a rich script based on a John le Carre novel. The work of the popular spy novellist has shown to translate well to the screen, and A Most Wanted Man is no exception—its geopolitical messages are complex and absolutely vital to today’s world culture. Beautifully shot in industrial Hamburg, Germany, the dreary atmosphere cranks up the the already tense political landscape. Working in every aspect, it is surprising that the film didn’t receive more critical praise last year. Now is the time to check it out for yourself and re-think your top 10 of 2014 list.

Other titles new to Netflix this week:
Ballet 422 (Jody Lee Lipes, 2014)
Beyond the Lights (Gina Prince-Bythewood, 2014)
Cake (Daniel Barnz, 2014)
GasLand (Josh Fox, 2010)
What Happened, Miss Simone? (Liz Garbus, 2015)

Fandor

Laurence Anyways (Xavier Dolan, 2012)

Because of a strange split release, Dolan’s newest film Mommy received it’s fair share of attention at the end of last year and will likely pop up on end-of-year lists in future months (it was #3 on our best of the year so far list), but Laurence Anyways is the young filmmaker’s best film. The film stars Melvil Poupaud as a school teacher who decides to undergo a gender transition. There haven’t been many films that positively depict a transgendered lead, making Laurence Anyways more interesting. Dolan fully employs his sensual, vibrant style, full of color and bold cinematography. There is plenty of drama, too, as Laurence’s decision affects his family and long-term girlfriend, played by Dolan staple Suzanne Clement. Clement delivers a fiery and dynamic performance, enough to make me wonder why other filmmakers haven’t seemed to discover her yet.

Other titles new to Fandor this week:
Confidentially Yours (François Truffaut, 1983)
Othello (Orson Welles, 1952)
Street of Shame (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1956)
The Stranger (Satyajit Ray, 1991)
Three Colors: Red (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1994)

MUBI

The Host (Bong Joon-ho, 2006)

With Jurassic World setting the box-office on fire, it’s a good time to watch/re-watch one of the best modern monster movies. Before he broke through to English language film with the indie-hit Snowpiercer last year, South Korean auteur Bong Joon-Ho built his career on clever genre constructions, The Host chief among them. The film follows a family trying to save one of their own from a vicious sea monster that has come to destroy Seoul. The Host is scary, thrilling, funny, action packed and super cool. And the title monster features one of the most inspired creature designs. On MUBI, the curated titles are only available for 30 days, so you’ll want check out The Host sooner rather than later.

Other titles new to MUBI this week:
Exiled (Johnnie To, 2006)
The Lost World (Harry O. Hoyt, 1925)
My Brilliant Career (Gillian Armstrong, 1979)
The Rink (Charles Chaplin, 1916)
A Summer’s Tale (Eric Rohmer, 1996)

Video On-Demand

While We’re Young (Noah Baumbach, 2014)

Baumbach’s latest film now makes its VOD debut along with its release on DVD and Blu-ray. Starring Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts as a 40-something hipster couple whose relationship hits a breaking point after befriending a 20-something hipster couple, While We’re Young is a very funny look across generations. The film has a sharp eye on how culture, music, technology and filmmaking has changed over time and how we have become dependent on finding the next coolest trends. Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried are great as the foils to Stiller and Watts, slightly exaggerated versions of Brooklyn youths, but well-developed and whole characters in their own right. Baumbach has become one of the premiere indie directors of his generation, and While We’re Young strengthens his place.

Other titles new to VOD this week:
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (David Zellner, 2014)
A Little Chaos (Alan Rickman, 2014)
The Little Death (Josh Lawson, 2014)

Two months shy of his 26th birthday, Xavier Dolan is traveling across the United States for press on his latest feature Mommy. Already released in several European countries as well as the Québécois Dolan’s home of Canada, the film will see an American release on January 23rd. Mommy is Dolan’s 5th film as a director, a remarkable achievement considering his relative youth; however, with Mommy, Dolan has gained increased notoriety outside of film festival circuits. After splitting the Jury Prize at Cannes with Jean-Luc Godard’s Goodbye to Language 3D, Mommy was selected as Canada’s official entry into the Foreign Film race for the upcoming Academy Awards.

Although his film failed to collect an Oscar nomination, Dolan remains hungry to immerse himself in the art of filmmaking. He speaks passionately about the importance of actors, and his desire to act. Speaking to a group of reporters, including Way Too Indie, Dolan discusses his lack of culture, how he’s evolved as a director since his debut I Killed My Mother, and growing up surrounded by women.

You were thinking of taking a break from filmmaking to go to art school?
I would love that though.

But you’re not going to do it?
Well, I can’t. The only time in my life when I could do that was last– this fall, just for one term. And I can’t anymore because I invested all my time in traveling, being in Los Angeles for the Oscars and the Golden Globes, which worked out so fine. I’m kidding. So no, it was worth giving it a try, but that project with going back to school was for this fall.

Do you feel different when you receive all this acclaim, and you receive the award [at Cannes] at the same time as Godard, can you be insecure?
I was never insecure. I’m passionate about what I do, and I love working with actors, and I love acting, writing these stories and nothing has ever made me feel insecure. Some reviews have hurt me but they’ve always been educational at the very least. The thing I’m the most satisfied with is that when I read the reviews on the movie, I don’t see the plethora of influences listed. People have rejoiced in pointing at, “This. This. This.” That’s always been very tiresome in the way that I don’t have a very large culture. So the influences that people had identified were almost systematically wrong.

Does it make you though want to go back and look at those films?
Of course, but when? At night?

Yeah! 3 in the morning.
Yeah, no, I’d rather get some sleep for the interviews at 9am. I mean, it will be a long life of watching films. But I started watching more serious films… when I was maybe 15 or 16. And I started directing movies when I was 19 so there was only this much time that I could spend really bingeing films and trying to catch up on a century of filmmaking.

And you’ve been making films consistently.
Ever since.

Why do you think you’re so prolific? Has it been almost one per year?
Yeah. Five in five years, but not necessarily… there have been two in one year twice. Anyway. I don’t know, I’ve just followed my need for films and sets and being in that adrenaline-driven journey of shooting a film. It feels like in between movies, I’m sort of waiting for something to happen. When I’m not working and creating movies, I’m standing by and just running circles.

Could you talk about the process of casting Antoine because it seems he could be totally innocent looking and at the same time the opposite, and go into a raging fit. It’s quite difficult to cast someone like that, could you talk about the process of casting him?
Yeah, it was a process of one second and a half. Let’s be honest, it wasn’t about finding a kid who would be ADHD and violent and impulsive. I would obviously never see that in someone. The thing is that we shot this music video [for Indochine’s “College Boy”] where he was this character who was a bullied kid, which is pretty much the opposite of what he is in Mommy, where no one will bully that child. But it was not in his performance, but his attitude on the set.

He was such a professional young man, and he was so kind, and listening. Somehow he wasn’t exactly that way on Mommy. He was way more rambunctious, I guess. We had this complicity so he would allow himself more familiarity which is great, but he was a little less calm, I’d say, than on the “College Boy” set. So the process of casting him was just believing we could do it together and that he could listen to my directions and that he would bring that character to life, which he did.

Compared to some of your other films, this is a bit more adrenalized. Faster paced, faster edited in some ways. Obviously the boisterous scenes. Is that a result of just the particulars of this film, or have you decided to tighten up your process, and I wonder if it’s a reflection of the film itself or is it a reflection of you?
No, I think it’s honestly more about the story and the script. A lot of people have told me how Laurence is long but Laurence is a film that would have felt twice as long if it would have been 25 minutes shorter. It’s a film that needed, whatever the opinions of people are, it’s a film that needs to span this much time because the story itself spans that many years.

There’s nothing worse for me than trying to tell a long story in a really short way, in a sort of skipped fashion. Where it becomes anecdotal, and it can never have any pace in stalling itself. You’re always jumping in motion. But Mommy was about the hysterical rhythm of these people’s lives. So the film had to mirror that. It isn’t the result of…

An internal process?
[nods] It’s more just addressing what the film itself and the script were calling for, which is a fast paced edit and constant motion.

Do you heavily storyboard your films or do you just turn on the camera and let the actors be for some of the more powerful scenes?
Somewhere in between I guess. I have a shot list, having a shot list does not keep the actors from being. But I’ve worked with a director as an actor who never knew how he would shoot a scene until he saw the actors block it. I don’t work that way. I know that I want a certain shot, that I want a certain dolly, that I want this and that and this and that but of course, I’ll always adapt myself to what the actors do. And if they bring something that needs me to adjust the direction we are taking or the shot list, everything is changeable. I’m not being psycho-rigid about what my needs are. The story was character driven and it’s always about the acting. It’s always about the actors.

What inspired you to place that introduction of a fake health care law on the beginning of the film?
Well, at a certain stage in preproduction, I saw this specialist, this doctor. We had a conversation about Steve’s character because I was curious to see if the psychological and emotional arcs made sense, which they did, they made sense. But then we started scouting locations and we went to a true correctional facility, and the principal who took us through the place, took us around, told me that the first scene in his humble opinion didn’t make sense. Because the movie starts with a correctional center. Steve is being expelled because he’s misbehaved, which a correctional center would never do.

When a kid misbehaves in a correctional center they just increase the level of surveillance and attention they can produce for that child. Their mandate is the protect the citizens against these children, and to protect the children against themselves. Then I realized that Mommy would never make sense sociologically and legally speaking and that I had a choice to make: telling a story that was rigorous in terms of research legally speaking, or just the story that I wanted to tell which was the story of mother love and friendship.

Had I not opted for that, I would have had to incorporate all these social workers, police officers, court scenes… it’s not a documentary. So I had this fictional Canada thing in the beginning to sort of get rid of the eventual remarks from people that worked in correctional centers or whatever. Not only that, I thought that this law would create and would illicit an actual moral dilemma, which I think is crucial for Die because of course a mother would never drop her child. That’s what she will say.

But I personally have friends who have child [sic] who have behavioral disorders or are mentally ill or are autistic, you know? They told me that what broke their hearts about reading the script, because some of them were actresses in the script. Not the leads, other roles. And they just told me that it broke their heart. What was most heart-wrenching for them was not the ending or this or that particular scene. [It was] when she drops him in the hospital. They identified and told me, “it’s awful to say that I often think about that. And that I see myself… doing that. I don’t think about that all the time but I do think about it, I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t think about that.”

So hearing that from a mother made me think, “Well then there’s got to be a choice.” Because when you can’t do something, when it is illegal, of course you tell everyone, “I would never do that.” But when it’s possible, it’s another conversation.

Was it a conscious choice not to reveal more of Kyla’s background?
I don’t know I just thought it was not necessary to stress anything about her past. I gave away all the things that I thought were interesting to expose. If we take that scene for example when she jumps on him, jumps on his throat. When he aggresses her, I guess, and snatches the heart locket, her reaction is so physical. She seems so incapable to produce that sort of anger in that sort of energy that it comes from really, really, really deep and far. I think that someone who loves film, and loves watching film, cannot help but understand this necklace is associated with death. It’s the first part of understanding Kyla’s mysterious past.

Then there’s a scene right after where she’s changing because he’s pissed on her ‘cause he was scared. She’s putting on some other clothes and you can see by her bed table a display of frames, family photos, and then you see the photo of a little boy. And you’ve seen her girl, you’ve seen her daughter. We’ve talked about the daughter, where is the little boy? We’ve seen the girl’s room, we’ve seen the daughter’s room, so where is the boy? He’s dead.

It’s not about Kyla’s past, it’s about Kyla’s future. She is seeking revival and resurrection through that new friendship within that new household. So that’s why I thought we did it. And with Suzanne because Suzanne has helped build this character’s past. When we embarked on Mommy nothing of that was really clear. There were some lines here and there to explain and also, what we liked is that she never told Die about her past. She never told her either that she’s driving the car at the beginning of the film and she sees the car accident.

Kyla is on the car accident scene. She doesn’t tell Die, “Hey by the way, I was right behind you when you had that accident I saw that happen.” It’s something you would mention, you would bring that up, you would say, “I was there, how weird?” But she doesn’t reveal anything about herself, her life. Because it’s all about Die. It’s about how Die and Steve are impressive to her and she envies their freedom somehow. Which is ultimately a cheat because they are not free. But everybody has an influence.

If I can ask about Anne and Suzanne, they were both actresses who were in your first film and I’m wondering how your working relationship has evolved as you’ve gained a little experience?
Well, there’s two way of looking at it I guess. Yes, the fact that I’ve learned more about acting. In Laurence Anyways I wasn’t acting so I literally spent a year of my life [on it], sort of. It was 75 days of shooting, a very long shoot, and I was just watching actors. Watching their craft, watching their strengths, their weaknesses. Learning how they work, and how they think and operate and everything. So then in Tom At the Farm I tried to apply these things to my own craft. And then Mommy was number five, and by then I had learned enough new things that the experience with Anne was completely different from that of I Killed My Mother.

But what’s also changed is that within these years I’ve grown closer to both these women. And I know them in their intimacy, and I know them in their private lives, and I know how they laugh and how they cry and who they are. So what’s fun about this is not only to write characters as far away and as different as what they’ve done in their careers, but also as different as can be then who they are in their lives.

One thing that’s consistent in your films is that they tend to be about a character stepping out of their cocoon. Would you agree and can you elaborate on that?
Yeah, they’re about characters breaking free, breaking the rules, but also trying to fit in society and being ostracized by that society because they are different. It’s always the same theme coming back.

Most of your films deal with outsiders, and I was wondering if growing up gay made you feel like an outsider. Do you think that will change in the near future?
No, I think that the themes that mark you and prey on your mind all the time and concern you and touch you are related to the things that have left a print on you when you were a child. So being gay as a child and [laughs] today still has brought me moments and scenes of being misunderstood and feeling like a misfit. Or finding my voice and my path, trying to define myself in the eyes of others, in the eyes of mothers, in the eyes of women, in the eyes of men. So that’s why I feel like I have a natural inclination towards characters in that exact same position. Women are, like gay men, trying to fit within society, which is a space that is shaped for men, whatever the progress seems like it is, it’s still defined by the predominance of males.

I think women are trying to fit in, and are fighting, and that’s why I associated with women characters. It is through women characters that I feel like I can most effectively and most efficiently [express] my fights and my claims. I hope it’s clear and it’s not lost in translation. What I’m trying to say is that in my life I have been watching women fight a lot more than I’ve been watching men fight but of course we’re not defined by our gender, we’re defined by our quest. Who we are as individuals. But it so happens that in my childhood, I was surrounded by women and they are the figures I saw fighting for who they were and are. So naturally, I do write for women and mothers, I guess.

What’s next? Are you writing a project? Acting for someone else in a project? What are the new goals, the next set of goals?
I think that within the next two years I’ll be working on my own movies as a director, a lot. There might be a project from a script I’ve not produced. But I really need to act. Like, if I want to keep having a healthy relationship with actors, I need to act myself, because I give a lot of my time and energy and writing dialog for actors, and finding costumes for actors, and directing actors and working with actors, and filming actors, and lensing actors, and doing CGI for actors. At a certain point… I need to act myself, too.

Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan is back with his third film Laurence Anyways, which attempts to show that gender is not everything when it comes to a relationship. The film did well at the Cannes Film Festival this year as it picked up three nominations and won two awards, one of which was a well-deserved Best Actress for Suzanne Clement. Aside from a few missteps the film can still be appreciated, especially if you liked Dolan’s previous work, but it is not his best outing (no pun intended).

The opening sequence of a woman walking down the street sets the tone of the film as the camera focuses on all the bystander’s faces as they stare intensely at her. The camera only follows the woman as to not reveal the identity or the reason why people seem to be confused at what they see. Just as the woman is about to turn around the scene ends in an ambiguous manner.

Laurence Anyways then leaps back ten years prior to the present, showing the relationship between Laurence Alia (Melvil Poupaud) and Fred Belair (Suzanne Clement). The two of them seem happy sharing their lives together. Laurence is a high school teacher that recently received an award for his excellence. Fred works in the television field. Both enjoy smoking marijuana and making lists together such as what limits their pleasure as human beings.

Things take a drastic turn when Laurence drops the bomb on Fred that he was meant to live the life of a woman instead of a man. For someone to hear this news after being with that person for two years has to come as a complete shock. Fred is of course shocked but handles it surprisingly calmly. She accepts his needs as does her best to help Laurence during the transformation.

When he announces this to his parents he gets a totally different reaction. Instead of embracing his decision, his mother calls him insane and says that his father will not accept him. She does not ask questions, she seems uninterested in talking about it at all. In fact, she says they will not support him if he gets into trouble, their door is closed for him.

The transition period will not be an easy one. Over the course of ten years, we see the struggles Laurence endures in his professional, family and relationship life. Instead of seeking sympathy from the viewer the film sensibly shows both the bad and good of his character.

One scene that stuck out to me was when the film subtly hints at the transformation would take place later. Laurence is sitting in class watching his students take a test. He seems to be under stress as the back of his neck is sweating profusely. He looks around the room and focuses on some of the females playing with their hair. On each one of his fingers are paper clips that look an awful lot like long feminine finger nails.

Even leaving out the subject of transsexual out, you could easily confuse Laurence Anyways for a Pedro Almodóvar film because of the artful backdrops, contrast of colors, and patterns found throughout. The repeated use of slow motion may frustrate some viewers as it happens often enough to make the film feel slow. Whether you believe they work or not, you cannot discredit how beautiful the cinematography was.

Speaking about the film’s length, I found the first hour and the last hour both to be good. It is that time in the middle where the nearly 3 hour runtime feels sluggish. The point of the film is to follow Laurence through ten years to show that society and people around him still have not accepted him over all of these years. I think it could have easily achieved that with some of the scenes edited down a bit.

Some of the issues I had with the film were with some of the directorial decisions Dolan made. The biggest offender would be from the unneeded journalist who ends up being narrator of the film. Another part that just did not seem to fit is when the butterfly comes out of Laurence’s mouth. I appreciated the metaphor but thought this was a little tacky.

What I appreciated most about Laurence Anyways is that Dolan decides to examine, rather than defend, the transformation of one’s gender. The film does not try to preach as much as you might expect it to. The film more or less shows that everyone is human and everyone has flaws which makes us human. Life is not so black or white as some make it out to be, there is grey area and that is what Laurence Anyways is about.

The 65th annual Cannes Film Festival is underway currently and the staff at Way Too Indie wanted to highlight the Top 13 Films we are anticipating to see the most. We are still about a week away before we will be hearing from the jury which films they decided to give awards to. There are over 20 films that are in the In Competition category and if we had to guess who walks away with top prize of the Palme d’Or, it would be one of the films we listed below. Without further ado, Way Too Indie’s Top 13 Most Anticipated Films at Cannes Film Festival 2012.

Beasts of the Southern Wild (director Benh Zeitlin)

Immediately after watching the trailer to Beasts of the Southern Wild I made note that this is a film I need to see. Chatter around this film started when it won the dramatic Grand Jury Prize Award at Sundance this year. It looks like it could have some Where the Wild Things Are elements to it but perhaps with a more gritty and serious story to it. If Beasts of the Southern Wild is half as good as the trailer makes it out to be, we should be in for a real treat with this film. Roger Ebert recently tweeted that Beasts of the Southern Wild is the best film he has seen this year. Cue the goosebumps. [Dustin]

UPDATE: Our review of Beasts of the Southern Wild

Post Tenebras Lux (director Carlos Reygadas)

After Battle in Heaven, Carlos Reygadas must have had some sort of epiphany. His follow-up, Silent Light, was one of the best movies of the last 10 years and felt like it was light years ahead of everything he did previously. His most recent work, the short film This is my Kingdom from the omnibus film Revolucion, might be his best work to date. Post Tenebras Lux looks like Reygadas is only maturing and developing even more. The first images and clips from the movie are jaw-droppingly gorgeous, the director of Cannes has been more or less openly gushing about it, and it’s already being compared to Tree of Life. Reygadas is one of the more exciting directors working today, and if Post Tenebras Lux lives up to the hype it should be unlike anything we’ve seen before. [CJ]

Mud (director Jeff Nichols)

Director Jeff Nichols is on a hot streak. His first feature Shotgun Stories was an indie sensation and had a lot of people singing his name from the rafters as a promising young director. Then his second feature with Michael Shannon (who is one of the top actors right now), Take Shelter, was a great step for the director. Working again with Shannon and few other top actors including Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Sarah Paulson, Sam Shepard and Joe Don Baker (a personal favorite), Mud looks to be a winner with this pedigree working together. [Blake]

Moonrise Kingdom (director Wes Anderson)

The mere fact that it has been three years since Wes Anderson has graced us with his unprecedented style and passion is reason enough to want to see Moonrise Kingdom. The film is about capturing the feeling of being madly in love at the tender age of 12. Backed by the cast of his regulars, Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzmann along with some Anderson newcomers Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Frances McDormand and Tilda Swinton is another reason why I am excited to see this film. [Dustin]

UPDATE: Our review of Moonrise Kingdom

Mekong Hotel (director Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

I’ve only seen two movies by Joe (his nickname for people who have a hard time pronouncing his full name) but they’re both masterpieces. Joe’s films are so hypnotic, bizarre and immersive with their lack of focus on time or narrative that they can feel like they come from another plane of existence entirely. Mekong Hotel sounds like a horror film from its synopsis involving a cannibalistic ghost but things are never that simple with Joe’s movies. Here’s hoping that Mekong Hotel can live up to at least half of the quality of his other films. [CJ]

Rust and Bone (director Jacques Audiard)

Jacques Audiard made a great movie a few years ago called A Prophet which made my top ten list the year it came out. I then went back to watch his breakout feature The Beat That My Heart Skipped, which is one hell of a movie. Now comes Rust and Bone, with Oscar winner Marion Cotillard as a killer whale trainer who falls in love a man named Ali. There bond only grows stronger after Stephanie (Cotillard) suffers a horrible accident. [Blake]

The We and The I (director Michel Gondry)

Willing to overlook Michel Gondry’s previous Hollywood adventure The Green Hornet in hopes that he has returned to his old style of films that put him on the map as an acclaimed film director. His more avant-garde style of films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep show off his creativity as a visionary director. Not a lot is known about this film yet but the talk is the film is closer to his earlier work. Knowing his potential, it is hard not to look forward to see what Michel Gondry has come up with now. [Dustin]

Love (director Michael Haneke)

Michael Haneke is back from his massive success involving The White Ribbon with what looks like something on a smaller scale. As with most of Haneke’s films the information given out so far is limited. It involves a family whose lives change after the mother has “an attack.” Isabelle Huppert, who gave Haneke the Palme D’Or for White Ribbon, has what looks like a small role in this so hopefully their collaboration will be as good as when they got together for The Piano Teacher. Haneke is considered to be one of the best directors working today by some (including myself) so no matter what there will always be an excited audience for whatever Haneke does next. [CJ]

Killing Them Softly (director Andrew Dominik)

Formerly titled Coogan’s Trade, Andrew Dominik’s newest film has internet film geeks abuzz with its powerhouse cast being lead by the director who has made two fantastic features in Chopper and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and starring one of the biggest, if not the biggest actor on the planet Brad Pitt. Along with Pitt you got, Richard Jenkins, Sam Shepard (him again), James Gandolfini and Ray Liotta. Pitt plays a mob enforcer tasked with investigating the robbery of a mob run poker game. All this talent has me salivating at the mouth. [Blake]

Laurence Anyways (director Xavier Dolan)

The synopsis of Laurence Anyways, a man on this 30th birthday tries to save his relationship with his fiancé after telling her he wants to become a woman, made me curious enough to watch the trailer. After watching the trailer, it looks to be an emotional filled unique love story. Xavier Dolan’s first two films I Killed My Mother and Heartbeats also both premiered at Cannes cementing him as an acclaimed upcoming director. Unlike his previous films, in Laurence Anyways he decides to stay behind the camera instead of also acting in the film. [Dustin]

Cosmopolis (director David Cronenberg)

After making more conventional films for almost a decade, David Cronenberg appears to be diving head first into the weird-ass types of films that made him get so popular in the first place. It seems like people didn’t realize how much they missed the days of Dead Ringers or Videodrome until the first trailers for Cosmopolis came out, launching it straight into a position as one of the most anticipated films this year. Hopefully Cronenberg can live up to the hype that’s suddenly surrounded this movie in the last few weeks. [CJ]

Paradise:Love (director Ulrich Seidl)

Ulrich Seidl is a director I’ve never heard of before, but one that I will now follow, and the trailer has me completely sold. The subject matter sounds ripe for the picking and the style of the film, which looks like a documentary, will only add to how powerful the film could end up being. Taking place in a tropical paradise, a white middle aged woman who is on vacation becomes involved with a local a black man. Judging from the trailer, love and heartbreak look to be inevitable. [Blake]

You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet! (director Alain Resnais)

This wasn’t on my radar at all until I saw the fantastic trailer for it along with the bizarre synopsis involving the massive star-studded French cast playing themselves performing a play they’ve all been in at some point throughout their careers after the playwright posthumously invites them to see a young theatre company perform the same play (you might need to read that a few times to fully understand it). Resnais is still going strong in his later years, and if anything his new movie is going to be one of the more unique titles in competition this year. [CJ]