Sean Baker’s Anora has stormed to the top of Screen’s Cannes jury while Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope divided critics and Christophe Honoré’s Marcello Mio scored the lowest of this year’s festival so far.
Baker’s latest feature received a solid 3.3 - the first film this year to score an average above three stars, overtaking last year’s jury grid winner, Aki Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves (3.2).
The US comedy-drama about a sex worker received six scores of four stars (excellent) and four marks of three stars (good). Critics Katja Nicodemus (Germany’s Die Zeit) and Anton Dolin (Meduza) were less convinced, scoring one (poor) and two stars (average) respectively.
Mikey Madison stars as the titular Anora, a stripper who finds herself married to a Russian oligarch and must fend off his parents who are keen for an annulment. It marks Baker’s second time in Competition, following 2021’s Red Rocket, which received a middling 2.2 on Screen’s jury grid that year.
The jury were less sure on Sorrentino’s Parthenope, giving it an average of 1.6.
Egypt’s Ahmed Shawky of filfan.com gave the Italian drama four stars while Dolin and NT Binh at France’s Positif awarded three stars. At the other end, Ben Kenigsberg of rogertebert.com dismissed the feature with a zero (bad) followed by four one stars and two two stars.
Sorrentino last appeared on the jury grid back in 2015 with Youth receiving a 2.4 average. Parthenope is described as a “feminine epic”, reimagining the legendary siren of Naples as a woman born in the 1950s. The ensemble cast, includes debutant Celeste Dalla Porta and Gary Oldman.
The third film to land on the jury grid was Christophe Honoré’s Marcello Mio with of 1.4 - the lowest score of this year’s festival so far. The French feature scored zeros from The Telegraph and Matthieu Macharet (Le Monde), seven one stars, and a handful of two and three stars.
Chiara Mastroianni stars as a version of herself as she takes on the identity of her father Marcello Mastroianni, dressing, speaking and breathing like him.
Coming up next is Miguel Gomes’ Grand Tour and Karim Ainouz’s Motel Destino.
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