One goes to Cannes to see the highest of high-minded cinema, bold and searing visions from the world’s foremost auteurs. We peek in on the social upheavals of contemporary Romania, explore the fringes of city life in Tokyo and Seoul, roam the lonely foothills of Anatolia, experience the bustle of Dakar, examine the fraught history of Chile. It is an enriching experience, to see what the planet’s premier and emerging film artists have newly dreamt up.
Sometimes, though, one needs a little break from all that heavy stuff. Which is just what the French animated comedy Jim Queen offers this year. Directed by Nicolas Athane and Marco Nguyen, Jim Queen is a crass, profane, giddily stupid romp through a heap of stereotypes about gay life in Paris. It’s teeming with jokes about prostate orgasms, about tops and bottoms, about fetishes and bodily fluids and G’d out party bois. It comes as a welcome shock to the system here at this august, black-tie film festival. I just wish the movie was funnier and fresher than it is.
Jim Queen
The Bottom Line
Reheated nachos, minus the carbs.
