“Alpha,” “Highest,” “Pillion” Get Cannes Ovations

“Titane” director Julia Ducournau returned to Cannes on Monday evening with her new ‘mother-daughter infection thriller’ feature “Alpha” which had one of the best receptions of the film festival so far, pulling in a nearly 12-minute standing ovation. As Ducournau was visibly emotional and thankful for the rousing reception, the film made headlines for other […] The post “Alpha,” “Highest,” “Pillion” Get Cannes Ovations appeared first on Dark Horizons.

May 20, 2025 - 08:00

“Alpha,” “Highest,” “Pillion” Get Cannes Ovations

“Titane” director Julia Ducournau returned to Cannes on Monday evening with her new ‘mother-daughter infection thriller’ feature “Alpha” which had one of the best receptions of the film festival so far, pulling in a nearly 12-minute standing ovation.

As Ducournau was visibly emotional and thankful for the rousing reception, the film made headlines for other reasons. For one, paramedics were called in for a medical emergency on the balcony with one audience member carried out on a stretcher.

On the other hand, reviews have since come out and boy are they divisive with most leaning towards negative. The film is said to be overstuffed with ideas, highly ambitious, baffling, and more. Critics like IndieWire’s David Ehrlich call it her “first unambiguous misfire” and Variety’s Peter DeBruge calls it “painful to watch”.

That wasn’t the only film at Cannes though. Spike Lee’s Kurosama reimagining “Highest 2 Lowest” debuted to a near six-minute ovation and very good reviews with several indicating Lee’s personal touches and diversions away from the source material are its real strengths.

Scoring universal praise is “Pillion”, the Alexander Skarsgard and Harry Melling-led provocative and BDSM-themed comedy-drama which is currently at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Dubbed the “male ‘Babygirl’ but funnier,” it also landed a nearly eight-minute standing ovation as well as plenty of social media talk over attendees such as Pedro Pascal and one man in a leather pup mask.

Wes Anderson’s “The Phoenician Scheme” was also shown to a seven-minute ovation, and plenty of reviews are already out. With nearly 43 counted, it sits at a 74% on RT and with over two dozen counted it’s at 71 on Metacritic. Anderson also confirmed (via WoR) that he’s writing his next film with frequent co-writer Roman Coppola along with beloved actor/filmmaker Richard Ayoade.

The Dakota Johnson-led open relationship comedy “Splitsville” landed a seven-minute ovation with Neon to release that movie in U.S. cinemas on August 22nd.

Source: Variety

The post “Alpha,” “Highest,” “Pillion” Get Cannes Ovations appeared first on Dark Horizons.