Review: Smart And Bracing Cannes Winner 'Force Majeur'
A biting satire that plays out with almost crystalline precision in the rarefied, thin-air environs of an upscale ski resort, Swedish director Ruben Ostlund’s fourth feature, “Force Majeure,” took the Jury (runner up) prize in the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes, but also, more importantly, took the coveted honor of being The Film We’d Heard Nothing About Prior That Gained So Much Buzz While There We Had To See It (last year’s recipient: “Stranger By The Lake”). And so our last Sunday in Cannes found us calculating shuttle journeys and negotiating potential airport strike delays to squeeze in the catch-up screening, and we’re so glad we did. “Force Majeure” is a brutally smart and original film that capped off our Cannes in bracing style—it’s edge is so keen, and its movements so deft, that it’s not till you’re out the cinema and up the road that you realize how cutting it was.
We spend the initial...