Cannes review quick bites: Michelle Williams in Ohio, the Dardennes in pole position

There was a gentle send-up to be found in Kelly Reichardt’s slyly observational Showing Up. Michelle Williams is on superb deadpan form as a self-effacing sculptor preparing to open a show in an Ohio art scene where everyone is oh-so-boho, strenuously laid-back and quietly screwed up. As Williams and her rival artist landlady trade microaggressions and her dysfunctional family members are gradually revealed, we come to learn the source of anguish in her tortured little figurines.

A narratively satisfying noir issues from South Korean stylist Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, The Handmaiden). Decision to Leave is a tightly knotted thriller in which a Chinese femme-fatale widow (Tang Wei) runs rings around a besotted Busan detective (Park Hae-il). There is a hefty dose of Hitchcock and even Bernard Herrmann-esque shrieking strings, with Park adding his own slick cinematic flourishes. The circuitous plot may be as confounding as some classic noirs but the strands come together as it progresses — this is one that will benefit from a second viewing.

As the festival passed the halfway mark, talk turned to which of the competition films might win over the jury, this year headed by French actor Vincent Lindon, star of Titane. His strong social conscience is clear from numerous collaborations with director Stéphane Brizé and he may well be drawn to the latest social realist drama from Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, already two-time winners of the Palme d’Or. Family ties are again to the fore in Tori and Lokita, the heart-rending and gnawingly tense story of two migrants from Benin (Pablo Schils and Mbundu Joely) who may or may not be brother and sister (the authorities have their doubts) but take risks to protect each other when they are ensnared by a pitiless drugs gang. It may be a dismayingly familiar scenario but it’s expertly handled with economic precision by the Dardennes, their best in years.

With the final days left to play out, there are still contenders to come from big art-house hitters such as Claire Denis, Hirokazu Kore-eda and the hotly tipped Lukas Dhont as well as the hip-wiggling spectacle of Baz Luhrmann’s mega-biopic Elvis.

Ends May 28, festival-cannes.com