Stay Through the Credits

Denis Ménochet plays a newly elected French president forced into a nuclear standoff in "Jupiter," a tense, tightly controlled political thriller that trades spectacle for procedure. We talk through Ménochet's quietly devastating performance, how it stacks up against "A House of Dynamite," and why the film's breakneck pacing helps and hurts it in equal measure.

Paul Schrader returns with "The Basics of Philosophy," a provocative, uneven study of a predatory academic played by Jack Huston. We dig into why the film's premise is genuinely bold, where its handling of queer life falls apart, and whether Schrader's latest confessional streak earns the discomfort it's chasing.

After the festival's biggest misfire yet, Rami Kodeih's "Furies" comes in swinging, a Lebanon-set heist thriller about two sisters trying to break into their own frozen bank account amid the country's economic collapse. We talk through the film's kinetic energy, its "Thelma and Louise" edge, and the moral murkiness underneath all the adrenaline.

Shinya Tsukamoto's "Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?" tries to tell a Black soldier's Vietnam War story and ends up lost at nearly every level, stilted dialogue, disconnected performances, and a shockingly shallow grasp of race. We break down where the ambition gets buried under noise, why Rodney Hicks never gets a fair shot, and how this stacks up as our first real misfire nine films into the festival.

Cédric Kahn's "15/18 (A Place to Heal)" drops us straight into a French teen psychiatric ward, following patients and staff through breakdowns, small victories, and one new arrival who upends everything. We talk through the film's raw, immersive energy, standout performances from Malou Khebizi and Zoé Monpart, and why so many of its most compelling threads get left hanging by the end.

We kick off day three with "Queer Edward II," Theo Rollason's intimate documentary built from rare behind-the-scenes footage of Derek Jarman shooting his 1991 film "Edward II." We talk through the film's playful set-life chaos, how it weaves in real 1990s queer activism, and why it works better as a focused snapshot than a full biography.

John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell play two CIA veterans facing mortality and old secrets on Easter Island in Martin McDonagh's "Wild Horse Nine." We talk through Malkovich's career-best performance, the film's surprising spiritual undercurrent, its western movie DNA, and why this might be McDonagh's most affecting film to date.

On the fifth film of the festival and our third screening on Day 2, we get into Robert Greene’s Too Much Sugar, a messy, funny, emotional documentary about fatherhood, friendship, grief, and accountability in working-class Missouri.

Kate and Rooney Mara star as twin sisters who talk, move, and love in perfect unison in Werner Herzog's completely unhinged "Bucking Fastard." We talk through the film's commitment to its bizarre premise, why Herzog treats these characters with real tenderness instead of turning them into spectacle, and whether the constant detours into myth and whimsy help or hurt the story at its center.

Mohsen Gharaei's "Falling House" turns a condemned Tehran home into a none-too-subtle symbol of collapsing patriarchal control, as a prison guard locks up the women in his life rather than lose his grip on them. We talk through the film's strong central metaphor, Farhad Aslani's slow turn from gentle giant to controlling tyrant, why it can't escape comparisons to "The Seed of the Sacred Fig," and where the melodrama gets in its own way.