Wild Diamond (2024)
While I don’t think any Cannes main competition film will rival Anora from 2024, as the rest of the films appear on various services now, I find it interesting to see what else was in the main selection. For a debut feature film, this was pretty solid. I see many compare it to Sean Baker, but I think it is closer to Andrea Arnold. It doesn’t have the playfulness of Baker’s social commentary, but it does have some of the non-judgemental view of people that I have seen perfected by Arnold. The film managed to evoke a level of empathy and understanding for a type of influencer I generally mostly loathe. The ones with fake books, eyebrows, lips etc. who does little more than promote abhorrent beauty standards and superficial goals in life. The narrative is somewhat predictable and not exactly any sort of new big insight in showing these young people as someone with deeply rooted self esteem issues, but Malou Khebizi made it worth watching.
Rating: 3.5