The first full week of Cannes 2026 has come to an end, and I am happy to report that the wind has (mostly) died down. It’s been pretty gorgeous weather these past few days, though some people are complaining that it’s a little too chilly at night. The parties have been raucous—I went to the one for Club Kid, which worked the fog machine hard and bussed in some nightlife dolls from Marseilles to liven things up—and the streets are flooded with rosé. Cannes is in full swing! 

But have the movies gotten any more exciting? Some would say yes. Beloved Drive My Car auteur Ryusuke Hamaguchi premiered his 3-hour-16-minute opus All of a Sudden on Friday, to a chorus of hearty raves. People loved its humanist approach to elder care, to economic philosophy, to death and dying. The film, which concerns a French care worker (a radiant Virginie Efira) who befriends a Japanese theater director (Tao Okamoto) who is dying of cancer, is heavy on up-with-people sentiment, it wears its big shiny heart on the sleeve of its comfortable, summery shirt. Its version of earnestness makes regular earnestness look like snark. Kindness feels in such short supply these days, so why not fall under the spell of a movie that is a hopeful paean to decency and compassion and conscientious stewardship of the planet? I can understand why so many people have embraced the film here. Me? I absolutely loathed it.