In “Black Flies” the full-frontal reality of two nighttime paramedics grabs you at the throat and doesn’t let go. The new Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire film is an infernal ride of double-shifts and bullying and death into the belly of the beast, the film pops, hits hard, the image is jumpy, the screams are loud, it’s a pressure-cooker, I came out of there traumatized and a little shaken. This is not the New York City I know. Had an inkling.

Inventive, oneirical at times, sometimes absurdly humorous, Argentinian filmmaker Rodrigo Moreno’s “Los Delincuentes” (“The criminals” in the original Spanish) was a pleasure to discover for its originality. Moran, A high-level bank employee comes up with an elaborate plan to divert a bag of cash from his employer. In the commission of his crime he involves another employee, one whose code of ethics is beyond reproach

On Wednesday I watched two films that treated the same subject, youth, “Monster” and later in the night, “Le Retour” by Catherine Corsini who was in Cannes previously with “La Fracture.”

“Le Retour” (“The Return” in the original French). There isn’t much new left to say about anything as concerns young adulthood. It’s a time for exploring, trying on various selves, observing others and mimicking, or not

In Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Monster,” competing for Palme D’Or, a small boy and his mother, the father dead and buried, the boy’s in school and the mother works in a dry-cleaners. At the start of the film a building in their neighborhood catches fire and they watch from the balcony, mother and son looking more like two friends. She’s carefree, unaffected by the pressures of raising a son but vigilant nevertheless. They place a small cake with candles in front

Seventeen years, that’s a long time to prepare a film, and it’s how long actress-director Maïwenn has spent on “Jeanne Du Barry,” which inaugurates the Cannes Festival today, a film that’s a nod to Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette” which was shown here in 2006, but also a nod to the past since real-life Marie-Antoinette became Louis XVI's wife, ending the courtesan's favored place in the court. It is thanks to "Marie-Antoinette"

CANNES, FRANCE - Some firsts at the Cannes Festival which starts today, an Italian contingent in the competition slate and what I look forward to the most this year.

At the helm of the festival this 76th edition a woman, Iris Knobloch, who replaces Pierre Lescure as president of the festival after a tenure that lasted six years. Programmer Thierry Frémaux and she already know each other

Director Jesse V. Johnson makes the type of action thrillers that would’ve allowed him to be a force in the action cinema flicks that flooded theaters in the eighties. Johnson’s latest, “One Ranger,” is a mildly-entertaining thriller that would make the ghost of the Cannon Film Group proud.

Thomas Jane is Alex Tyree, an rugged Texas Ranger tough who is recruited by