Cannes 2010: Bankers and Teens

Day 3 of the Film Festival brought with it two highly anticipated films. The first was Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Oliver Stone's follow up to his 1987 feature Wall Street. Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) has been released from jail after his sentence for inside trading and is thrown into a new economic climate on the verge of collapse. His daughter Winnie (Carey Mulligan) refuses to speak to him but her trader boyfriend Jacob (Shia LaBeouf) is curious to meet the financier, especially when it emerges he might have information to help him. Wall Street 2, as it has been labelled, is big, bold and very Hollywood, with all you'd expect from such a description. But does it also send a stark message about the dark side of capitalism? Kind of. As the story develops, the true nature of the greed and corruption in the city emerges - yet the ending, without giving anything away, chooses a path which seems a little safe, given the severity of the actions of the characters which preceded it.

Second up was British-funded film Chatroom directed by Japanese director Hideo Nakata (The Ring). It boasts a cast of rising British talent including Aaron Johnson as the lead character William, who makes friends with a group of teens online before targeting each individually and forcing them to turn to destructive behaviour. It has one striking thing going for it: the visual recreation of the virtual world, imagined as a garish corridor off of which are many rooms. Chatroom is well-paced and absorbing, yet can't shake off the sense of being - what one person on Twitter called "sixth form drama". The film also depicts a highly negative view of the Internet, full of suicide and bullying which verges towards the extreme and often unbelievable. I'm off to interview the cast and screenwriter later, look out for that interview in the near future.

Due next at Cannes is Woody Allen's latest and British contender Mike Leigh, details coming to a blog near you soon.