Kirsten Dunst Is In Control

Being a film festival, it makes sense that normally, the Cannes red carpet is filled up with the cinema set, along with some models thrown in there to keep things (the fashion) interesting. For the Elvis premiere, however, which took over the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday, it was the music industry’s time to shine, as some of the biggest artists joined stars Austin Butler (who may or may not still be in character) and Tom Hanks on the red carpet to celebrate Baz Luhrman’s highly anticipated biopic.

We now know why Anne Hathaway left her first-ever Cannes Film Festival early. The 39-year-old Academy Award winner had a prior commitment in a place far from the south of France both literally and figuratively: suburban New Jersey. On Thursday, she resurfaced on the set of her upcoming film Mothers’ Instinct looking like a brunette Betty Draper, channeling the same 1960s style as her costar, Jessica Chastain. If you’re into Mad Men-era fashion, from the look of the paparazzi photos, this is the movie for you.

Paul Mescal and Emily Watson in God's Creatures, courtesy of A24/Cannes. Margaret Qualley and Joe Alwyn in Stars at Noon, courtesy of A24/Cannes. Audiences at the Cannes Film Festival are known for ending films with (sometimes unfair and rowdy) boos or overlong standing ovations. What is more unusual is for credits to come up on a film to no reaction at all. It was a confused and dead silence that greeted the end of the newest Claire Denis film, Stars at Noon, starring Margaret Qualley and Joe Alwyn. What went wrong? And why was Denis, one of France's best and most esteemed living filmmakers, in the competition category at Cannes for only the second time (the first time in 34 years) for her worst movie?

After Brett Gelman devoured the first season of Stranger Things, he knew that he needed to be on the show. “I immediately called my agent,” he says of his first time watching the show. He then joined the Netflix original in season two as Murray Bauman, Hawkins’s resident ex-journalist-turned-crackpot private investigator, who begins poking around the unexplained disappearances in town. Murray quickly ascended to fan favorite status, memorably striking up a Slurpee-fueled bromance with Soviet scientist Alexei (Alec Utgoff) and imploring other characters to act on their palpable sexual tension. As Gelman returns as a series regular in seasons four and five, he strikes up a new dynamic with Winona Ryder’s Joyce Byers, as they team up to rescue Hopper (David Harbour) from a Russian prison. “Playing that dynamic was really fun. Without the romance, obviously,” he says. “Well maybe not obvious, who knows?” he adds coyly. “We would joke a lot about how we were going to drive David crazy by telling him that the fans were going to start calling us ‘Moyce,’ and ‘Moyce’ was going to eclipse ‘Jopper.’”

Jean Smart is having a moment. Certainly, she’s had several during the four decades of her career so far. But in this current era, the winds of social media have elevated her to a new height of fame. Every week, tweets about her on-screen chemistry with her screen partner, her ability to switch from tranquil to scarily choleric on a dime, and her wry displays of talk show humor flood the feed. Such idolatry is not something she could have foreseen during her days on Designing Women—the CBS series she considers a game changer and that made her a household name. But it lines up perfectly with her portrayal of Deborah Vance, the wisecracking, capricious, and—let’s be honest—mean queen of comedy on HBO Max’s Hacks, now in its second season. The part has been especially fruitful, not only for Smart—“I really felt like they were handing me a gift-wrapped package, and it was a thrill,” she says of the role—but also for fans who have had a field day with creating memes and content around her character, all of which the actress engages with slightly, seemingly from a distance.