Park Chan-wook wasn’t the only acclaimed filmmaker making a triumphant return to Cannes after a six-year absence! But when Cristian Mungiu’s long-awaited follow-up to Graduation (which nabbed him the Best Director award at Cannes in 2016, no less) was suddenly announced, the news wasn’t met with nearly as much fanfare as the long-gestating confirmation of Decision to Leave. Now obviously, the mind behind Oldboy and The Handmaiden would receive a more rabid public response than the cold visionary that gave us 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, but I think the sudden announcement of Mungiu’s return should have conjured greater excitement, as he remains one of the great socio-political storytellers out of modern Europe.

Having now seen the horribly titled R.M.N., part of me feels almost as if the tempered reactions to the film’s announcement may have been somewhat warranted. So far, the theme for this year’s Cannes Film Festival seems to be “treading familiar ground,” because there isn’t really all that much offered by R.M.N. that Mungiu hasn’t given us before, and better. The near-universal consensus that this is by far Mungiu’s best film since his Palme d’Or winner—when its immediate follow-up, Beyond the Hills, exists—makes me wonder if they were injecting airborne crack into the press screenings.

Now, after reading these words and looking at this star rating your first instinct is likely, “Ok… so what the fuck?” It is undoubtedly disappointing that R.M.N.—touted as one of its director’s towering achievements and a front runner for the Festival’s most coveted prize—is pretty standard as far as Mungiu’s filmography goes. But with all that said, “more of the same” with Cristian Mungiu is still first-rate storytelling, no matter how you slice it. His long takes are still subdued in composition but endlessly impressive in coordination, and the naturalistic performances he gets from his actors sell the frightening believability of the xenophobic motivations that plague this rural setting.

Regarding the particulars of this narrative, the social politics of R.M.N. are, uh… blunt, to say the least. There isn’t very much that Mungiu leaves to the imagination (until the film’s final moments), and some of the ignorant-ass statements made by these morons feel borderline-parodic at times. Then again, if the Trump era has taught us anything (which progressive filmmaking has yet to let us ignore), it’s that such unjustified ignorance and stupidity is far more prevalent than many of us would like to believe. The indifference of the primary character towards this reality, while not quite compelling from a traditional character arc perspective, speaks volumes on the dangers of such malignant mindsets.  

2022 Ranked.

Cannes 2022.
(PREVIOUS—> DECISION TO LEAVE.
UP NEXT—> BROKER.)