Not only are people reviewing The Rover since the Cannes premiere, they’re also including The Rover in their Cannes recaps and “best of” lists. Here are a few reviews, recaps, and all-around accolades
From First Showing (Top 5 films from Cannes):
The more I think back to this film, the more it grows on me. It is very simple: a man in a crime-ridden, post-apocalyptic Australian outback just wants to get his stolen car back. Guy Pearce plays that man, and it’s set in a dirty post-apoc Mad Max-esque wasteland, where the violence is visceral, the people are slimy, and everything is covered with a gritty dust. Similar to Drive, one of my favorite films of Cannes 2012, the power of The Rover is in its silence, and it uses that silence (and minimal dialogue) very effectively to convey so much, to speak loudly without being loud. The more I think about the story, as simple as it may be, the more I think about what wasn’t said, and what director David Michod doesn’t show us, the more I realize there’s an immense depth to this that goes way beyond all the grit and grime on every person in it.
From The Film Experience:
If Lost River was a roided-up Charlie and the Chocolate Factory boat ride, The Rover would be a slowed-down, dustier version of Six Flags Great Adventure’s Rolling Thunder… Sometime in the not-so-distant future (or as the film refers to it, 10 years after “the collapse”), reticent everyman Eric (admirably outfitted by Guy Pearce) sets out after the three men who stole his car through the dire deadlands of rural Australia. With the powers-that-be nowhere in sight, it’s up to Eric and his cinematic determination to set things right. Feeling a bit like Mad Max meets The Road but not as heavy as that reads, David Michod’s The Rover follows its mission well, portraying a future world of ill morals and desolation through many shots of lone figures near-lost in a vast landscape and the up-the-back creepiness of a world gone mad (an old grandmother turns out to be little less than a madame, dogs have to be caged in order to protect them from humans, they only accept American dollars…).
Along the way, Eric stumbles on Rey (Robert Pattinson), the injured fourth member of the gang who stole his car. Left behind for dead, Rey is a slower-witted young man with a Southern accent and a glazed look in his eyes. While Pattinson could have easily fallen into exaggeration or mental disability clichés, he portrays Rey with a wide-eyed earnestness weighed down by self-doubt and insecurities about his brother’s loyalty and an accent authentic-sounding enough to add rather than detract from that quality. As a testament to the director, actor and character, one of the festival’s most resonating shots (up there with Xavier Dolan’s play on aspect ratios in Mommy) involves Rey, a car and a pop song framed in a shroud of nighttime darkness. As the unlikely pair make their way, Rey leads Eric back to the gang’s hideaway while Eric proves that he is willing to kill anything that gets in that way and the two open up a bit here and there but never quite bond.
What sets The Rover apart from your standard middle-brow dystopic film is the moving ending, which retroactively justifies the pacing and the familiar plotting . It may not be an all-out hit or miss, but The Rover is a steady film that manages a high concept over low-dialogue in 102 minutes.
From Pune Mirror:
I attended four red carpets but David Michod’s The Rover will remain the most memorable.
The cast is usually the last to enter the theatre and we were delayed getting to the venue. As luck would have it, they accepted our invites and ushered us in right after the cast.
We had balcony seats like all the other red carpets, but since we were late the balcony was already full. So we were asked to wait outside the hall, where the entire cast was waiting next to us, including Robert Pattinson and Guy Pearce, who turned to us and said: “Looking good guys”.
I was so star struck I could barely respond. When they entered the hall, the crowd was cheering loudly and we were ushered in with them and made to sit right next to them — the best seats in the house.
From Huffington Post (Most Buzzed About Performances at Cannes):
Robert Pattinson: The former “Twilight” star is beginning to put his teen heartthrob past behind him, and the early returns are encouraging. Along with a supporting role in David Cronenberg’s “Maps to the Stars,” Pattinson impressed as Guy Pearce’s bloodied, not-all-there companion in David Michod’s Australian thriller “The Rover.”
From Twitch:
Pearce is fantastic as the Eastwood-like lead, as prickly as a cactus while giving off the cautious, introspective air of a stalking animal.
…
Played by Robert Pattinson, this is a performance that much like the film is certain to divide audiences. It’s a bit broad, to be sure, but I actually found the role quite engaging, exactly the kind of offkilter roles that the likes of Joaquin Phoenix is (sometimes undeservedly) applauded for early in his career.
…
It’s the steadiness of The Rover that is its most defining feature, a sense that you’re perambulating towards an inevitable showdown and just along for the ride. It’s a dessicated place to visit, but the world that Michôd and his collaborators craft is nonetheless a compelling one, if sure to be challenging for those wanting a bit more pace and a bit more plot.
