(AP) — Welcome to Cannes. The annual film festival is always a spectacle, but 2024’s edition may be the most combustible in years. The 77th Cannes red carpet unfurls against a backdrop of war and protest. The #MeToo movement, so slow to take root in France, is now quickly tearing through the country’s film industry. Festival workers have threatened to strike.

And yet, the usual cavalcade of celebrities and filmmakers from around the world are descending upon the French Riviera over the course of two weeks. And so is The Associated Press. This year, we’re keeping a running diary of life at — and in — Cannes. Follow along for an insider’s view from the festival.

FRIDAY, MAY 17

Francis Ford Coppola colorfully faced the media the day after the premiere of “Megalopolis,” Yorgos Lanthimos debuted his “Poor Things” follow-up, “Kinds of Kindness,” and Paul Schrader unveiled his Russell Banks adaptation, “Oh, Canada.”

— A mere three months after “Poor Things” was taking home Oscars, Lanthimos and Emma Stone came to Cannes with their third and most provocative collaboration in “Kinds of Kindness.” This film, a triptych of subversive head-scratchers, uses much of the same company of actors — Jesse Plemons, Margaret Qualley, Willem Dafoe, Mamoudou Athie, Hong Chau and Stone — across the strange tales revolving around controlling relationships. There are connecting threads and color schemes, but it’s striking how, for 167 minutes, Lanthimos and company are emphatically not in awards-movie mode anymore.

— It’s been a grand festival for bird movies. After Thursday offered Andrea Arnold’s gritty, warm-hearted fable “Bird,” on Friday, I caught Zambian-British director Rungano Nyoni’s “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl,” an even more beguiling work of avian-themed cinema. Nyoni’s first film, “I Am Not a Witch,” was a Cannes standout in 2017, and her latest confirms her as a thrilling filmmaking talent. “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl,” which A24 is distributing, is again deftly playful and darkly comic about quite serious things. In it, arranging a funeral in Zambia unmasks plenty about sexual abuse, patriarchy and family.

— For at least a few hours Friday, both Coppola and Schrader were across from each other on the rooftop terrace of the JW Marriott, separately doing interviews. Rub your eyes and you could rewind 40-plus years. Neither of the New Hollywood legends are much for waxing nostalgic; though. Their focus was on their latest films, or maybe even the one after that.

NOTABLE NUMBER: Four. During the festival, Screen Daily always publishes a daily grid of star ratings from a dozen film critics, providing a good snapshot of how the competition lineup is unfolding. But four days into Cannes, not one of the critics has given a top score — four out of four stars — to a single film. That’s unusual this far in, but it probably confirms what most have been saying on the ground here: The quality of the movies is down this year. Things can change fast, though. I’d wager the best is yet to come.

LA CITATION DU JOUR: “There’s so many people when they die, they say, ‘I wish I had done this, I wish I done that.’ When I die, I’m going to say, ‘I got to do this.’ I got to see my daughter win an Oscar and I got to make wine and I got to make every movie I wanted to make. I’m going to be so busy thinking about all the things I got to do that when I die I won’t notice it.” — Francis Ford Coppola, at the press conference for “Megalopolis.”

HONORABLE MENTION: “I don’t think I dance. I’m a bad dancer. I think the beauty of dancing on screen is the effort to try.” — Barry Keoghan, post-“Saltburn,” on his moves in “Bird.”

THURSDAY, MAY 16

Just as the first full day of Cannes was dominated by 79-year-old George Miller and “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” Thursday belong to 85-year-old Francis Ford Coppola, who unveiled his self-financed opus “Megalopolis.”

— There is much more that can be said about the “Megalopolis” premiere, but one thing worth noting was how much family was central to Coppola’s return to Cannes. As he walked the red carpet, he clung to the arm of his granddaughter, Romy (daughter of Sofia). With him at the premiere were four more family members, including sister Talia Shire. After the screening, as the crowd cheered him, he introduced each. But Coppola, whose wife Eleanor died last month, left the audience with the message that we are all “one human family.” Flop or not, it was moving.

— As it turned out, “Megalopolis” wasn’t the only fable premiering. Also debuting in competition was Andrea Arnold’s “Bird,” a bleakly naturalistic coming-of-age drama with touches of magical realism. Nykiya Adams stars as Bailey, 12, who encounters a strange drifter (Franz Rogowski). Family is a key word for Arnold, too, but for different reasons. She typically fosters an exuberant collective, mixing professional and non-professional actors. When the cast of “Bird,” including several young kids, hit the carpet, they had a grand time together.

NOTABLE NUMBER: 45. That’s how many of master documentarian Frederick Wiseman’s films are now digitized, with a touring retrospective coming this year and next to Paris, London and New York’s Lincoln Center. The 94-year-old was in Cannes to screen the restored version of 1969’s “Law and Order,” in which he observed the routines of Kansas City police officers.

LA CITATION DU JOUR: “There’s certainly other stories there. Mainly because we wrote, in order to tell the story of ‘Fury Road,’ we had to know the back story of Furiosa and Max in the year before. But I’ll definitely wait to see how this goes before we even think about that.” — Miller, at the press conference for “Furiosa.” A film about Mad Max in the year leading up to “Fury Road” has been written for some time. Now, we’ll see how “Furiosa,” which cost nearly $170 million to make, does when it arrives in theaters next week. The very well received Cannes bow (and a secured release date in China) should help.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 15

Cannes properly kicked into high gear with a full slate of films and the high-wattage premiere of George Miller’s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.” The movie’s afterparty by the beach was fittingly adorned with both sand and fire, but thankfully no War Boys. (Or is War Boyz?)

— The Cannes red carpet has the potential to mint a glamorous young star, and that was very much the case for Anya Taylor-Joy. She perfectly matched the moment at the “Furiosa” premiere, posing stylishly and playfully saluting her director. But as much has been made of Taylor-Joy inheriting the role from Charlize Theron, it’s worth noting that for a substantial amount of the two-and-a-half-hour film, Furiosa is played as a child by a younger performer, Alyla Browne. And, she, too, is very good. So cheers for both Young Furiosa and Even Younger Furiosa.

— A few standout films premiered in different sections. In competition, Magnus von Horn’s “The Girl with the Needle” is an imposingly grim, expressionist black-and-white film about a heinous crime in post-WWI Denmark. It’s bleak stuff, but the way the film reserves its most damning judgment for an uncaring society is impossible to shake. Another standout in Critics’ Week: Jonathan Millet’s “Ghost Trail.” It’s an engrossing, mournful detective story about exile, starring Adam Bessa — a strikingly potent screen presence — as a Syrian refugee hunting his former torturer in France.

— Something you might not know? The Cannes red carpet is replaced — or at least the main bit in the middle — every few days. Because it’s been rainy, the first costume change was Wednesday. That’s, undoubtedly, more often than many Cannes journalists clean their formal wear.

NOTABLE NUMBER: 6. No, 7. Nope, 8. Those were the trade report counts for the length of the standing ovation for “Furiosa.” This whole enterprise is a bunch of manipulated stagecraft and best dismissed as any kind of real metric. But if we’re going to do this, let’s at least get an official stopwatch.

LA CITATION DU JOUR: “For me, it’s quite a bizarre time. There’s so much hate and weird fantasies projected at me. People are looking at me like I’m a radioactive thing.” — Judith Godrèche, the actor at the center of Cannes’ belated #MeToo movement, who premiered her short “Moi Aussi.”

TUESDAY, MAY 14

Opening day in Cannes is relatively calm and straightforward, as far as Cannes days go. Just one movie premieres. Under gloomy skies, Cannes kicked off with “The Second Act,” a French comedy about a group of actors filming a movie directed by artificial intelligence. Meryl Streep was given an honorary Palme d’Or. And the jury headed by Greta Gerwig was introduced.

— Cannes opening ceremonies are brief but singularly surreal. After a clip reel, Gerwig was serenaded with David Bowie’s “Modern Love” by Zaho de Sagazan, an homage to Gerwig’s “Frances Ha.” As the singer made her way from the audience to the stage, Gerwig seemed to be choking back both laughter and tears.

— Last year’s Cannes is talked about with hushed tones because of how good it was — for the terrific lineup and for the post-Cannes success of some films. That made Messi, the dog from last year’s Palme winner “Anatomy of a Fall,” an especially welcome presence on the red carpet. The border collie, who’s been enlisted to shoot daily videos for French TV, frolicked up and down the carpet ahead of the opening ceremony. Cannes has strict rules about formal attire — women without heels were once turned away. But Messi went bare paws.

— It’s been just over two months since the Oscars, but Gerwig wasn’t the only one stepping back into the spotlight. A fellow juror is best actress nomineeLily Gladstone, who said of the Cannes invite: “I thought I just got over my imposter syndrome last year.”

NOTABLE NUMBER: Zero. The amount of times Messi soiled the red carpet.

LA CITATION DU JOUR: “My mother, who is usually right about everything, said to me: ‘Meryl, my darling, you’ll see. It all goes so fast. So fast.’ And it has, and it does. Except for my speech, which is too long.” — Meryl Streep

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Come back here for more from Cannes throughout the festival, and find more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/cannes-film-festival.

(AP) How do you make a kid’s movie that appeals not only to the kids, but the adults sitting next to them? Most movies try to achieve this by throwing in a layer of wink-wink pop culture references that’ll earn a few knowing laughs from parents but fly nicely over the heads of the young ones.

So let’s credit John Krasinski for not taking the easy way out. Writing and directing (and acting in, and producing) his new kid’s movie, “IF,” Krasinski is doing his darndest to craft a story that works organically no matter the age, with universal themes — imagination, fear, memory — that just hit different depending on who you are.

Or maybe sometimes, they hit the same — because Krasinski, who wanted to make a movie his kids could watch (unlike his “Quiet Place” thrillers), is also telling us that sometimes, we adults are more connected to our childhood minds than we think. A brief late scene that actually doesn’t include children at all is one of the most moving moments of the film – but I guess I would say that, being an adult and all.

There’s only one conundrum: “IF,” a story about imaginary friends (get it?) that blends live action with digital creatures and some wonderful visual effects (and cinematography by Janusz Kaminski), has almost too many riches at its disposal. And we’re not even talking about the Who’s Who of Hollywood figures voicing whimsical creatures: Steve Carell, Matt Damon, Bradley Cooper, Jon Stewart, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Maya Rudolph, Emily Blunt, Sam Rockwell, and the late Louis Gosset Jr. are just a few who join live stars Ryan Reynolds and Cailey Fleming. Imagining a table read makes the head spin.

The issue is simply that with all the artistic resources and refreshing ideas here, there’s a fuzziness to the storytelling itself. Just who is actually doing what and why they’re doing it — what are the actual mechanics of this half-human, half-digital world? — occasionally gets lost in the razzle-dazzle.

But, still, everything looks so darned lovely, starting with the pretty, brownstone-lined streets of Brooklyn Heights in New York City, where our story is chiefly set. We begin in flashback, with happy scenes of main character Bea as a little girl, playing with her funloving parents (Krasinski and Catharine Daddario). But soon we’re sensing Mom may be sick — she’s wearing telltale headscarves and hats — and it becomes clear what’s happening.

Bea is 12 when she arrives with a suitcase at her grandmother’s Brooklyn apartment, filled with her old paint sets and toys. Grandma (Fiona Shaw, in a deeply warm performance) offers the art supplies, but Bea tells her: “I don’t really do that anymore.”

She says something similar to her father, visiting him in the hospital (it takes a few minutes to figure out that they’ve come to New York, from wherever they live, so Dad can have some sort of heart surgery.) He tells Bea he’s not sick, just broken, and needs to be fixed. Hoping to keep her sense of fun alive, he jokes around, but she says sternly: “Life doesn’t always have to be fun.”

And then the creatures start appearing, visible only to Bea.

We first meet a huge roly-poly bundle of purple fur called “Blue” (Carell.) Yes, we said he was purple. The kid who named him was color-blind. These, we soon understand, are IFs —imaginary friends — who’ve been cut loose, no longer needed. There’s also a graceful butterfly called Blossom who resembles Betty Boop (Waller-Bridge). A winsome unicorn (Blunt). A smooth-voiced elderly teddy bear (Gossett Jr., in a sweet turn.) We’ll meet many more.

Supervising all of them is Cal (Ryan Reynolds.) An ornery type, at least to begin with, he’s feeling rather overworked, trying to find new kids for these IFs. But now that Bea has found Cal living atop her grandmother’s apartment building, she’s the chosen helper.

The pair — Reynolds and the sweetly serious Fleming have a winning chemistry — head to Coney Island on the subway, where Cal shows Bea the IF “retirement home.” This is, hands down, the most delightful part of the movie. Filmed at an actual former retirement residence, the scene has the look down pat: generic wall-to-wall carpeting, activity rooms for CG-creature group therapy sessions, the nail salon. And then the nonagenarian teddy bear gives Bea a key bit of advice: all she need do is use her imagination to transform the place. And she does, introducing everything from a spiffy new floor to a swimming pool with Esther Williams-style dancers to a rock concert with Tina Turner.

The movie moves on to Bea’s matchmaking efforts. A tough nut to crack is Benjamin (Alan Kim), an adorable boy in the hospital who favors screens and seems to have trouble charging his own imagination (spoiler alert: that’ll get fixed).

There are segments here that feel like they go on far too long, particularly when Bea, Cal and Blue track down Blue’s now-adult “kid” (Bobby Moynihan of “Saturday Night Live”), now nervously preparing for a professional presentation.

Still, the idea that adults could still make use of their old “IFs” at difficult times — and, to broaden the thought, summon their dormant sense of whimsy, as a closing scene captures nicely — is a worthwhile one. And by movie’s end, one can imagine more than one adult in the multiplex running home, checking under the bed, hoping to find a trusted old friend.

“IF,” a Paramount release, has been rated PG by the Motion Picture Association “for thematic elements and mild language.” Running time: 104 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.