Of the 19 competition films at the 64th annual Cannes Film Festival, at least one has a passing relation to Sucker Punch. That would be Sleeping Beauty, featuring Punch star Emily Browning as a young prostitute whose specialty is taking a bunch of sleeping pills and allowing johns to have their way with her. Thank goodness Zack Snyder didn't think of that plot twist.
Presented by Jane Campion -- though hopefully not in the same way that Quentin Tarantino presented Hostel -- Sleeping Beauty stars the lithe Browning as Lucy, a "death-haunted and quietly reckless" student who submits to the Sleeping Beauty treatment as a way to get away from... something. The trailer doesn't really make it clear, other than to express that Lucy is probably in way over her head. Of course, what starts as a perverse sexual fantasy apparently evolves into something more -- per the film description, Lucy "develops an increasing need to know what happens to her when she is asleep."
As directed by famed author Julia Leigh, Sleeping Beauty looks like something an alternate universe version of Sofia Coppola could have made. Which is great. That Browning is playing a young woman who loses herself without the aide of fantasized burlesque dancing and killer zombie robots isn't shabby either.
VERDICT: Not a pick-me-up, but sold.
Sleeping Beauty from Pollen Digital on Vimeo.