Yahoo News ‘The Idol’ Makes Cannes Debut: Propulsive, Eerie, and Ready for the Discourse
HBO Max became history on Tuesday when the Warner Bros. Discovery streaming service officially became known as only as “Max.” But at the Cannes Film Festival world premiere for “The Idol,” the new show from “Euphoria” co-creator Sam Levinson, the mere appearance of the static HBO logo elicited cheers throughout the 2,3000-seat Lumiere Theater, but the room got much quieter from there.
Based on the two episodes that screened (cut together as a single 103-minute package with just a title card in between), “The Idol” forces viewers into a constant paradoxical state. The story of mentally unstable pop star Joslyn (Lily Rose-Depp) who’s seduced by a nefarious cult leader (Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye) has a propulsive energy to it as it barrels through its eerie storyline, from the lively dance numbers that Rose-Depp’s character rehearses to point of exhaustion through the ominous BDSM relationship that she begins with The Weeknd’s character as he infiltrates her world.
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The show, which was originally shot and directed by Amy Seimetz before her version was scrapped, at times dangles its male gaze as a taunting extension of the show’s apparent villain. Elsewhere, it goes into overdrive with its emphasis on the toxic world of the music industry as a whole that oppresses Joslyn from every turn. Think “Succession” meets “Entourage,” with a sloppy dose of “Black Swan.” Almost everyone and everything around the lead character is bad news, from her foul-mouthed agent (Jane Adams) to her unsentimental manager Chaim (Hank Azaria), who pays someone to lock the nudity consultant on a photo shoot in a bathroom after Joslyn decides to show off her breasts in the opening scene.
As with “Euphoria,” “The Idol” is gunning for the discourse, and certain to stir it up. It’s slick and involving storytelling, at least in its first episode, though the second one establishes a disturbing cliffhanger sure to keep many viewers hooked. Its sultry qualities have been realized with the top-shelf craftsmanship and a rapid-fire pace that suggests it could fit nicely alongside the guilty pleasure trash TV of the Discovery+ library that will now sit alongside it on Max.
That may be why Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav looked content at the premiere and after party at Palm Beach, which didn’t get underway until well after 1 a.m. Despite the WGA strike casting a pall over his public appearance recently (including an ill-timed commencement speech), Zaslav looked comfortable wandering the room as a DJ cranked up the noise to an ear-splitting degree. The room was baked in neon-red, not unlike the murky lighting schemes of the show, and the scene may as well have been an extension of its world. A large yellow sign built atop the building greeted guests with “Hello Angels,” the word that Tesfaye’s Tedros uses to refer to the members of his entourage, but the room actually looked more like a particularly lively section of Hell.
One filmmaker of a microbudget American film released last year, attending Cannes to watch movies and currently on strike as a WGA member, noticed Zaslav and grinned. “I think I’m legally obligated to assassinate that guy,” he said, and added that he hoped the DGA went on strike next. However, a producer of a recent HBO project also in attendance gave the executive more credit. “He listens to the concerns. Whether it makes a difference, I don’t know,” she said. “He loves movies, and I’d rather work with someone like that than an executive who doesn’t care.”
Levinson was adorned in a white tuxedo as he worked the room, making his way from an overpacked VIP area near the DJ booth where The Weeknd held court to the surrounding area. As a writer on the show, was he in violation of WGA strike rules promoting the project at Cannes? “I’m here as a director,” he said.
Levinson got extra teary in his comments to the crowd immediately following the screening, where he thanked everyone from Zaslav to his wife and producing partner, Ashley Levinson, who gave birth to their second child a day before Tesfaye brought him in to reboot the project. “I feel like I gained a family,” he said in his remarks.
At the party, he stood by that. “I meant what I said,” he claimed, shouting above a booming bass track. “I had a lot of reasons why I didn’t want to do this. But I am sincerely happy about it.” As for IndieWire’s reporting on the behind-the-scenes drama of the show, Levinson didn’t dispute most of it except for the impression that he wasn’t ultimately engaged by the project on a creative level. “I’m not interested in managing talent,” he said. “But people are going to say what want to say.”
He had yet to dig through responses, though he insisted viewers would find the show more entertaining as additional episodes air. “The thing is, it’s funnier than ‘Euphoria,’” he said. “It gets funnier as it goes along. I think people will discover more and more satire to it.”
One source involved in the original version of the show who watched the first two episodes at Cannes said that the new version had nothing in common with Seimetz’s original approach. “The original was like a Lynchian or ‘Phantom of the Opera’ type of Hollywood underworld. The whole thing was a dream,” they said. “Let’s hope it gets better after the first two episodes — I don’t see how it could get much worse.”
Those bad vibes may or may not pass as “The Idol” makes its way to more viewers on June 4, but either way, don’t expect it to fizzle. On a shuttle back to the main area of the festival, a woman with a thick French accent was still sorting out her reaction. “To me, the show is porn,” she said. “Beautiful porn, but porn.” She paused before adding: “I will probably watch the other episodes. “
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