Cannes 2024 Short Take: George Miller Creates Power and Poetry with Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a prequel that veers between being spectacular and stationery. The last film in the franchise, Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), is essentially one long chase which takes place over three days. This one, which gives us the origin story of how the indomitable warrior Furiosa was shaped, takes place over 15 years. The film is divided into five chapters and action, which propelled that film, shares equal time with world building. As a young girl, Furiosa is kidnapped. She ends up with a murderous biker horde led by the warlord Dementus, who eventually gets into a battle for dominance with the other tyrant, Immortan Joe. Meanwhile Furiosa has her own agenda – revenge.

Like in the first film, Miller creates jaw-dropping action set-pieces. One, that takes place in the middle of the film, apparently took 78 days to shoot and had close to 200 stunt people working on it. If they had an Oscar for stunts, this would be a front runner. Anya Taylor-Joy summons a fierce and grim beauty as she wields gargantuan vehicles and kills. Chris Hemsworth, in a prosthetic nose and contact lenses, seems to be having fun as the aptly named Dementus. But the film is a stop and go. And at two hours and twenty-eight minutes, it becomes too much sound and fury. But there’s no denying that when it’s in full throttle, Miller creates power and poetry.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga played out of competition at the 77^th Cannes Film Festival.