"Clint Eastwood is by far the most famous bridesmaid" at the Cannes Film Festival," declares Richard Corliss of Time magazine, dishing the iconic director's latest fest entry, titled either "Changeling" or "The Exchange," (read more about the confusion HERE.) "Since 1985, this Hollywood legend has brought five films to Cannes — not as special screenings, where he has nothing to lose, but in the ego-bruising competition for the top prize — and the first four times (with 'Pale Rider,' 'Bird,' 'White Hunter Black Heart' and 'Mystic River') he's gone home empty-handed."

But "this session of Cannes . . . is a relatively weak one," Corliss adds. "Eastwood's most acclaimed competitor so far is the Israeli animated documentary 'Waltz With Bashir' . . . . The speculation is that Eastwood has a better shot at winning this year because the head of the festival jury is Sean Penn, who won the lead actor Oscar for 'Mystic River' and may think he owes Clint a favor."

This drama about a defiant single mother (Angelina Jolie) in 1920s Los Angeles who fights to find her kidnapped son is garnering rave reviews from Time to Variety, which hails it as an "emotionally powerful and stylistically sure-handed" pic that "impressively continues Clint Eastwood's great run of ambitious late-career pictures."

Check out our video review by L.A. Times critic Kenneth Turan, who declares, "This is a powerful film. It's a brooding film. It's a hopeful film. It's the kind of traditional storytelling we've come to expect from Eastwood, but it's also got an emphasis on a mother's love, which is not the kind of stuff we usually think of from him."

(Wire Image)