Tycoon. 2026. Canada/USA. Directed by Charlotte Zhang. US premiere. DCP. 89 min.
The first feature from Los Angeles–based Canadian artist Charlotte Zhang, Tycoon is a true shot in the arm, and one of the year’s most maverick debuts. A paranoid, speculative hybrid film set on the eve of the 2028 Olympics, Tycoon imagines an LA infested by cockroaches, ridden by ICE raids, and in the throes of a meat shortage, all of which provides an opportunity for a gang of friends and would-be hustlers to try take revenge on the hostile world around them. Shot on a motley mix of handheld, low-grade digital and Super 8 cameras, and punctuated by kinetic montage sequences, Tycoon is laced with a raw, DIY energy that refutes standards of narrative and documentary storytelling—to say nothing of the conventions of a Hollywood industry that shares the same city but may as well occupy another planet.