Clio Barnard’s fifth feature, “I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning,” premieres in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight sidebar and is set in Birmingham. Multiple reviews describe the film as a social-realist drama focused on five friends dealing with interconnected problems, including addiction and housing precarity. The story is also framed around class tensions and broader pressures associated with late-stage capitalism. One outlet characterizes the film as aiming for emotionally forceful, anti-capitalist themes, while another describes it as intermittently persuasive despite being carried by a cast of British and Irish actors. Both accounts agree that the film centers on working-class characters navigating difficult circumstances, with personal relationships playing a significant role in the narrative. While the sources differ in how strongly they endorse the film’s execution, they align on the core premise, setting, and context of its premiere. The reviews collectively portray the movie as a character-driven look at survival and strain in a city marked by socioeconomic hardship.