Month: June 2022

  • Coming 2 America (2021)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Amazon Streaming, June 2022) As someone who only moderately liked the original Coming to America, I’m not the target audience for a sequel. But Coming to America does have quite a following, and you can see follow-up Coming 2 America realigns itself to please that audience. Numerous call-backs and fannish references often grind the film to a crawl and don’t shore up the film’s shoddy plot foundations. But this is not a film made to be nitpicked – it’s pure fun for fans of the original, a sure vehicle for Eddie Murphy and something made to shore up Amazon Prime’s original offerings. As with the first film, this one is a black movie directed by a white director – but Craig Brewer’s filmography is far more black-themed than John Landis and –more importantly– he previously collaborated with Murphy on Dolemite is My Name, earning the actor some of his most positive reviews. Here, Murphy is back in full comedian mode in reprising his royal character. A shame, then, that the film is built on such a shaky excuse for a plot: as a royal succession plot taking place in the 2020s, there’s an obvious narrative dead-end in how “my daughter can’t become the king” – we know that’s going to be taken care of before the end. But watching Coming 2 America for plot is useless – it’s specifically made for the comic riffs, the musical moments and watching Murphy re-embrace a comic persona. If the plot is a ramshackle sequence of episodes, so what? Sure, it’s weird that the film ends up taking place largely in Africa aside from a few quick jaunts back to New York City, but so what – at least we’ve got a hilariously well-timed death sequence featuring James Earl Jones, a cover of “What a Man,” various good interludes and a good soundtrack. While Coming 2 America is far more markedly a mercenary product with contrived set-pieces and more than a few nonsensical tangents, I’m not that disappointed – it delivers entertainment, gets its actors a few chuckles and generally has enough going on to keep things interesting. But then again – this film wasn’t made for me, and that’s all right.

  • A Question of Faith (2017)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, June 2022) I don’t often go looking at the parallel universe of films made for Christian audiences. Part of it is due to lack of access (sure, there are streaming platforms – but even they don’t showcase the kind of low-budget religious films) but much of it is due to lack of interest: often showcasing morals over other cinematic virtues for less-demanding and self-selecting audiences, they tend to be cheap, disposable and utterly without impact outside their own sphere. Still, it’s not a bad idea to challenge ourselves once in a while, so when A Question of Faith popped up on BET – well, why not give it a look? The story of three families brought together by a fatal accident caused by texting-while-driving (something insistently mentioned), the film makes a lot out of organ donation and you can probably guess how the three families are linked together. Director Kevan Otto’s film is innocuous in more ways than one. For one thing, its thematic focus on forgiveness virtually ensures that the ending will be a big happy tear-jerker. For another, it’s relatively relaxed about its religious stance: there’s little of the oppositional persecution complex that you’ll find in other religious films, and its bland message of virtue is something that can reach audiences well outside the usual audiences for such movies. The black-dominated cast makes this feel a lot more like a BET movie (complete with melodrama, flat cinematography and lovely actresses) than a religious film… and that’s a great thing. The plotting is biblically contrived (“God works in mysterious ways” and all that), which adds to the melodrama. Still, A Question of Faith is watchable, sometimes even likable in how earnestly it portrays itself. Worse than usual for BET movies, better than expected for religious film – and another reminder that there isn’t much to see in this subgenre.

  • Master (2021)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Amazon Streaming, June 2022) The good thing about the globalization of film distribution through streaming platforms is that we get exposed to quality cinema from around the world, most notably the many film industries of India. The not-so-good thing is that going off-Hollywood is not necessarily a guarantee of originality. Master may be unusual in that it comes from the Tamil film industry, but it’s incredibly familiar with what it ends up showing: the story of a capable man going up against impossible odds, fighting criminal corruptions through big action sequences and a few musical numbers. Writer/director Lokesh Kanagaraj does score a few hits: Thalapathy Vijay is good as the protagonist, Vijay Sethupathi does well as the out-and-out villain, and notable action sequences include a metro car fight as well as a late-film sequence involving trucks and archery. I’m also partial to the musical numbers, even if they contribute to the film’s overbearing and unjustifiable three-hour length. For an action film, that’s a lot – especially given how there’s no significant romance to make it more varied. In that, though, Master also feels like far too many other Indian films – they would be much better if they were shorter: they dilute their strengths in far too much… more. The generic nature of the plot doesn’t help, which is a shame considering that, from a cinematographic standpoint, Master (and its brethren) often feel just as polished as Hollywood productions (if not even more so, considering how they eschew pseudo-realistic shaky-cam aesthetics). Ah well – no matter the language barrier, Indian films aim for a very specific effect, and Master certainly delivers on those expectations.

  • Start Cheering (1938)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, June 2022) While no one will ever mistake Start Cheering for a particularly noteworthy film, there is a pleasant blend of familiar 1930s elements at play in this comedy that makes it a fun watch if you’re familiar with the era. The bare bones of the plot say it all, as a Hollywood actor decides to go back to university to complete his education, and gets involved in the football team – that’s already three rich sources of comedy, and that’s before we bring in Jimmy Durante as the ringleader of the actor’s entourage trying to get him to quit school and go back to movies. It’s the blend of tropes, as the film goes from one familiar setting to the next, that makes up most of the film’s fun – plus Durante hamming it up, Louis Prima’s big band and a few dance numbers. Otherwise, there isn’t much to say: Start Cheering isn’t that good nor coherent as it jumps from one small bit to another, but it’s watchable enough. Although it’s much better if you’re knowledgeable enough about late-1930s Hollywood cinema to recognize all the pieces being put together.

  • La bestia debe morir [The Beast Must Die] (1952)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, June 2022) While I’ll argue that film noir is an essentially American genre forged in the distinctive cauldron of post-WW2 Los Angeles, it’s useless to deny the influence it had outside America, or the successful examples of the genre in languages other than English. The French school is obvious, but Argentine also had a vigorous film noir movement and writer-director Román Viñoly Barreto’s The Beast Must Die is one such example of the form. This story of a father seeking revenge on the unknown driver who fatally hit his son starts with a portentous narration (“I am going to kill a man. I don’t know his name. I don’t know where he lives. I have no idea what he looks like, but I will find him and I will kill him.”) and keeps going, often with pleasantly melodramatic acting that never relies on subtlety. The cinematography is pure noir delight, and the plot cleanly plays with big genre tropes. The Argentinian setting adds some flavour to a familiar story, and the ending satisfies. All in all, a good discovery – The Beast Must Die was restored from obscurity by the specialist Film Noir Foundation, and it’s a public service to make it widely available once more.

  • Eternal (2004)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, June 2022) In the world of Canadian cinema, Eternal made a few headlines when it came out in 2004. After all, it was a generously-budgeted (by Canadian standards) erotic horror thriller that was explicitly set in Montréal, featuring a few actors that straddled the border between the French and English-language industries. Alas, even that hype is more than the film deserves. Loosely based on the legends about Elizabeth Bathory, the film plays like baby’s first erotic thriller, teasing a lot but never delivering on the most basics of expectations. About as basic as it comes, Eternal does itself no favours by multiplying mistakes of execution. The acting is terrible (made even worse in the French-language dubbed version, as it features Québec accents that make the entire thing feel even cheaper), the plotting miserable and while the atmosphere certainly tries to be dark and sexy, writers-directors Wilhelm Liebenberg and Federico Sanchez merely settle for murky and pretentious. While there’s some fun in seeing Montréal as backdrop, that feeling fades as the action moves elsewhere, piles up the obviousness and keeps going well after enough is enough. There’s a bit of trashy fun to Eternal, but it doesn’t last for the entire film and the rest is spent waiting for the end to come. (Which it eventually does, but after a lacklustre climax and an overlong epilogue.)  It’s not because it’s local that it’s worth seeing. While I often beat myself up for missing out on a few landmark French-Canadian films until years after their release, seeing Eternal was all it took to reassure me that I hadn’t missed much in the meantime.

  • Penitentiary (1979)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, June 2022) If I’ve got my notes right, the rather short filmography of writer-director Jamaa Fanaka is sometimes seen (along with the L.A. Rebellion movement) as a transition from blaxploitation to the social issues black cinema of the late 1980s. Penitentiary certainly plays into that transition, being concerned about racial injustice (as in: a young black man unjustly arrested, blamed for the death of a white man and sent to prison) but very much using the tools of exploitation cinema in order to keep audiences invested in the film. In this case, imprisonment drama turns into an underdog boxing match, with the winner of the bout being assured of parole. Decidedly as raw as low-budget filmmaking was at the time, Penitentiary has roughly a napkin’s worth of plot stretched over 99 minutes, sometimes in the most obvious of ways – how else can you explain the sequences of inmates sharing a few intimate moments with girls in the prison’s bathroom? I’m not objecting on aesthetic grounds – the girls are attractive – but it does highlight that the film often slows to a halt in-between its weightier thematic material (the prison being a metaphor for, well, yes) and plot progression. The boxing sequences are raw (the worst being the sweaty and bloody bare-knuckles fight that marks the end of the first act) and so is the rest of the film, but Penitentiary is watchable enough – even though I like Fanaka’s Emma Mae quite a bit better.

  • Babes on Broadway (1941)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, June 2022) I’m going to make this review rather short, considering that it could almost double as the one I just wrote about is quasi-prequel Babes in Arms.   Here goes: Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney both star in this Broadway-themed variation on the “backyard musicals” they so often did together in the early stages of their career. She sings, he emcees and together they put on a show. Much of the filmmaking crew is the same, working under the celebrated Freed Unit of MGM musicals. There’s quite a bit of wartime propaganda, including pulling up a few adorable British poppets for sympathy. Alas, well, the film does introduce its climax with, well, let me quote that for you: “What’s wrong with doing something old? Something tried and true. Well, how about a minstrel show? Does that appeal to you? A good old-fashioned minstrel show!” at which point twenty-first century audiences are screaming NOOOOO. That’s right: after a rather sweet and unremarkable film, Babes on Broadway, exactly like Babes in Arms, concludes with an expansive Busby Berkeley extravaganza featuring… dozens of people in blackface. As with the first film, it’s a significant minus in a movie that doesn’t have a lot of unique pluses. It’s exactly why it’s one of the least-seen, least-broadcast Arthur Freed-produced musicals in the twenty-first century. (Whenever it dusts it off, TCM is careful to accompany it with a verbal warning AND a blackface documentary as follow-up.)  See it once to say that you did, then never think about it again.

  • The Beast Must Die (1974)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, June 2022) There’s something almost endearing at the showmanship of William Castle-inspired filmmakers that deliberately broke the fourth wall of film in order to draw in their audiences. So it is that The Best Must Die begins with a dare to the audiences: we’re told it’s a mystery in which one of the characters is a werewolf, and the film will stop at some point to ask audiences to guess which character it is. What follows is a surprisingly conventional film that’s often better in concept than execution: a wealthy man bringing together a number of people in his isolated British estate, where they have to guess which one of them is an actual werewolf. At some point, the film indeed stops to ask the big question during its “werewolf break,” and if you’re guessing that this was all a device added in post-production, you’re right – and film history records that director Paul Annett hated it. But it does add a certain grandiose panache to the result, adding to the rather cozy isolated-manor mystery. Playing with the usual tropes of the subgenre, The Beast Must Die does have a few interesting moments and performances – including lead roles for black actors (Calvin Lockhart and the beautiful Marlene Clark) in an otherwise white-cast British film, some deliciously over-the-top moments and Peter Cushing to deliver some tasty exposition. The Beast Must Die is not that good (if you’re expecting werewolf transformation special effects, look elsewhere) but it is decently fun, and the “Werewolf Break” certainly plays into this kind of fun all right.

  • Babes in Arms (1939)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, June 2022) I’m down to my last three films in the filmography of celebrated MGM producer Arthur Freed, and aside from meaningless bragging rights, my big motivation at this stage is understanding why those last three films are indeed the last three films. Why aren’t they broadcast more often on TCM? What explains their obscurity? In the case of Brigadoon, it’s easy – the film somehow isn’t licensed for broadcast in Canada by TCM. In the case of Babes in Arms and Babes on Broadway, the answer can be found in the films themselves. Babes in Arms has the distinction of being the first film to put perennial screen couple Judy Garland and Andy Rooney in lead roles outside the Andy Hardy films. Both of them were established leads in MGM’s stable, but this was the first time they were featured in starring roles that didn’t depend on an existing franchise. This being said, the film would not strike out all that far from comfort: the template reused here was familiar to the studio – “backyard musicals” with boy-and-girl-next-door, often putting on a show in order to save a local orphanage or some such: Rooney can emcee, Garland can sing and that’s the crux of what brought audiences in theatres. “Good Morning” was written for this film (and reused a few years later to iconic effect in Singin’ in the Rain), while Busby Berkeley’s direction hits a predictable climax right for the finale. Alas, that climax is the problem with the picture, and the reason why it’s not broadcast very frequently on TCM – and when it is, it’s accompanied by a verbal warning and a special documentary as epilogue. Yes, you guessed it: Blackface. A lot of blackface. Unrepentant, joyously lavish, and completely un-self-aware blackface. There’s a now stomach-churning contrast between the boyish-and-girlish glee of the film, the big smile of Rooney’s acting and the sweetness of Garland’s singing (not yet beaten down by Hollywood) and the baffling racism of blackface. It’s enough to explain why Babes in Arms finds itself way, way, way down the twenty-first century list of favourite Freed Unit films. It probably doesn’t help that the film has an absence of extraordinary qualities to make up for this significant problem – even if you can get over the blackface as a historical artefact, Babes in Arms doesn’t offer anything that hasn’t been done better elsewhere – in the Andy Hardy movies, in other Busby Berkeley films or in Singin’ in the Rain. I’m glad I’ve seen it – but I can’t imagine willingly revisiting this one in its entirety.

  • Sauve qui peut (la vie) [Every Man for Himself] (1980)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, June 2022) In the grand overall view of Jean-Luc Godard’s filmography, 1980’s Sauve qui peut (la vie) is often regarded as his return to more conventional filmmaking after the more political and unpalatable films of the late 1960s and 1970s. This doesn’t mean a completely traditional viewing experience, though, as the film plays with three characters’ perspectives, a musical theme, some filmmaking flourishes and an obstinate refusal to hold the hand of its viewers. Plus: a focus on prostitution (always a Godard favourite) and a relentlessly downbeat finale that doesn’t exactly land hard when the rest of the film is so uninvolving. Isabelle Huppert offers a bit of starpower, but the biggest star on display remains Godard, as he gets back to a certain narrative cinema while losing none of his iconoclastic quirks, even when it’s not in the service of the viewers. Some will like it and many more won’t, but as far as I’m concerned, Sauve qui peut (la vie) is more interesting as landmark in Godard’s filmography than pleasant to watch.

  • The Heroes of Telemark (1965)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, June 2022) As far as WW2 war movies go, The Heroes of Telemark is clearly in the 1960s mould – still very much thinking that war is an adventure, but with a few growing signs that it may be hell from time to time. The hook here is the subject matter and, in many ways, the setting – Taking place in Norway and talking about the heavy water research program that -if not sabotaged- could have led the Nazis to the nuclear bomb, it’s a war film that eschews grand battle sequences in favour of a more thriller-like approach with smaller thrills and a more focused feel. Kirk Douglas stars as a Norwegian physics professor (!) who ends up discovering his inner action hero when recruited by the British for a sabotage operation. It’s loosely based on a true story, if that’s any help. The Norwegian setting is clearly an attraction here, with the climax being set on a ferry crossing a fjord – the film was clearly shot on location, and offers, at least visually, something slightly different from other commando-raid films of WW2. (Although the grim reality, compared to the save-the-kids thrust of the film’s final action sequence, is that 18 people died when the ferry was sunk.)  Director Anthony Mann keeps it moving, even if the pacing and intensity do not compare to latter films in similar genres. Douglas fans will like his square-jawed take on a reluctant action hero, and the mountainous backdrop has something new to offer even to seasoned WW2 buffs.

  • Constantine: City of Demons (2018)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On TV, June 2022) My expectations regarding DC animated films have been finely honed and lowered over time: I’m not expecting greatness as much as I’m curious to see what spin they (being lower-risk investments than the prestige live-action films) will bring to a familiar character… or simply recapture the nature of a fan favourite for 90 minutes. As one of the many who regret that the 2005 film adaptation of Constantine never led to a sequel or further live-action film follow-ups, I was just curious to see if the animated Constantine: City of Demons would manage to spend 90 minutes just playing around with the pleasantly dark fantasy universe in which the character usually evolves. To my surprise… it succeeds at exactly that. Living in a noir demimonde of demons and human vice, this Constantine is jaded about the occult, and is asked to help a friend’s daughter get out of an unnatural coma. The film does well at creating a specific atmosphere and sticking to it – and in terms of pacing, it doesn’t show too much its origins as a series of five web-published episodes. Constantine’s character is given some room to spread, and the ending is pleasantly glum in the consequences of so many occult shenanigans. In other words, it’s a rather good 90 minutes spent with Constantine – sure, the animation could be more detailed, and the script is often a bit too slack-paced. But City of Demons delivers on what it intends to, delivers a coherent self-contained story and in these aspects feels just a bit better than many of the other DC Comics animated films.

  • 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d’elle (1967)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, June 2022) The first thing that comes to mind while watching Jean-Luc Godard’s 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d’elle is some kind of amazement that it’s seen as a film statement from a major director rather than an incoherent and pretentious Youtube-level video essay crafted by some crazy guy in his basement. Oh, sure, there’s a world of difference between Godard and just some guy with a video camera and way too much time, especially by 1967. Godard had already done more for filmmaking art by that time than hundreds of so-called YouTubers, and even his slide in kookiness throughout the 1960s could still be seen as a charming step forward for his artistic evolution. Then there’s a remarkable difference in clout between having the bankability of someone like Godard going all-out on the parallels between rampant urbanization, capitalism and prostitution compared to just some guy putting such sites on a video-sharing site. But in the grand grinder of history, I really wonder if the only thing separating 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d’elle from Youtube essays in a few decades will be that this one is associated to a director having delivered polished narrative films. Suffice to say that I didn’t enjoy it all that much – Godard literally whispers his narration over shorts of urban landscapes, a perfunctory set of narrative scenes alluding at daytime prostitution (a surprisingly popular idea throughout 1960s–1970s French cinema) to increasingly exasperating effect. It makes a grander statement in Godard’s filmography, though: one of a good artist getting far too big for his britches and turning not only political (a justifiable turn in 1967 France), but being crazy and pretentious about it. Gone was the playful filmmaker spinning his own distinctive take on American archetypes, replaced by long decades of doing essentially what we wanted, and critics trying to be nice about it. As much as I don’t enjoy that part of his career over the earlier one, the one-two 1967 punch of La Chinoise and 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d’elle is vital to tracking his entire filmography and his “political” years from 1968 to 1980. But you’ll notice that fewer people ever talk about that essentially the disposable phase of his career…

  • Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, June 2022) I am not convinced at all that there’s anyone competent at the helm of the “Wizarding World” franchise. Not writer J. K. Rowling, clearly unable to keep the story straight now that she’s out of the Harry Potter cycle. Not perennial series director David Yates, who can helm efficiently but is unable to improve the material he’s given. And certainly not the executives at Warner Brothers mismanaging yet another franchise into the ground. How else to explain the zig-zags and multi-level inconsistencies to plague even a trilogy with the same creative people? The first Fantastic Beasts film was laborious, but had a few interesting ideas about how to reinvent a fantasy series protagonist. Then the second film went crazy in another direction with magic Nazis, incoherent plotting, a bunch of new characters and inconsistent characterization for those that returned. Now, in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, the good news is that this third entry is a marked step better than the previous one… but that the inconsistency and incoherencies are worse than ever, and any trust that the series knows where it’s going has been shattered. The story is more focused on a specific plot, what with the accession of the evil wizard Grindlewald to political power, and the merry crew associated with Dumbledore trying to prevent that. There are glimpses of competence in the way it’s put together, whether we’re talking at the surface level of the presentation or the deeper mechanics of storytelling and worldbuilding. (Although those wizards are certifiable morons when it comes to democratic institutions.)  Still, it’s hard to be all that enthusiastic about the result when it’s jerking around so much – I’ve seen unrelated triple-bills with more narrative and thematic consistency than this so-called trilogy. As with the new Star Wars sequel trilogy, it’s rather amazing that no one sat down to write a coherent plan for a massive filmmaking/cultural investment and then stuck to it. Although that same elementary mistake may become amusing if you’re the kind of person that despairs at the algorithmic determinism of powerful profit-making entities. No matter the cold alien mindset that leads to “intellectual property management” taking over “plain old storytelling,” everyone is humanly fallible, from writers trying to craft narratives to megacorporations built for quarterly earning report maximization. The Secrets of Dumbledore may not be worth buying on 4K UHD, but it’s almost comforting in how the evil wizards of corporate accounting don’t get to win over the merry crew of messy creations.