Author: Christian Sauvé

  • Ernest Scared Stupid (1991)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, February 2021) Complaining that family movie Ernest Scared Stupid is not particularly intellectual is asking for trouble, especially given how it’s the third of a series never known for excessive smarts. Still, even by those standards, Ernest Scared Stupid is no high-flyer:  Combining cheap plotting with overindulgent direction at the mercy of a showboating star, the film is firmly going for the kid’s comedy angle, bringing in the latex monsters and cheap gags to keep the young ones entertained. John R. Cherry III’s direction is particularly noticeable for its refusal to show the action in medium shots, and for using fisheye lenses whenever it features lead actor Jim Varney. The impact of this combination of filmmaking choices can be borderline nightmarish: there is no escaping the rubber-faced Varney, especially not when he gets home and starts playing every member of his household. I kid, but not by much: Varney does have some innate charm as Ernest (he did play the character steadily for nearly twenty years), but Ernest Scared Stupid often overplays its hand in presuming that nothing is as interesting as Ernest. This leads to shameless mugging for the camera (indeed, one wonders what would remain from the film if the shameless mugging was removed), overlong sequences, plotting that can’t get away from its protagonist and a film that, well, is very specifically made for Ernest fans. I can sort-of-see the appeal, but the kiddie horror comedy genre is not necessarily a particularly good one if you’re just discovering Ernest. On the other hand, he’s just about the best possible lead for that kind of film — with Ernest Scared Stupid, what kid is not going to laugh despite the horror-themed material?

  • Andhadhun (2018)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, February 2021) While I have much nicer things to say about the Hollywood formula than you’d expect, there are times where I yearn for a film that escapes the obvious confines of the three-act structure, the familiar genre formulas and the usual characters that mainstream cinema loves to showcase. I’m not going to suggest that the answer is always to be found in foreign films (Hollywood can break its own rules, and others can follow them more slavishly than it does), but Andhadhun does, at times, exemplify what happens when a seasoned filmmaker sets out to entertain audiences according to their own whims. Andhadhun does place the originality bar high from its first few moments, as we meet a blind pianist who reveals himself to be not-so-blind, but faking it in order to connect more deeply to the music and practise his skills in anticipation of a competition in Europe. That’s unusual enough, but things quickly escalate as our not-so-blind blind man ends up witnessing the aftermath of a murder and has to keep playing the pretence of not seeing what’s going on. Ironies soon pile up when his attempts to extricate himself from the situation get him in deeper trouble, as suspicious characters keep testing his blindness, and as fakery becomes real even as it becomes known as fake. The collision between dark humour and criminal suspense makes Andhadhun of particular interest to anyone looking for later-day Hitchcockian efforts — it helps that writer-director Sriram Raghavan knows what he’s doing behind the camera, and that he was able to find good actors in the key roles. Ayushmann Khurrana is quite good in a difficult lead role, but Tabu arguably makes an even better impression as a ruthless murderess. While the film is a bit too long for its own good and consequently suffers from a few dips in interest throughout its 138 minutes running time, its second half is more suspenseful than the first, and builds up to an interesting fillip of a coda that makes the entire narration very suspicious. It’s quite a bit of fun, and a welcome thriller at a time when I feel a bit bored with the usual formula: this one zigs and zags through expectations, playing with savvy viewers who think they know what’s going to happen next. While there are a few strange, unlikely and even ludicrous plot developments, it’s all done with some playfulness and a thorough understanding of what a powerful tool dramatic irony can be once it gets away from conventions. Andhadhun has a much higher profile in the west than many other Indian films and it’s easy to understand why: this is a top-tier thriller by any measure.

  • Second Chorus (1940)

    Second Chorus (1940)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, February 2021) The more I dig into Fred Astaire’s filmography, the more I understand why some of his movies aren’t as popular as other ones. While Astaire himself is never less than funny and amazing, the rest of the movies can’t always claim as much. Second Chorus still gets some airplay these days, but one suspects that its status as a public domain film has much to do with the circulation of its low-quality prints. It’s also a film that curiously de-emphasizes Astaire’s skills as a dancer. Instead, the premise has us believing in Astaire (then forty-one) as a twentysomething trumpeter who voluntarily flunks his courses in order to remain with the college band. His friendly competition with another trumpeter kicks into high gear when they meet a young woman and convince her to work for them as a manager, in turn causing no less than bandleader Artie Shaw to recruit her. The rest are comic shenanigans occasionally making good use of Astaire’s skills — most notably in a duet with co-star Paulette Goddard and a climactic number in which tap-dancing is combined with orchestra conducting. More of a band movie than an Astaire movie (especially thanks to Artie Shaw’s contribution), Second Chorus is pleasant to watch but hardly in Astaire’s top half. Goddard herself is far from being the best dancer Astaire’s been paired with (although she does quite well in their sole duet, the one-shot “I Ain’t Hep to That Step but I’ll Dig It”), but she’s among the cutest. Astaire does get a few more good comic scenes — including “Kamarinskaya,” in which he dresses up as a Russian for some step-dancing — but there’s a sense that Second Chorus wastes the considerable talent he brings to it. The result is fine, but just fine: there’s little in the way of pyrotechnics that he brought even to his most average efforts. But that’s what I get for watching Astaire movies in rough descending order of popularity.

  • Blithe Spirit (1945)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, February 2021) Surprisingly enough, the 1940s offer a substantial list of supernatural romantic comedies. Beyond the obvious picks of the Topper series, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and I Married a Witch, here’s Blithe Spirit to show what happens when a séance brings back a man’s first wife from the dead and he has to explain her presence to his second wife. The pedigree of the film is impeccable: Directed by David Lean before he became an epic filmmaker, scripted from a play by producer Noël Coward and featuring a young Rex Harrison in the lead role, the film also showcases British filmmaking at the close of WW2 with decent colour cinematography and Academy Award-winning special effects. You can see the basic elements of an American 1930s screwball comedy filtered through wartime British sensibilities, and the combination does have its pleasant quirks. Good biting dialogue compensates for the somewhat ordinary direction, although one suspects that the requirements of the special effects may have had an impact on limiting camera movements when a ghost shows up on-screen. The film does suffer from a bit of a slow start, as it puts together its fantastical elements for an audience less used to supernatural devices, but the film becomes sharply more interesting once the undead make their appearance, and it builds to an impressively dark (but remarkably funny) ending. Those who like a specific, somewhat stereotypical strain of British comedy will appreciate the result even more — in its closing moments, Blithe Spirit anticipates the arrival of the Ealing Studios films such as The Ladykillers and Kind Hearts and Coronets in mixing dark topics and humour. It’s a fun watch even today, which is what happens when still-credible special effects are bolstered by great dialogue.

  • Arrowsmith (1931)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, February 2021) I can see in Arrowsmith the elements that should interest me — a fictional portrait of science at work, a protagonist with self-destructive impulses, some Pre-Code candidness, and decent production values for the time. I like that the film, in an alternate universe, would be a precursor to a very different “Science Fiction” genre, one focused on illuminating the inner workings of science through contemporary fiction. But even with all of these advantages, I had a more difficult time than anticipated in staying interested in Arrowsmith. The flattening effect of 1930s filmmaking (with its limited audiovisual range and camera placements) has a bit to do with it, but perhaps the biggest problem is inherent in the story: an unlikable protagonist that keeps self-sabotaging anything outside his chosen profession, heightened melodrama that spares few supporting characters, and some ludicrous choices that feel far-fetched. I’m generally happy that I’m now more familiar with the original Sinclair Lewis story (which does have a place in SF history) and its Oscar-nominated adaptation, but that didn’t make Arrowsmith any more interesting to watch.

  • The Killer That Stalked New York (1950)

    The Killer That Stalked New York (1950)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, February 2021) If, like me, you sometimes think of “Hollywood movies” as a vast multi-thousand-item collection of nearly every topic to have fascinated American history from 1920ish onward, it stands to reason that you can find anything and everything in those archives. So it is that even the unprecedented, history-making COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-21+ can find an unlikely precedent in… a film noir? That’s right: now that you’ve seen Contagion and Outbreak, have a look at The Killer That Stalked New York, an uneasy 1950 mixture of public health announcements and criminal thriller plot. Based on the true life but often forgotten 1947 New York City smallpox scare, it’s a film that follows the detection of smallpox in Manhattan, brought in the city from Cuba by a woman involved in a mixture of diamond thievery and lurid murder. But that film-noir plot is often shoved in the background, as director Earl McEvoy details the heroic efforts of public health officials, doctors and policemen in tracing the infection, vaccinating New Yorkers (despite ever-present skepticism) and trying to save everyone who contracted the disease. In many ways, The Killer That Stalked New York is not a particularly good film noir: The plot is thin, the two disparate parts of the whole don’t quite mesh, and the characters take a back-seat to the didactic requirements of the script. On the other hand, well, it’s completely engrossing: The fact-based depiction of how New York City reacts to the threat of a smallpox epidemic makes for a fascinating medical procedural, and the historical footage is simply wonderful. It’s an eloquent reminder that pandemics are nothing new, and that we once lulled ourselves into a false sense of security despite ample historical precedent. It’s definitely worth a watch right now, although I hope it becomes quite a bit less relevant soon enough.

  • The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)

    The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, February 2021) Watching older films can often be an exercise in picking apart what was new then, even if it’s not new now. The character of Sherlock Holmes, at this point in the early twenty-first century, has been endlessly remixed, examined, criticized, parodied or dismissed: There are nearly as many movies adapting Sherlock Holmes as there are faithful adaptations, no matter which kind of Holmes you prefer. In this light, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes appears to be one more entry in a crowded group. But it does have the distinction of having been the first in many ways — most notably, the first to have poked at the sexuality of the character even if the answer isn’t all that satisfying. (The film makes much about Holmes being gay or repressed, which seems less interesting than portrayals of Holmes being Adlersexual — that is, uninterested in any women other than the striking Irene Adler.)  It also takes a somewhat lighthearted tone to the character (heck, even in portraying Queen Victoria), something that must have resulted in a few dropped monocles back then, but appears painfully limited now that we’ve had feature-length man-child parodies of the character. There’s also a curiously unbalanced feeling to the script, which can be explained if you read about its tortured production history and how a much longer episodic film was chopped up in what appears on-screen. As with nearly all of writer-director Billy Wilder’s movies, even the most mediocre ones, it’s not uninteresting to watch: it’s got good scenes, good dialogue, a pleasantly loopy third act and another clever take on the character. But for all of its strengths and its impact at the time of its release, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes does pale in comparison with the later takes on the character, often going much further than this one in exploring Holmes’ quirks.

  • Beeba Boys (2015)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, February 2021) Comparisons between Beeba Boys and the mob movies of Martin Scorsese are not entirely delusional — at least in terms of presentation. For one thing, Indo-Canadian writer-director Deepa Mehta is a seasoned professional who clearly knows what she wants to see on screen, and her work here shares quite a few of the power chords of crime dramas: An exploration of crime in ethnic communities, great use of montage music (the Indian pop soundtrack is next-level terrific), an ensemble cast, copious narration and a script that turns from a darkly funny opening to an increasingly sombre conclusion, twists and turns involving double agents and remorseful criminal protagonists… it’s the same playbook even if we can forever quibble about the execution. Beeba Boys takes us to the suburbs of Vancouver, where Indo-Canadian gangsters live in the classic trappings of the gangster lifestyle (although, Vancouver being Vancouver, their multimillion-dollar houses are simple suburban single-family dwellings). The script gets to balance a few plates at once, whether it’s the group dynamics between the protagonist and his criminal entourage, his feud with an established mobster, his family life with a son increasingly unable to tell right from wrong, and the efforts of an infiltrator with divided loyalties. The first half-hour is a pleasantly dizzying trip through unrepentant criminal behaviour—the film even scores an amusing hit in pointing out how Canadian white jurors are reluctant to look racist in convicting an Indo-Canadian of murder. But as it usually goes with those films, the flash is eventually replaced by darker material as everything falls apart. Canadian cinema Patron Saint Paul Gross even shows up for a small but pivotal role as a Caucasian gangster. Randeep Hooda is quite good in the lead role, considering that it asks for a tricky mixture of charm and ruthlessness; the other highlight is Waris Ahluwalia, although this may have to do with a distinctive, very likable role that has him as the designated jokester of the ensemble. Still, there are false notes — an early exposition dump through a TV show is inelegant and ludicrous; later on, I had trouble figuring out the motivation behind a romance between the protagonist and a Caucasian woman; finally, the ending seems weak compared to what comes before it, although I’ll note that weak endings are not unknown in the genre that Beeba Boys adheres to. There are inherent traps in the kind of criminal epic that Mehta chose here: a basic difficulty in reconciling the allure of crime with its deadly consequences and even Scorsese can have trouble making sense of it. Still, most of Beeba Boys operates at a high-energy tempo, and the good moments outshine the worst ones. I’m oddly glad to have seen it, and it’s my favourite Mehta film since Bollywood/Hollywood — even if such low-brow populist opinions are what gets me thrown out of all of the movie critics’ best parties.

  • The Beguiled (1971)

    The Beguiled (1971)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, February 2021) If my reaction to The Beguiled is so tepid, it’s because I saw the remake first, and it’s so successful that it makes the original look like a repeat. The premise remains the same: During the American Civil War, a wounded Northern soldier stumbles in a small all-girl school, where he’s treated for his injuries. But his presence proves destabilizing to the small group, and things get worse when he thinks he’s able to tell them what to do. Their vengeance is predictably terrible, making The Beguiled a striking feminist story by 1971’s standards. What this original film does have that the remake doesn’t is none other than Clint Eastwood in the male lead role, adding the power of his persona to the character — at the time, and even today, seeing the masculine icon become a nightmarish intruder to be put down for the sake of the group is striking. But the original is not perfect, and Sofia Coppola-led remake is an illustration of how female-led stories can be told differently when helmed by a woman: The original is limited by the male gaze of director Don Siegel, and his greater propensity for exploitation thrillers. As a result, the original can come across as a disjointed film, both trying to be feminist in content and yet exploitative in presentation. (The Beguiled isn’t the only film in which Eastwood’s character is fawned over by a group of women, but it’s one of the few ones where he doesn’t get away with it.)  In other words, the original does have flaws that the remake corrects (although you can argue that it overcorrects — Coppola’s pacing is languid even at the best of times). If you’ve seen one, your appreciation of the other will pale — it all depends on which one you see first.

  • The Tuskegee Airmen (1995)

    The Tuskegee Airmen (1995)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, February 2021) It’s interesting to go spelunking into movie archives and unearth films that should be better known. At times, others do it for you—which explains why The Tuskegee Airmen gets a TCM airing in the middle of Black History Month as a reminder not only of the WW2 all-black fighter squadron, but also of the film’s existence—I could have named George Lucas’ 2013 film Red Tails as a Tuskegee film, but this first one dates from 1995 and seems to have slipped through the cracks of movie memory. To be fair, these are a few practical reasons for this — produced by HBO at a pre-digital time when TV movie budgets were synonymous with low production values and cut corners, The Tuskegee Airmen does amazing things with meager means (most notably by reusing historical footage and snippets from other WW2 movies, or cutting away when there’s a crash) and never got the kind of wide-scale theatrical or home video release that would have enshrined it as a reference. But that obscurity means an opportunity for rediscovery, especially given how it features Laurence Fishburne, then-recent Oscar-winner Cuba Gooding Jr. and John Lithgow in a supporting role as a senator. The script itself is decent without being overly remarkable, taking us through training and deployment to the European front, constantly reminding us of the opposition and outright racism that the airmen experienced throughout the war. The historical details are reportedly more faithful than you’d expect from a Hollywood production, which does help a film that sets out to remind us of a remarkable historical fact. The Tuskegee Airmen is not an ideal film, but neither was Red Tails, so the definitive Tuskegee film remains to be put together. In the meantime, have yourself a double-bill if you can find the film — and you’ll find that Cuba Gooding Jr. stars in both!

  • The Gunman (2015)

    The Gunman (2015)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On TV, February 2021) You can make a workable argument that The Gunman is a technically accomplished but generic action movie with a miscast lead and an awkward aspiration to deliver a humanitarian message. A visibly aged Sean Penn (55 at the film’s release) plays a mercenary who goes on the run after completing a nationally destabilizing mission on behalf of powerful multinationals, only to be lured back a few years later when the multinationals start tying loose ends. Director Pierre Morel directs the globetrotting film with his usual good form, although that style is practically undistinguishable from countless other mid-budget action films: there’s little distinction in the way the shootouts and chases are executed, lending a forgettable sheen to the entire enterprise. Unfortunately, Penn is a bigger problem for The Gunman than its middling execution: too old to play the role, Penn is further out of his element, considering a screen persona that did not include many action-driven roles — and he’s far too old to start, even considering that Morel helped Liam Neeson find a third career as an action hero. (The difference is that Neeson has the imposing physicality and gravelly voice to pull it off — Penn does not.)  I’m also going to blame Penn (who also co-wrote and co-produced) for attempting to jam some socially relevant material in a film that could have used a much lighter touch in that area — the hypocrisy of a run-and-gun action movie claiming a social conscience in denouncing the influence of multinationals in the affairs of a nation-state is a bit rich. Capable supporting roles from Javier Bardem, Idris Elba and Jasmine Trinca can’t quite elevate the material either. It’s not surprising if The Gunman has faded away from any kind of cultural relevance in the past five years — it’s unremarkable in most ways except for its biggest issues. Penn himself is probably happier seeing it slink back into obscurity.

  • Debug (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, February 2021) When it comes to Canadian Science Fiction films, a few things almost always hold true: the low-budget production values, the limited casts, the unadventurous premises and the Telefilm Canada logo. To be fair, the increased affordability of visual effects has done a lot to improve the scope and execution of Canadian SF movies in the past decade — but I still have to grade on a curve, forgiving a few too many things and focusing on the most interesting elements. When it comes to Debug, the premise is not without interest: As a group of six convicted hackers boards a spaceship to debug its computer systems, the ship’s AI starts fighting against them, and it fights dirty. So far so good — and while the film’s special effects are sometimes subpar, they do get the point across. Having hacker convicts as characters means that there are flaws and past traumas to exploit by the antagonist, and having that evil AI played in over-the-top fashion by Jason Momoa is really not a bad starting point. The script and direction occasionally show flashes of quirky interest, whether it’s a medical AI turning on a character and dismissing him as “junkie scum,” or using effective blocking to minimize the expense of a gory death scene. Three out of the four main female characters end up in their underwear (not complaining, just appreciating), and the set design is frequently quite good within the limits of the budget. There is a dollop of naughtiness to the film that could also have been used more effectively. The male leads are a bit bland (except for Adrian Holmes, doing his best but saddled with a badly-written character), so I won’t apologize for spending more time noticing the work of Jeananne Goossen, Sidney Leeder and Jadyn Wong. Alas… I think I’ve reached the end of this film’s strengths and promises. As with many low-budget efforts, Debug doesn’t have what it takes to stick to a science fiction approach, and lazily resorts to horror devices in order to make it to the end. The reason why there are six characters is providing enough fodder for death scenes until the end of the film, and the film quickly goes from 2001: Space Odyssey aspirations to slasher-movie execution. Momoa is badly underused as a villainous character without compelling motivations. Much of the dialogue is unacceptably clunky, some of the plot points are just stupid (such as when a character is rescued from a terrible situation only to be immediately killed) and the intellectual ambitions of the film quickly melt away in a flash of horror tropes. It’s possible to make better science fiction movies, and the newest crop of recent Canadian SF does get there from time to time. But Debug is just lazy and disappointing in how it really can’t think of anything better than a killer ship AI as a main plot driver: there are dozens of tangents that the film could have taken but chose not to. Too bad — I still think that the film is borderline watchable (which is a compliment considering the alternatives), but more often as an example lesson on what not to do than in demonstrating actual qualities.

  • Alfie (2004)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On TV, February 2021) I wasn’t all that interested by 2004’s Alfie back when it was in theatres or during its most active video lifecycle, but a recent look at the original 1966 film featuring Michael Caine had me suddenly interested in the later version. Jude Law was among the best choices to measure up to Caine, but this newer take updates and tweaks so many things that it hardly feels like a remake, and more of a companion work. What has not changed is the conceit of having its irremediable cad of a protagonist (suggested to be the son of Caine’s character) regularly address the audience to boast about his philosophy of life: As a British man deliberately expatriated in New York to improve his chances of hooking up, his life is a tightly optimized machinery for meeting, bedding and discarding girls. The first few minutes of the film are all in good fun, but consequences come in the form of a worrying medical diagnostic, the end of a longer-term relationship and, most dramatically, a fling with a friend’s on-and-off girlfriend, resulting in an unwanted pregnancy. Shifting from insouciant cad comedy to a more serious recognition of his flaws, Alfie does follow the original’s dramatic arc, but rearranging and updating the material to make for a decent watch by itself. Law strikes just the right balance in being charmingly arrogant and showing the capacity to reconsider his life after multiple setbacks. He does remain a cad, but at least a marginally forgivable cad. A strong supporting cast has its own merits, from Marisa Tomei to Omar Epps to Nia Long to Sienna Miller and Susan Sarandon. The soundtrack includes many down-tempo pieces sung by Mick Jagger. It’s obvious that 2004’s Alfie can’t have the same epochal resonance as the 1966 Swinging London one — it’s a different time and place, and no one can match 1960s Michael Caine. But the remake is interesting enough to live on its own terms, even for those with recent memories of the original.

  • Cake (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On TV, February 2021) Like many actors best known for comic fare, Jennifer Aniston makes a play for dramatic applause every few years. Cake didn’t get as much attention as 2002’s The Good Girl (which did include more comic elements but was a novel attempt to move away from the “Friends” legacy), but it is an unabashedly dramatic story, featuring Anniston as a suicidal grieving mother engaging in self-destructive behaviour. It’s perhaps too successful a portrait: by the time the first half-hour rolls by, the main character is so unpleasantly written that it’s hard to actually like her. It eventually gets better, but don’t be surprised to find Cake an unpleasant piece of work. It’s best to approach it with the right set of expectations: This is a low-budget, independent drama featuring characters going through trying experiences. Daniel Barnz’s low-key no-nonsense direction is in keeping with the script’s straightforward approach. Cake does feel a bit too long at 102 minutes, but that has as much to do with the unpleasant subject matter as the sometimes-repetitive script. It’s not a bad film, and you can see the obvious appeal here for a comic actress trying to expand her range.

  • The Legacy (1978)

    The Legacy (1978)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, February 2021) If you absolutely have to pick a reason to watch The Legacy, the best is probably the lead casting — young Katharine Ross and Sam Shepard (with dark hair and moustache!) in the film where they met before getting married a few years later. Otherwise, there’s not a lot of intellectual nourishment or entertainment satisfaction in the rest of the film. In a convoluted tale of how a British aristocrat turns to occult satanic practices to keep up family traditions, director Richard Marquand is at his best in creating an atmosphere, and at his worst when turning to generic death sequences as a structural device. (No, but seriously: kill off all the sacrificed at once rather than go through individual risky death sequences — no fuss, no trouble and you’re done. But that doesn’t make for a feature-length horror film.)  The Legacy feels a bit more old-fashioned than its production date — although technology does deliciously intrude over the gothic atmosphere in what is perhaps the film’s most intriguing scene. Ross and Shepard spend most of the film running around screaming, and while the ending does bring everything up a notch, it’s too late to make The Legacy more than a passable curio for dedicated horror fans.