Author: Christian Sauvé

  • This is Where I Leave You (2014)

    This is Where I Leave You (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Video on Demand, January 2015) Considering the amazing cast put together for This is Where I Leave You, it would be understandable to expect a bit more from the results.  I count at least nine interesting actors on the top bill, and seeing some of them play against each other is almost fun no matter the material they’re given.  As siblings (and their assorted partners) reunite after the death of their father, the film becomes an intricate multi-ring circus of entwined subplots –enough of them that you’re guaranteed to relate.  There are laughs, cringe-worthy situations, a surprising amount of R-rated material and an ending that ties up most loose ends hopefully.  Jason Bateman is his usual leading-man self, Jane Fonda gets a late chance to play her curves, Corey Stoll and Adam Driver finally gets substantial big-screen comedy roles, Tina Fey and Kathryn Hahn are effortlessly likable… think of this film as a buffet and you won’t be too far off the final impression.  Of course, this means that some parts don’t entirely work, or feel contrived, or are executed more mechanically than anything else.  There’s wasted potential here, magnified by the known-name actors.  (I suspect that had it featured unknowns, the film would have earned better reviews.)  Still, as far a dysfunctional family comedies and assorted romantic dramas go, This is Where I Leave You is decently enjoyable, with enough twists and turns and revelations and set-piece sequences to justify the running time. 

  • Mr. Deeds (2002)

    Mr. Deeds (2002)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, January 2015)  I may be off to lunch here given my lack of familiarity with the Adam Sandler oeuvre, but it seems to me that Mr. Deeds marks a bit of a transition between the violent man-child persona of Sandler’s early movies (most notably Billy Madison) and the more good-natured family-man persona of latter films (most notably the Grown-Ups series).  This is not, obviously, a comment on increasing or decreasing quality of his movies – just an entirely predictable evolution from a young comic’s persona to a middle-aged actor’s most appropriate roles.  Sandler still gets to assault someone (a fake mugging), but he spends most of the film as a likable small-town pizzeria-owner abruptly thrust in the cutthroat world of Manhattan finances after an unlikely inheritance.  The plot mechanics are standard and the jokes are lame, but there are occasional laughs to be found in the details and the character work.  Winona Ryder is at her peak-cute moment as the love interest, but John Turturro turns in much funnier material as a supporting character who then becomes far more important to the plot’s conclusion.  Still, this isn’t even near close to middle-brow entertainment: The characters act in ways that make no sense away from dumb comedies or kids shows, while elements of the plot are brutally stupid.  I suppose I’d feel outraged about this being a remake of a well-liked Gary Cooper film if I have a deeper knowledge of historical cinemas, but in the meantime I can just say that Mr. Deeds isn’t particularly good on its own merits.  

  • The Place beyond the Pines (2012)

    The Place beyond the Pines (2012)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, January 2015)  If I was in a better mood, I would probably have something nicer to say about The Place Beyond the Pines, its savvy use of Ryan Gosling, its unusual generation-hopping timeline, the quality of its images, the profound exploration of the meaning of fatherhood, the unexpectedly dramatic performances by Eva Mendes and Bradley Cooper, and a number of other meaningful factors.  It’s a quality film, one that has a lot on its mind, and one that takes time to invest in its characters.  But if writer/director Derek Cianfrance seems to be directly inspired by the artistic moviemaking of the seventies, he isn’t particularly interested in snappy storytelling or even base entertainment: The Place beyond the Pines tests everyone’s patience at 140 minutes, wallows in a somber tone and never again reaches the heights of its first act.  I may not be in the mood for moody films these days, and that’s not the film’s problem.  But it becomes my problem in trying to report on it, as the dominant impression I keep from it is having lost quite a bit of time watching something underwhelming.  Not recommended for people with only the patience for light entertainment.

  • The Double (2013)

    The Double (2013)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, January 2015)  I don’t have a lot of patience for ambiguity these days, so when I have to confront a film like The Double, which deals in fantasies and metaphors and unanswered questions, my first tendency is to retreat to the surface level and stop digging.  Jesse Eisenberg stars as a corporate office drone who comes to confront a doppelganger who’s far more charismatic than he is.  Slowly, the double takes over his life, steals his girlfriend, makes inroad at the office and dominates his thoughts.  Shot as it if was set somewhere behind the Iron Curtain in the mid-seventies, The Double is thankfully replete with humor and ironies –if nothing else, that aspect of the film works without too much trouble.  Seeing Eisenberg play both the beta and the alpha is a good use of his developing screen persona – his first few roles were nebbishly undistinguishable from Michael Cera, but his post The Social Network career so far has fully embraced alpha-nerddom.  Writer/director Richard Ayoade manages a few entertaining moments before the film sinks into a closing act of mounting ambiguity and oh-so-profound symbolism.  It’s those moments that save The Double from terminal self-absorption.  See the film in a double-feature with Enemy for more doppelgänger madness.

  • Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013)

    Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, January 2015)  Given that I barely remembered the first Percy Jackson, it’s not as if I was hungering for a sequel.  Now that it’s out, the only thing to say is that it’s… average.  Much of the interest of the first film, as inspired by the Rick Riordan books, was in seeing how various elements of Greek mythology could be integrated in the modern world, and so it goes with the sequel –most amusingly in seeing a cameo by Nathan Filion running a Hermes-inspired messenging service.  (That’s supposed to take place in Washington… except for the high-rises in the background)  There are interesting odds and ends: A wild taxi ride, a trip through a sea monster, some nice special effects.  There are action scenes every few minutes, but otherwise it’s as generic a fantasy product as can be aimed at teenagers.  It’s generally enjoyable (and the actors aren’t bad, just stuck with undistinguished material) but it’s not really essential.  There is really no need to do a third one.

  • Welcome to the Punch (2013)

    Welcome to the Punch (2013)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, January 2015)  As it turns out, there is a thinner line than I thought between cool and ridiculous.  This can be best shown using Welcome to the Punch, a British crime thriller that tries so hard to look cool that it eventually become laughable despite itself.  Much of the film isn’t too bad, though: The cinematography of the film (finding surprising beauty in the blue-hued glass buildings in night-time London) is stylish and striking, and James McAvoy has seldom looked more self-assured as a once-wounded police officer forced to ally with a career criminal (Mark Strong, also good) in order to take down a bigger operation.  Director Eran Creevy scores a few great sequences, including a grabbing opening sequence, and a mid-movie slow-motion living-room confrontation.  Unfortunately, the wheels start coming off mid-way through as a sympathetic character is badly killed (maybe even excessively killed, if it’s possible to overstate it), and the film then incongruously ramps up the cool factor until it exceed maximum pretentiousness levels shortly before the night-set loading docks ending sequence.  By the time the protagonist (again) rises up (again) in slow-motion with (again) a shotgun, it’s hard not to laugh at the film’s expense.  Which is too bad, because McAvoy and Strong are pretty darn cool when they don’t have to overplay their moments, and the direction has its moments before falling off the cliff of obnoxiousness.  It’s hard to avoid thinking that with a slightly defter touch, Welcome to the Punch could have been much better.

  • The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

    The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, January 2015)  How many movies does it take for a director to redeem himself?  I’ve had trouble with Wes Anderson’ first few films (too twee, too weird, too annoying), but after Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonlight Kingdom and now The Grand Budapest Hotel, it feels as if I have re-discovered a great director.  Easily the most ambitious of his films so far, The Grand Budapest Hotel ends up being a delicious blend of comedy, fake history, striking characters, artful cinematography and dozens of name actors seemingly having tons of fun.  Visually, the film voluntarily goes retro with classical staging, highly stylized set design and voluntarily cheap special effects that somehow add to the comic absurdity of the plot.  (Also notice the absence of diagonal movement in-frame)  The story has surprisingly dark twists and turns, but screenwriter Anderson seems delighted in playing with a familiar plot, only to flip over the table and have whimsical fun whenever it suits him. The result is almost impossible not to watch with a growing sense of fondness.  Ralph Fiennes turns in a small comic masterpiece performance as an ultra-competent hotel concierge, while being ably supported by far too many great players to count or enumerate.  It amounts to a striking oddity of a film, something almost impossible to describe faithfully but nonetheless utterly compelling upon viewing.  From time to time, we get a film that reaffirms why cinema can be fun and stylish without forgetting to be meaningful.

  • And so it Goes (2014)

    And so it Goes (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Video on Demand, January 2015)  The modern drive to transform movies into non-stop spectacles means that middle-of-the-road character-based comedies such as And so it Goes are often forgotten among so many other viewing choices.  And that’s too bad, because they often offer satisfying acting performances by well-known names, gentle humor, quiet pacing and heartwarming conclusions.  There isn’t, to be clear, anything new or challenging in And so it Goes: Michael Douglas stars as an embittered real-estate agent drawing back into his shell after a series of setbacks.  Fortunately, there’s Diane Keaton as a lounge singer widow to draw him out of his shell, alongside a number of other supporting characters including an estranged granddaughter.  We all know where that kind of story is going, and that’s part of the charm.  Veteran director Rob Reiner isn’t interested in flash, and the unspectacular result might have been better, but it goes down nicely given appropriate exceptions.  The focus of And so it Goes on older leads, addressing similarly-older audiences, is not a bad change of pace, even though there’s a pervasive feeling that the film should have been quite a bit more than what it is.  

  • 22 Jump Street (2014)

    22 Jump Street (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Video on Demand, January 2015) At this point, following the successful streak from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, 21 Jump Street, The Lego Movie and now 22 Jump Street, who isn’t impressed by writer/director Christopher Miller and Phil Lord’s ability to take on the most hopeless projects and turn them into gold?  No one expected anything good from TV adaptation 21 Jump Street, and yet they delivered a fairly successful crime comedy.  Nobody expected anything from 22 Jump Street, and here they are, delivering not only another successful crime comedy, but one that comments upon the clichés of the genre, and indulges into a lot of meta-commentary on movie sequels.  It’s surprisingly effective, playing off our knowledge of the characters and the genre they’re working within.  Some of the best moments of the film come from seeing characters react to each other, with Ice Cube being integral to two of the movie’s funniest comic set-pieces.  Meanwhile, Jonah Hill is more or less up to his usual persona, while Channing Tatum continues to impress with his comic persona.  The end-credit montage by itself is practically worth the time watching the entire film.  While occasionally vulgar and easy and cheap, there’s quite a bit more running under the motor than most typical sequels, and it’s that extra effort that makes the film so endearing.  And while good enough should be left alone, meaning that there’s no need for a 23 Jump Street, it’s going to resist seeing what Miller/Lord have in mind when it inevitably arrives.

  • Enemy (2013)

    Enemy (2013)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, December 2014) In some ways, it’s fitting that Enemy should be the last film I’ve seen in 2014, given how my reaction to it is in many ways a reflection of where I am in my cinephile’s journey.  Because Enemy is one of those movies where an enigmatic plot ends up being a metaphor for a deeper meaning that may not be fully apparent from a superficial viewing.  Here, a mild-mannered college professor discovers that he has a doppelganger, an extrovert actor.  When the two men meet, issues of fatherhood, relationships and intimacy all come up, in an enigmatic mixture of mystery, fantasy and allegory.  Anyone watching the film for plot will be frustrated, especially if they expect stated answers by the end of the film.  There is a lot to decode in the film, starting with the issue of whether there is a doppelganger and whose doppelganger it is.  Now, as it happens, I’m at that stage in my movie-watching life when I can recognize the deeper levels of interpretation –but can’t be bothered to care.  Purposefully-enigmatic films that revel in ambiguity (all the way to the director remaining coy about what it all meant in press interviews) are more annoying than anything else, and my ultimate reaction is to opt out: I refuse to put the puzzle together.  So what’s left in Enemy for us refusniks?  Fortunately, a well-crafted film.  French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve does really well in this second (chronologically first) collaboration with Jake Gyllenhall, leading a carefully designed film bathed in the kind of gold light that makes Toronto looks either cool or creepy.  Gyllenhall himself gets a plum pair of roles as a split personality playing off himself.  The film may be quiet, but the second-to-last shot is a pure shocker, fit to send even forewarned viewers climbing the drapes while shouting HOLYCATS, WHATWASTHAT?!?!!  Too bad that the film wants to be so maddeningly mysterious.  It asks a lot of its audience, so it shouldn’t be surprised if many won’t play along.

  • The November Man (2014)

    The November Man (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Video on Demand, December 2014)  Perhaps the most interesting thing about this average euro-spy thriller is how it can be seen as an attempt by Pierce Brosnan to create a franchise for himself.  Given that Brosnan has purchased the rights to an entire series of espionage thriller novels, has produced the film and stars in it, this is no mere catty supposition as much as it’s clear-headed analysis.  Brosnan, as an ex-Bond, knows the advantages of having his own franchise and if he’s willing to put his money on the table –who can blame him?  Of course, it would be best if he was able to deliver a good movie.  While The November Man isn’t actually bad, it’s almost admirably average.  Blending an intensely familiar blend of elements (somber east-European political machinations, past massacres being covered up, rogue superiors, kidnapped family members, protégé-turned-enemy, and so on…) in a film put together in a competent but mechanical fashion.  Fortunately, The November Man is average in a genre that can be satisfying even when it’s mediocre: I hadn’t seen a spy thriller in some time and was almost hungering for an example, any example in the genre.  So my expectations were met, and I wasn’t asking for much more than that.  This being said, The November Man has problems.  As an adaptation of a latter novel in the series, it solicits emotional depth from the viewers (oh no!  The other of his child has been killed!  Oh no, his daughter has been kidnapped!) that it hasn’t had the time to earn in a few minutes.  The stakes are relatively low, the characters and dialogues are fairly dull –basically, while the film meets expectations, there’s nothing here that surpasses them.  The November Man is the very definition of a pleasant but instantly forgettable genre piece, good enough for an evening but almost entirely forgotten the next morning.

  • Bears (2014)

    Bears (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, December 2014)  Disneynature is on a hot streak lately, and Bears is merely the latest in a strong line-up of nature documentaries that bring the latest available filmmaking technology to classic animal storylines.  Here, we follow a mother bear and her cub through a year of trials and tribulations.  (Don’t worry: everything turns out fine for both of them.)  The high-definition images are crisp and colorful, and the script does a nice job at anthropomorphising animal behavior in terms that make it accessible to the entire family.  John C. Reilly is perfectly cast as the narrator finding a good balance between the goofiest moments and the more dangerous ones.  Bears delivers exactly what it promises, and so pretty much cuts off any longer discussion of its merits: It’s perfect family viewing, often beautiful, frequently funny and ultimately entirely satisfying.   

  • The Bay (2012)

    The Bay (2012)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, December 2014)  Now that we have entered the third or fourth stage of found-footage horror movies, it’s obvious that one camera isn’t enough: The Bay shows how a collage of personal video recording, TV footage, security cameras, dashcams, recorded video chats has become the state-of-the-art in showing how a small town is overrun by gross slimy monsters.  To its credit, The Bay does feature a striking monster and a deeper environmental them.  The problem is that The Bay doesn’t quite know what to do with what it has at its disposal.  It overplays some cards, underplays others, does itself no favours by blending its editing into fragments and calls attention to itself without actually deserving acclaim.  While the environmentally-conscious card is fine, it’s played far too often and far too stridently, making the same point long after the premise has been established.  Similarly, The Bay fools no one by making a claim to real events having occurred and being covered up.  While director Barry Levinson earns points by splitting its story in multiple found-footage streams, the film doesn’t actually present that many interesting characters –the most interesting story, featuring a family with a young baby, ends up concluding weakly without much of a climax.  The Bay repeatedly squanders what’s most interesting about itself to the point where it becomes just another runoff-the-mill horror film, perhaps a bit more annoying than most in how mediocre it ends up.

  • Old Boy (2013)

    Old Boy (2013)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, December 2014)  I’m not going to be coy about my biases going into this movie: The original South-Korean Oldboy did not need to be remade for an American audience.  Seeing Spike Lee tackle the project is a bit of a waste, especially when the result seems to stick as closely to the original.  I suppose that the film would be worth a look for those who haven’t seen the original: It has an intriguing mystery at its core, an unconventional revenge story, enough icky plot points to make it memorable and a bit of style as bonus.  (It’s best not to think too long about the finer points of the plot, but so it goes.)  Josh Brolin is a solid protagonist, Samuel L. Jackson has a flashy short role and Sharlito Copley turns in another off-kilter performance as the villain.  Still, this American Oldboy runs long, never quite connects to the protagonist, somehow doesn’t earn its wilder plot points and doesn’t quite know how to control its tone.  This being said, nearly everyone who should have seen the original has seen the original, and comparisons are where much of this remake’s interest is about.  It does seem to beg comparison, so closely does it adhere to the original –there’s even a bit of a fake-out where it seems as if the most effective twist of the original has been neutralized.  And while much of the remake is less impressive than the original, its coda is more credible than the hypnotism mumbo-jumbo of the Korean version.  In the end, though, this Oldboy falls in-between respectable cinema and effective exploitation, satisfying no one –and annoying those who thought the (even flawed) original should have been left alone.

  • Hours (2013)

    Hours (2013)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, December 2014)  When I state that Hours is an intense nightmare all-too-accurately presented as a thriller, you can be sure that I’m saying so as someone who, not too long ago, went through the exhilarating wringer of caring for a newborn.  Becoming a father means an accumulation of fatigue and helplessness that can’t be accurately described to anyone who hasn’t been there, but Hours manages to take the worst of those moments and spin them into a thriller in which things keep getting worse.  Consider a new father, being told that his wife died during childbirth and that his daughter depends on a mechanical respirator.  Consider that same father stuck in a vacated New Orleans hospital in the path of Hurricane Katrina, turning a crank for a mechanical generator every few minutes to keep his daughter alive.  Consider feral dogs, unfriendly thieves, lack of supplies, hunger, fatigue, pain, grief all battering the protagonist until his world become nothing more than a mechanical motion.  Hours may not have much (it’s a low-budget effort with few locations and a handful of characters) but it makes the most out of what it has, and uses the defunct Paul Walker in a career-best role as the new father stuck in an impossible situation.  This is a thriller that grabs viewers by the throat and doesn’t let go until it has exhausted everyone from the dramatic possibilities of the situation.  I don’t think that the film will work as well on non-parents, largely because its thematic and dramatic engines are so closely aligned with one another.  But if you’re likely to be in Hours’ target audience, sit down, relax… and don’t forget to breathe.