Author: Christian Sauvé

  • Red Rocket (2021)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, June 2022) After Tangerine and The Florida Project, writer-director Sean Baker has already acquired an enviable reputation as a filmmaker with an interest in off-beat character studies, and Red Rocket only reinforces that title. Once again heading to the American South (this time: rural Texas), Baker aims to spend a few weeks alongside a sex worker trying to find their footing. It begins as a former male pornstar returns to his native small town in the hopes of reuniting with his wife and finding a job after being mysteriously run out of Los Angeles. Our protagonist is, not to put it nicely, charismatic but terrible– talking his way back into his estranged wife’s house, but quickly plotting to turn a local 17-year-old girl into a ticket back to the porn industry. It may sound dreary, but it’s a partial measure of Baker’s skill in that the film isn’t too bad of a time even when spent with a monstrous character. There’s a bit of dark humour running through the entire film (for instance; the montage sequence showing how being a freshly-retired pornographic actor isn’t a ticket to gainful employment), and the plotting does have this elusive I-wonder-what-will-happen-next quality. The film isn’t afraid to go ironic (as with the repeated use of N-Sync’s “Bye Bye Bye”), aesthetic (as in showcasing the strange beauty of an industrial plant), empathetic (in making obvious the impact of the protagonist’s actions on the “supporting” character) and even surreal (in concluding on an imaginary sequence, much like The Florida Project). It’s not exactly a fun or likable film – Simon Rex is almost too good in depicting a charming con-man and the film ends right at a moment of crises with unpleasant consequences—but it’s a remarkable one. Perhaps a touch too cynical to be as effective as The Florida Project, but an impressive third entry in a filmography that is bound to become even more imposing.

  • Les scènes fortuites (2018)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, June 2022) Look: I’ve been honest about how I’m markedly more favourable to local French-Canadian cinema, but my patience has limits, and Les scènes fortuites skated right on the edge of exasperation for much of its running time. A low-budget personal statement from writer-director-star Guillaume Lambert, it’s a film focused on a budding filmmaker who, even in his thirties, seems unable to accomplish anything and has to settle for a single hardscrabble life with a miserable job in the dregs of TV production, perennial conflicts with the rest of his family and psychosomatic illnesses. A narrator (François Perrusse, who also pops up in a minor role later on) tries to contextualize it within a bigger omniscient perspective, but there’s no fooling viewers: this is the kind of aimless quasi-art-house personal filmmaking that quickly becomes as unbearable as its aimless character. A few good sequences set up promising plot line that could have blossomed into an interesting film, but are consciously cut short before they amount to anything. (You keep rooting for the protagonist to hook up with his cute co-worker? But HA, YOU FOOL – NO FUN ALLOWED HERE!)  The ending itself is abrupt and unsatisfying, but by that time we’re not expecting much more than table scraps from Les scenes forfuites. The film makes a lot of meta-comedy out of the protagonist aiming for “an intelligent comedy,” and that’s as pretentious as the rest of this self-consciously frustrating film.

  • K.G.F: Chapter 1 (2018)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, June 2022) Either the selection of Indian movies that has come to my attention lately is completely off, or I’m overdosing on the “lone action hero fights against powerful organized crime cartels” formula. KGF’s first chapter is another take on this, except that instead of battling terrorists, redwood cartels or drug dealers, this protagonist fights against a gold-mine magnate. There’s some interest in featuring dual timelines, with the modern one focusing on a banned book and a media interview, but the bulk of the story is the same old stuff, with Yash ably playing an action hero whose chances of succeeding are never in doubt (even as we wait for KGF: Chapter 2). Writer-director Prashanth Neel sets the story in 1978 and clearly has fun repurposing classic Hollywood Western cinematography in the historical context of India, but much of the film plays like a very contemporary action movie, with the protagonist beating down scores of enemies along the way. Still, at 155 minutes, there is a lot of slack left in the film – especially for an action movie that should snap from one sequence to another. There are highlights (such as a fight around burning oil drums) and some really good cinematography, but while the film was hailed as the biggest production to date from the Kannada film industry, it does end up feeling like far too many other Indian films. Maybe Chapter 2 will be more distinctive… but I’m not all that hopeful. Like this first chapter, it will most likely be watchable, yet instantly forgettable.

  • PK (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, June 2022) I was expecting the worst from PK. Indian cinema tends to be hit-and-miss for me: I like the colour, the energy, the sense of being somewhere else, but a lot of Indian cinema feels formulaic, overly deferential to authority and often a bit naïve compared to American productions. A quick look at PK’s logline wasn’t much of a reassurance, as it boldly promised a film in which Aamir Khan played an alien stranded on Earth. Khan, known for overacting, is sometimes terrific and sometimes unbearable. As far as aliens-on-Earth comedies go, it feels as if I’ve had my lifelong fill of them decades ago, as they all feel like a twee retelling of the same kind of jokes. PK’s beginning didn’t inspire much confidence, but then – almost magically – the film became substantially better. Much of it had to do with writer-director Rajkumar Hirani going after surprisingly worthwhile targets, as the protagonist “innocently” comments on the god-men charlatans of Indian society, with some fairly pointed satirical moments about whoever claims a direct connection with God. We also get a tour of India’s major religions – I particularly enjoyed the scenes set in a Catholic church. Khan’s performance is about as weird as the film needs it to be, and that’s a compliment – his otherworldly character needs a strong quirky performance and that’s exactly what he delivers. I wasn’t quite taken by the female lead (the short hair doesn’t help), but the romantic subplot involving her and another male character is not too bad. In other words – no, I didn’t quite like PK, but it was far from being as terrible as I anticipated. Mark this as a success of sorts.

  • The Missouri Breaks (1976)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, June 2022) While I’ll never deny the appeal of an intriguing cast, it’s not a guarantee of success. If you know about 1970s Hollywood, the top-line cast and crew of The Missouri Breaks sounds like a wonder:   Director Arthur Penn! Stars Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson, Randy Quaid and Harry Dean Stanton! What’s not to like? Well, plenty:  With Brando in the cast and a script intent on being a downbeat revisionist western, this is one film where the making-of stories are far more interesting than the film itself. According to legend, Brando was almost uncontrollable on set, going in his own bizarre eccentricities at the expense of the film’s tonal integrity. The production was plagued by bad weather, harsh on-location shooting, and a horse died while filming. Much of this is imperceptible in the finished product… except for Brando’s eccentricities, which are enough to make anyone wonder what was going on there. The rest of The Missouri Breaks doesn’t fly particularly high: intent on rejecting decades of Western tradition, the film doesn’t have much to offer instead. It plays like dull wallpaper whenever Brando is off-screen, never quite fulfilling the promise of its marquee names.

  • Cinderella Liberty (1973)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, June 2022) Back in 1940s movies, sailors on leave could be counted upon to tear up the town in perfectly acceptable ways, peck a lovely girl on the cheek and have themselves a few great dance numbers. By the early 1970s, however, movie sailors on leave had complex romantic problems with pregnant prostitutes, became surrogate fathers to biracial boys, dealt with wartime trauma and spent days untangling the absurdity of military bureaucracy. If that almost feels like a good time, just wait until the ending for a mix of motherly abandonment, infant death and identity fraud. (And yet people wonder why I despise New Hollywood movies…)  Cinderella Liberty is glum through and through, although it offers a good dramatic showcase for James Caan as the sailor stuck in Seattle while his military records are nowhere to be found. The gritty, rainy atmosphere of working-class Seattle is rendered in almost too-convincing detail, and director Mark Rydell (working with novelist/screenwriter Darryl Ponicsan) wants to make sure you feel all of it. It’s not badly made, although the quasi-melodramatic accumulation of one thing after another reaches an almost-ridiculous point if you’re not on-board with Cinderella Liberty’s intentions.

  • The Sheik (1921)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Youtube Streaming, June 2022) I started watching The Sheik fully intending to have something to say about its lead Rudolph Valentino (for whom it was one of the highlights of a surprisingly short career), but by the time the film was over, I had more to say about another film released a hundred years later – the critically panned but immensely popular erotic thriller 365 Days. If you haven’t seen 365 Days, don’t worry, because what I have to say also applies to 50 Shades of Grey, Twilight or many, many other movies released between 1921 and 2021, and the likely history of film going forward. None of the twenty-first century films I have mentioned have been favourably reviewed, and there are some perfectly valid reasons for that. But there’s another reason that is far less respectable, and it’s this idea that movie critics are ill-equipped to deal with films having to do with female desire, especially if said desires don’t reflect a progressive outlook. From The Sheik to 365 Days, a perennial female fantasy has to do with power and reluctance. A story exploring what happens to a woman when she’s reluctantly held by a powerful man intent on conquering her is not respectable… but apparently it worked a hundred years ago and still works today – audiences swooned at the sight of Valentino as a sheik with a crush on a headstrong woman, and many swooned (sometimes secretly) about more modern depictions of the same archetype. (And if you think The Sheik invented it, I have news for you – it’s based on a bestselling romance novel published a few years earlier… exactly like Twilight, 50 Shades of Gray and 365 Days.)  There are many ways in which the film is not so impressive today – blunt-force plotting, refusal to allow the protagonist his ethnicity (as he is revealed to be a British aristocrat raised in the desert, clearing the way for a happy ending) and shaky technical production values. On the other hand, you can see what charmed audiences about Valentino, and there are some impressive desert battle sequences in the mix. Still, what’s perhaps most notable about The Sheik is another reminder that nothing is really new, and while the setting may change, the same human quirks are what drive stories. Women have long been intrigued by the idea of being seduced by powerful men and will continue to do so well into the next century and beyond. (Important note — then, now and forever: Non-rich, non-powerful, non-attractive men should not apply, because what’s hot in a lavish fantasy setting becomes creepy horror when it’s in a mundane suburban basement.)

  • How to Save a Marriage and Ruin Your Life (1968)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, June 2022) At this point, I’m pretty much committed to eventually seeing all Dean Martin films – despite his late-career laziness in picking unchallenging projects, a little Martin charm goes a looong way. In How to Save a Marriage and Ruin Your Life, he clearly gets a role at the measure of his public Vegas show persona as a boozy womanizing bachelor – the kind of thing he could play without making much of an effort, but with remarkably good return on his effort. The film uses his character as a launching pad for further complications, as he sets out to save his married buddy from an affair by seducing the girl before his buddy does… but mistakenly romancing the wrong girl. As with many late-1960s films, there’s clearly a malaise here about the way American society was changing, and the role left to old-school males like Martin. Unlike other better-remembered films of the era, however, How to Save a Marriage and Ruin Your Life doesn’t quite know what to do about it except playing up the absurdity of mistresses asking for a pension plan. Some better-than-average dialogue makes this characteristically chaste 1960s sex comedy go down easy – even if Martin looks too old and dishevelled to be perfectly credible as a romantic lead, his suaveness dominates the screen and makes the entire thing feel better than if another actor had been in it. A good measure of star power, even if the film itself isn’t particularly memorable nor striking.

  • How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, June 2022) Even though it’s dated 1967, I have more fun associating How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying either with the poppy bright optimistic style of the early 1960s, or the surprisingly satirical films of the 1950s taking aim at the way post-WW2 American society had restructured itself. This is not accidental, nor much of a stretch considering that the film is based on a 1961 stage musical that was itself based on a satirical 1952 book. Tony Randall (a fixture of both eras) would have been right at home here, but it’s Robert Morse who gets one of his two iconic roles (the other being on the Mad Men TV show, obviously inspired by this one) reprising his stage performance as a young man making his way to the top of a corporation. The opening moments of the film are nothing short of irresistible, as our protagonist shoots up from the mailroom to an executive position thanks to an improbably prescient book and ambivalent morals. (It’s both a strength and a problem of the film that we’re never sure if there’s a shred of sincerity to the way he acts.)  Bright colourful backdrops and musical numbers satirize the way big Manhattan-based corporations were seen in the popular imagination, and this broadly comic approach has helped the film age remarkably well: even when it’s depicting some horrifying sexism, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying feels as if it’s laughing at itself and the elements it wants to showcase as terrible. There are some very funny bits (although my favourite part, when the protagonist is confronted by someone who has read the same book, is a bit short) and the film keeps some energy even in its inevitable third-quarter lull. Michele Lee is quite good in the female role, but it’s Kay Reynolds that I liked best as a supporting character. I’m picky about 1960s musicals but How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is one of the good ones of the era – even if it’s not quite as well known as it should be, either as a colourful example of its era or as a remarkably enjoyable film by itself.

  • Demon Wind (1990)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, June 2022) In the sub-basement of bad movies, Demon Wind clearly earns an uncontested place: the film seems put together by writer-director Charles Philip Moore with twine and mercenary intentions, with unexpressive actors, a nonsensical script, medium-low production values and an indifferent execution going for speed rather than competence. But there’s also a craziness to it that makes it more watchable than many films in the same category. There’s an intention to ape Evil Dead’s subjective camera work, for instance, or a bunch of twists and turns that owe more to incompetence but still make the film more fun to follow than the same boring old approach. Definitely getting chummy with the “so bad it’s good” category, the film’s obvious shortcomings in matters of acting, writing and production can be entertaining in their own right… at least for a certain audience in the right frame of mind. I wouldn’t necessarily call the film worthwhile: after all, why waste time chuckling at substandard dreck when there are just as many good-to-great films yet to watch? But everything is relative, and in-between the prospect of watching Demon Wind ironically, or laboriously making your way through yet another dull by-the-numbers monster horror film (or worse, a slasher), there’s no doubt what’s more enjoyable.

  • Female Trouble (1974)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, June 2022) I started watching Female Trouble with a troubling question– while I really liked the John Waters’ films that I had seen, those (Hairspray, Cry-Baby, Serial Mom, Cecil B. Demented) were toward the bigger-budgeted, mainstream end of his career rather than the earlier, most transgressive era: What would I think of such fare as Pink Flamingos and Polyester? Well, if Female Trouble is any indication, I’m in for a few more great viewing experiences. Female Trouble is as camp as camp can be, deliberately heightening the ridiculousness of its execution, the extreme nature of its plotting and the melodrama of its ill-fitting actors. Some of it depends on having drag queen character actor Divine in the lead role, but not as much as you’d think – the particular nature of the character just becomes one more thing in an entire film built on self-conscious ridiculousness. I don’t think every viewer will be a good audience for this kind of material – but if you can make it past a particular point early in the film in which what’s essentially the worst thing in the world is shown in a way that makes you laugh, then you’re good to go for the rest of the film’s descent into pure lunacy and a final act of filicide that just caps it all off. Female Trouble is quite something, and rarely less than engrossing despite the bargain-basement budget and actors playing decades younger or older than their age. It has aged very well – but of course, what was transgressive back in 1974 is almost mainstream these days, and I’m not sure that the more-or-less-exact same film made today would be as remarkable. No matter – Waters’ iconoclastic sense of demented humour serves him well here, and I’m feeling upbeat about seeing the rest of his filmography.

  • Earthquake (1974)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On DVD, June 2022) In the pantheon of 1970s disaster movies, Earthquake is certainly not the first (Airport), not the best (The Towering Inferno), not the funniest (Airplane!) and it’s not the most ridiculous (The Swarm), but there’s a good case to be made for it to be the most disaster-esque. It understands the very specific form of the subgenre better than most – the high-concept, almost inevitable premise (an earthquake ravaging Los Angeles) acts as the main event, but there are plenty of portentous mini-crises and subsequent aftershocks to keep things hopping throughout the entire film. The usual ensemble cast of such films, bringing together new actors with Classic Hollywood stars, is also top-notch: In between Charlton Heston and Ava Gardner on one end, and George Kennedy and Richard Roundtree in the middle, and Genevieve Bujold and Victoria Principal toward the younger end, we get as much opportunity for star-spotting as an L.A. bus tour – including Walter Matthau in a very funny uncredited drunk role: yes, it’s him! The special effects keep going between credible and amateurish, with a specific mention of a cartoonish blood splash punctuating an elevator crash. The entire plot is handled with enough over-the-top craziness that it carries the film even when the rest of it doesn’t make sense. The vignette-oriented ensemble approach of the plot means that the film was put together in bits and pieces with plenty of reshoots and last-minute cuts. Some of the material apparently resurfaced in a longer, more complete TV version but the DVD edit doesn’t have that luxury: the film brings characters in and out of the plot without bothering to give everyone a satisfying climactic resolution – and if you think the biggest names are going to be at the happy ending, then you’ll feel Earthquake running out of steam moments before crossing the finish line. The rather disappointing ending doesn’t quite erase the discomfort of one of the main plotlines – with Heston’s character clearly telegraphing his intention to leave his age-appropriate wife for another woman twenty years his junior. The ending tries to be moral about this but only manages to feel cheap, which is at odds with the rest of this no-expense-barred extravaganza. Director Mark Robson has a multi-ring circus of destruction to manage but the scattered result would have escaped all but the best directors. What we’re left with is still a highly watchable (although increasingly unconvincing) disaster film and a time capsule of mid-1970s Los Angeles, often more promising than successful.

  • Angst essen Seele auf [Ali: Fear Eats the Soul] (1974)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, June 2022) I wouldn’t dare criticize a filmmaker for wanting to do a Douglas Sirk-style melodrama if that’s what catches their creative fancy. But Sirk-style melodramas aren’t to everyone’s taste, and once you’re past the initial shock of recognition that, yes, this is what writer-director-producer Rainer Werner Fassbinder is going for in Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, the film goes into very familiar territory. This intergenerational, interethnic romance between an older German woman and a Middle Eastern man hits most of the expected plot points – familiar disapproval (featuring Fassbinder himself as a surly bigot), social ostracism, cultural differences, jabs from outsiders not understanding what’s going on, and self-doubts. The only suspense here is whether love will prevail, and that’s not necessarily a given, since Fassbinder goes for his usual morose style throughout the film. The cinematography clearly aspires to gritty realism, something reinforced by the working-class surroundings and naturalistic acting. The film was reportedly shot in two weeks as an in-between project between two other bigger films and you can feel the go-for-broke energy of how it’s slapped together. Fassbinder fans will probably like it – Ali: Fear Eats the Soul is very well-regarded in general, and among Fassbinder’s filmography as well but for those who may not like the German director’s approach, there won’t be anything here to flip them over.

  • A Very Honorable Guy (1934)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, June 2022) The nice thing about comedies is that they don’t need to be great in order to entertain – sometime, even a middling execution can be good enough for a few laughs and a good time. So it is that A Very Honorable Guy manages to get a few chuckles despite its messy execution. Rubber-faced Joe E. Brown stars as a man who, during the film’s abrasive opening sequence, gets everything wrong – to the point where, destitute, depressed and desperate, he sells his body to science while still alive. The doctor, strangely enough, gives him a tidy sum of money and thirty days, after which he’s to come back and gulp a fatal dose of poison to complete the agreement. (This is clearly a Pre-Code film.)  It would be easy to take the money and run, but our hero is honourable to a fault, and his money ends up snowballing as he wins the lottery, pays off his debt, gets the mob off his back and wins back the affection of his fiancée. Something is clarified right before the thirty days are up: the “doctor” is a psychopath with designs on his fiancée, explaining quite a lot about the initially ludicrous plot. It all wraps up neatly. Alas, the execution is rough – the curiously slack script doesn’t make the most of its assets, starting with Brown. It’s amusing all right, but it takes a while to get going, seems to waste its time in useless tangents, and doesn’t quite extract as much comedy from its odd ideas as it could have. This may serve to explain A Very Honorable Guy’s relative obscurity despite having Brown in the lead – it’s merely interesting even it could have been more.

  • Brigadoon (1954)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Youtube Streaming, June 2022) All right, this is it – not that I think anyone will care, but this is the final film from legendary MGM musicals producer Arthur Freed that I hadn’t yet seen. Compared to the other last few titles of the Freed Unit filmography, Brigadoon is not all that racially problematic, lower-budgeted or stuck with unfamiliar actors. In fact, it’s also one of the last few musicals featuring Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse that were left on my list. No, if it took that long, it’s because the film somehow isn’t legally available for broadcast in Canada – TCM regularly shows it for the American market, but substitutes other titles for its Canadian simulcast. No other channel or streaming site seems to have it. The version for sale on Amazon is said to be Region-2 only. So, I had to be inventive in how I saw it. Alas, I can’t say that the result was worth the trouble. Surprisingly dull and twee, the film features Kelly as an American tumbling upon a fantastic village in the depth of the Scottish highlands, a village bound by complex romantic rituals that is set to disappear for another hundred years within days. The film’s lavish number of dancers doesn’t manage to make it feel any more real than its soundstage shooting location – something even apparent in the film’s best moments, the anthology-worthy dance duet between Charisse and Kelly to the tune of “The Heather on the Hill.”  Despite some moments where the film becomes mildly intriguing, much of Brigadoon feels as flat as its soundstage backdrops – forgettable songs, a few set-pieces, overdone Scottish mythmaking and a contrived fantasy narrative that’s just an excuse for “We don’t need to justify a happy ending.”  It’s tedious more often than not, and increasingly drawn-out as the third act gets underway. It’s a surprising dud for Kelly, Charisse and director Vincente Minnelli as well – a project that was launched with care and hopes, but failed to rise to meet expectations. Brigadoon is not a particularly good way to end my trip through the Freed filmography – but, hey, at least there’s no blackface in this one.