Movie Review

  • C’est pas moi, c’est lui (1980)

    C’est pas moi, c’est lui (1980)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, December 2020) Pierre Richard strikes back as a hapless gaffe-prone protagonist in C’est pas moi, c’est lui: Playing a frustrated ghostwriter-screenwriter who gets the bright idea of passing himself off as someone else in order to get recognition for his work, he soon finds himself in Northern Africa, tangled in a mess of assumed identities and double-crossing associates. If you’re familiar with Richard’s screen persona, this is a pure undiluted take on it — slightly enhanced by how the character, even if clumsy and awkward, is clearly competent in his field. (One of the film’s most clever scenes has the character outwitting repossession officers through rule-bending and a bit of physical comedy.) The film can also rely on more than the physical comedy for laughs – the identity-confusion material is good for more than a few laughs, and the foreigner-out-of-his-element is also good. Unfortunately, the film ends on an underwhelming note, as the character spends far too long away from his pregnant fiancée, and escapes captivity through a bit of unnecessary violence. Otherwise, there’s plenty to laugh about here – the scene where he keeps puncturing absurdly inflated sofas is memorable. In many ways, though, C’est pas moi, c’est lui does suffer from being so similar to other Richard movies – if it’s the first one you’ve seen, you’re guaranteed to have fun. If it’s the fifth or sixth, well, you may want to space them out for greater impact.

  • The River (1984)

    The River (1984)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, December 2020) Sissy Spacek and Mel Gibson are struggling farmers trying to keep it together in the face of regular floods and economic pressures in The River. It’s directed with the kind of gritty blue-collar graininess characteristic of the 1970s – there are no glossy golden-hour shots of the farm here when the focus is on intractable social issues. It gets even worse when, in a bid to avoid financial problems, the male protagonist accepts a steel-working job and realizes to his dismay that he’s been asked to go past picket lines during a strike. But the bank remains the ultimate enemy, especially when the farmer sits in the middle of an area slated for large-scale geoengineering. The River is such a downbeat picture that the happy(er) ending comes across as surprising and unrealistic. It doesn’t help that the entire film, even the flooding scenes, comes across as dry and unlikable – we cheer for the underdog by habit, but there comes a point in the film where we just want the farmers to take the money and run in the face of nature wanting their lands for flooding. (It probably doesn’t help that, over the past few years, climate change oblige, twenty-first century audiences are getting far more sensitized to the concept of deliberate flooding zones: our sympathy for mounting insurance bailouts is getting shorter.) While The River may hold some appeal for Gibson and Spacek fans, the resulting film had too little reason for other audiences to care.

  • I Am Mother (2019)

    I Am Mother (2019)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, December 2020) While, in theory, I’m a strong proponent of complex science fiction narratives in movies, and while I’m not averse to dark stories, and while I’m a not-so-recovered former film critic for a Science Fiction magazine who kept bemoaning the pap that Hollywood churned out, there is something that’s keeping me from liking I Am Mother as much as I should. It starts promisingly enough, with a robot bringing up an embryo as a daughter, in a bunker clearly sealed off from a post-apocalyptic landscape. But there’s only so much mileage you can make out of that restrained premise, and before long the darker nature of the script comes into focus as a survivor from outside (Hilary Swank!) comes knocking at the door, and the robot demonstrates highly Machiavellian traits. The narrative gets darker as it goes along, with the expected evidence of previous child-rearing attempts and complex power games between human and robot. I think that most of my objections to the film have to do with a lack of disbelief in its premise – at regular intervals, I found myself second-guessing the basic assumptions of the film, its direction, its means or its justifications. That is not how to have a healthy film/audience relationship, but I am Mother never managed to win me over. As it trekked over its recovering post-apocalyptic landscape, I kept glancing aside at story paths not taken, at more optimistic viewpoints and at ways the film could have been more compelling. Oh, it’s skillfully put together: the special effects are fantastic for a mid-to-low-budget Australian production, Clara Rugaard is quite good in the lead role and there are plenty of ideas scattered around. But I was simply never on board with what the film tried to do, no matter how much I wanted to.

  • Klaus (2019)

    Klaus (2019)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, December 2020) December is the time for Christmas movies we would otherwise be unwilling to watch at any other time of the year — but some of them do manage to be more interesting. Usually, the difference is in the non-Christmas portion of the narrative: while Christmas movies should hinge on Christmas, the best of them also have narratives that can be enjoyed on their own. In this regard, Klaus does manage to have it all: as an origin story for Santa Claus, sure, but also as the story of an over-privileged misfit asked to set up a postal service in a small village with two warring families. I’m not sure if there was much of a movie genre for postal comedies before, but Klaus manages to find new and witty elements to use as building blocks to the familiar Claus mythology. Visually, the film is remarkable for its unique art style – two-dimensional animation with an incredible polish that holds up against the now-familiar CGI baseline. The mixture of old-fashioned elements used in clever ways is what helps make Klaus so enjoyable – and perhaps even a new Christmas classic in the running. It’s a remarkable success, not just as a Christmas film or a family film (or worse yet, a Christmas family film), but on its own terms, watchable at any time of the year… but best in December.

  • Two Girls on Broadway (1940)

    Two Girls on Broadway (1940)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, December 2020) If there’s a slightly familiar quality to Two Girls on Broadway, it’s not as much due to it being a loose remake of the Academy award-winning Broadway Melody of 1929 than being very similar to countless other Broadway musicals. At the time, much of the media attention on the film was on Lana Turner – she was fast rising as a sex symbol, and the film showcased her (largely unfulfilled) potential as a musical star. Little surprise, then, if the film is more remarkable for its musical numbers than its overall narrative – as a story of two sisters trying to succeed on Broadway while not meeting the wrong men, it’s slight, adequate and just enough to bring this film to feature-film length. Joan Blondell is featured as Turner’s sister, but much of the emphasis of the film is on big production numbers, even if they don’t quite leave much of an impression once the film wraps up. It’s definitely not one of the most striking musicals of the era – it pales even when compared to its more daring and less technically accomplished inspiration. Still, Two Girls on Broadway is amiable enough and fits squarely in the idea we have of circa-1940 Hollywood musicals riffing off Broadway’s mystique.

  • Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019)

    Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, December 2020) As someone who thinks we should de-platform serial killers, I had substantial objections to Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, a film portraying the antics of serial killer Ted Bundy through the perspective of one of his girlfriends. The standout reason to watch the film is probably Zac Efron’s performance as Bundy – the former Disney teen idol has spent much of the past decade moving as far away from his previous persona as possible, and one hopes that this process has reached a terminus of sorts by portraying one of the most infamous serial murderers in recent history. Efron’s casting is made all the more intriguing in that Bundy was, according to most accounts, quite a charismatic figure – it takes someone with Efron’s magnetism to portray such a historical figure, and he manages it well. The film itself is a jumble of short scenes moving through Bundy’s life – veteran filmmaker Joe Berlinger can’t resist a few stylistic effects, he’s stuck with a somewhat average script about a reprehensible subject that does not measure up to its wild title. The result isn’t essential by any means – you will probably sleep a little bit easily tonight without being reminded of Bundy’s numerous gruesome murders. And I’ll be happy if we don’t get other movies portraying serial killers as entertainment figures.

  • The King (2019)

    The King (2019)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, December 2020) It’s been scant hours since I’ve seen The King, and the film is already a blur of fuzzy memories, largely undistinguishable from other similar films. Telling us about Henry V’s first years in power, it’s dirty, grimy and thoroughly not fun. The acting talent is fine (what with such notables at Timothée Chalamet, Joel Edgerton, Robert Pattinson and Ben Mendelsohn) and the script relies equally on loose adaptations from historical facts and Shakespearian plays. But the result, ugh – you may want to get out on the next cold rainy day, roll yourself in the mud and spend a few days without electricity and have a more entertaining experience. It does get a bit more interesting late in the third act with a depiction of the Battle of Agincourt, but even a film as dull and gritty as The King can’t escape substantial deviation from historical fact – it’s almost as much fun to fact-check the film than watch it in the first place. It’s as featureless and generic as its title suggests – I was barely reminded of 2018’s Outlaw King (also released via Netflix), and it’s not a favourable comparison.

  • Problem Child (1990)

    Problem Child (1990)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, December 2020) The 1980s weren’t exactly the sanest decade for movies, and as Problem Child shows, corruption went all the way to so-called kids’ movies. It does take a special kind of studio executive to greenlight a kid’s film that plays on black comedy, where the hero eventually ditches his wife in favour of an incorrigible seven-year-old. But that’s the kind of film it is: Destructive pranks, dangerous jokes and a serial killer as an antagonist. The title character is deliberately portrayed as abrasive with few redeeming qualities until the expected middle-film shift. Problem Child goes so far as upend traditional values by focusing on the growing father-son bond, with the increasingly evil wife being stuffed in a suitcase and sent to Mexico (this is not a metaphor). The script clearly shows a satirical intent that seems undermined by director Dennis Dugan otherwise following “heartwarming” family film traditions to a ridiculous intent – few will be surprised to learn that the studio insisted on numerous changes throughout production in order to end not with a satire but a family film… except that the seams still show a disjointed result. Again, no wonder if Problem Child has become a minor cult classic since its release: it’s bonkers in very weird and specific ways, and any film that has viewers thinking, “I can’t believe this was ever made” has an advantage over a terminally forgettable one.

  • Can’t Buy Me Love (1987)

    Can’t Buy Me Love (1987)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, December 2020) If teenage rom-com Can’t Buy Me Love feels so familiar, I’m guessing it’s as much for how it whole-heartedly embraces the most familiar clichés of the high school romance genre as for how it’s been imitated later on by a slew of similar films. Here we have the usual buzzwords and tropes: jocks-versus-nerds, sensitive teenagers writing poetry, fake-pretence love turning real, social ostracism as the overriding value, etc. In other words, it feels incredibly predictable and familiar even when it’s not too badly handled. Much of the lingering trouble, seen almost twenty-five years later, had to do with the film’s refusal to even acknowledge its own limitations in playing high school social status-seeking straight: more recent similar films would poke at their own assumptions. But Can’t Buy Me Love doesn’t – it’s as conventional as you can imagine and that does take away from the decent work by the actors, the straightforward narrative rhythm and its basic likability. Patrick Dempsey and Amanda Peterson do rather well as the lead couple, which saves the film from further indignities. Not all high school movies are created equal, obviously, and 1980s ones don’t have the perspective that later examples benefit from.

  • Murder Mystery (2019)

    Murder Mystery (2019)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, December 2020) If you believe in the documented theory that Adam Sandler picks projects partially in order to get paid holidays in picturesque locations with a bunch of his friends, then Murder Mystery becomes almost inevitable. The premise is familiar enough, as a couple of ordinary Americans become embroiled in an escalating series of murders among the European jet-set. It’s executed with the very, very broad humour of Sandler’s other films, and Jennifer Anniston should be used to the proceedings given that this is her second pairing with him. The result is a decent comedy, although there’s a sense that it’s dragged down by the personas of its lead actors: While the plot outline of Murder Mystery is solid enough, the film seems contractually obliged to sabotage itself in order to let Sandler or Anniston showboat. It could have been a cleverer film (the twists and turns of the finale almost make sense) but that’s really not what Murder Mystery is interested in, as it moves from a yacht to the picturesque French Riviera. It’s no real surprise if the film does better with its supporting characters: Terence Stamp makes a brief impression, whereas Luke Evans and Gemma Atherton do better. It’s interesting to see noteworthy French comedian Danny Boon take a role as a crusty French policeman in an American film –Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel finally have a successor! The result, to be clear, is still reasonably entertaining… even if it coasts on the familiar appeal of a classical murder mystery with ordinary people tackling the case. It could have been worse, but somehow, I keep judging Murder Mystery on the ways it could have been much better, starting with different lead actors.

  • Triple Frontier (2019)

    Triple Frontier (2019)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, December 2020) Perhaps the best thing about Triple Frontier is how it embraces a kind of adventure film rarely seen these days: a tale of men in a foreign country, fighting against various obstacles in order to get to achieve their objectives. It’s not too heavy on the action scenes, allows several well-known actors (Oscar Isaac, Ben Affleck, Charlie Hunnam and Pedro Pascal) a chance to shine in dramatic roles, and seems inspired by no less than The Treasure of the Sierra Madres. Despite all of this, why does it feel like such a chore to watch? Part of the answer is that there’s nothing noble here – here we have bored ex-military characters turning to the mercenary lifestyle in the search for money, and all eventually being consumed by greed. The money may come from narco-traficantes, but the people they end up fighting against turn out to be civilians, teenagers and villagers. No wonder if Triple Frontier, despite some interesting material, becomes such a slog. Writer JC Chandor should be credited for once again attempting a film much unlike anything else in his filmography (although the sense of adventure does echo All is Lost) and wrangling an impressive cast along the way. But the characters fade against the adventures, the film fails to distinguish itself when it comes to execution and the thrills really aren’t all that thrilling once the journey is over for the survivors. (Plot issues of the “anyone could think a better plan than the one they’re following” variety also harm the result.) Triple Frontier does have some heft and chooses to be downbeat in its development, and that ultimately weighs against the result rather than enhance it.

  • While the City Sleeps (1956)

    While the City Sleeps (1956)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, December 2020) The more I discover lesser-known movies from the 1950s, the more I realize that, despite the conformist fairytale that many would like to make you believe about the decade, it was filled with social criticism, technological doubts and satires about the post-WW2 order. While the City Sleeps benefits from the outsider’s gaze of director Fritz Lang: it is at its core a crime drama that becomes an excuse to examine the growing power of media in American society. When a media magnate dies as a serial killer terrifies the city, the directors of the three divisions of his empire (newswire, newspaper and television) are encouraged to find the killer first in order to secure a prestigious new job. As an excuse to study the tensions between personal gain and news ethics, While the City Sleeps exploits its plotting for all it’s worth: the directors scheme and draw audacious plans that directly put others in danger in an attempt to seize the headlines (and accessorily catch the killer). A great cast complements the story – Dana Andrews at the protagonist, a suitably slimy Vincent Price as an underestimated heir, George Sanders as one of the competing directors and a great-looking Ida Lupino as a clever writer. It all amounts to an absorbing film, clearly going beyond film-noir clichés to attempt an ambitious study of how personal greed can corrupt institutions meant to be trusted by the public. It’s suitably cynical at a high level, but can rely on a likable protagonist to anchor the film. Lang’s Hollywood career was not perfect, but I don’t recall truly disliking any of his films during that period. While the City Sleeps is no exception.

  • The Gentlemen (2019)

    The Gentlemen (2019)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, December 2020) Every few years, writer-director Guy Richie uses the box-office clout of his for-hire projects in order to go back to his criminal comedy roots. The Gentlemen is the latest entry in his stronger filmography subset, and it feels like the best thing he’s done since Rocknrolla. As with Richie at his finest, the film is a dizzying blend of criminal capers, strong characters, delicious dialogue and fast-paced editing, making good use of a non-chronological, unreliably narrated story. The fun begins as a journalist (Hugh Grant in one of his strongest and slimiest characters) breaks into the house of a criminal fixer (Charlie Hunnam, surprisingly good) to tell him about the troubles for his employer, an American expat (Matthew McConaughey) looking to diversify his cannabis empire now that decriminalization is coming fast. The multi-stranded, exuberant plot is simultaneously integral to the experience of the film and somewhat of a second thought as it showcases other things. Richie fans will be happy to see him deliver on male fashion exemplars and a great working-level look at London. But the centrepiece here is the dialogue: inventive, profane and elaborate – it comes out of the characters like soliloquies, as they delight in the power of words. (Significantly enough, the most reprehensive characters are also the least florid.) Its willingness to go hard for provocative content does mean that The Gentlemen is all too willing to go for racist and sexist content – but it feels like a price to pay for a film with dialogue this good and a suitably convoluted story. By the end, The Gentlemen even indulges in metafictional irony and side-glances at the unrealized sequels to previous Richie movies. It’s mesmerizing viewing, bolstered by uniformly great performances from actors drawn out of their personas by Richie’s script. (Just wait until you see Colin Farrell’s character – he’s been terrific as a character actor for the past decade, but he gets a really good supporting turn here.) The Gentlemen, needless to say, will not be for everyone: it’s violent, crass, a bit self-satisfied and definitely aimed at a specific audience. But it’s great to have Richie go slumming again in criminal London after working for Disney.

  • 6 Underground (2019)

    6 Underground (2019)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, December 2020) Even in the best circumstances, I have very mixed feelings about Michael Bay movies. 6 Underground is a good example of that: moments of visual kinetic brilliance, constantly undermined by an ugly script and an even more loathsome attitude. To be fair, we’ve known since Bad Boys II that Bay, when given an R rating, will turn into an outspoken psychopath: it’s not enough to have violence when there can be gory violence, and black comedy cedes way to sociopathic disregard for elemental human decency. But 6 Underground takes it another step further by wallowing into ugliness from top to bottom: Troublingly enough, it adopts vigilantism as an ethos, making a hero out of a billionaire who eschews any kind of accountability in favour of globetrotting unsanctioned violence. Having that character played by Ryan Reynolds certainly softens the blow, but anyone taking a step back from the film’s unquestioned assumptions should be worried: killing people in increasingly grand-guignolesque ways seems to be all right as long as you’ve got money and impeccable justification, which only works in the movies. 6 Underground has a fetish-like devotion to the idea of characters faking their deaths, which apparently grants them superhuman powers or something like that. Much of its most pretentious musings could have been acceptable in a more tonally controlled film, but 6 Underground doesn’t have the patience or the focus to be consistent: it veers from juvenile comedy to eyeball-gouging violence in an instant, barely stopping to make good use of its own strengths. Because, yes, for all of the immature bloodthirstiness and glorification of unaccountable murder, there are a few good moments here and there. True to his reputation as a purveyor of Bayhem, there are two strong sequences that rival anything else in the contemporary action cinema canon: a fast-paced car chase through Florence, and a gunfight atop a high-rise with an ominously large aquarium. Trim the excessive violence and you’d have something significantly better. (I’d like vigilantism to go as well, but I’m being realistic – America will only give up its dreams and aspirations to arbitrarily kill anyone it wants from its cold dead hands.) I am interested in 6 Underground for its technical prowess in assembling a fast-paced action film, and utterly repulsed at its embrace of psychopathy at all levels. It wouldn’t be a Michael Bay movie otherwise.

  • The Decline of Western Civilization (1981)

    The Decline of Western Civilization (1981)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, December 2020) In retrospect, even mildly successful documentaries can be ennobled by the passage of time if they capture something that can no longer be experienced in later years. In this light, The Decline of Western Civilization is a much better documentary now than it was at its release because its insider’s look at the 1980 Los Angeles punk scene is now the stuff of legend, never again to be recreated. To be clear, The Decline of Western Civilization was never a bad movie: much of what it chronicles, in between generous concert footage and revealing interviews with various punk scene members, was under-covered at the time. Director Penelope Spheeris (best known for Wayne’s World) was a member of the scene at the time, and was able to use her friendships to set up the interviews and film the performances. The result is a document for the ages – a good punk anthology, complemented by a description of the scene by the scene members themselves. I’m not that familiar with punk nor any of the bands here (although I do recognize Black Flag, even if that’s more due to the later presence of Henry Rollins than anything else) but I had a good time listening to much of The Decline of Western Civilization while doing something else.