Reviews

  • The FBI Story (1959)

    The FBI Story (1959)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, March 2021) National propaganda can take many forms, including a grandfatherly James Stewart narrating the officially approved story of the American national police force. So it is that The F.B.I. Story is one more Hollywoodian take on the FBI (also see the classic G Men), approved by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover himself. From the opening moment, we understand that it’s at least entertaining propaganda: As Stewart begins with the procedural details of how an airplane bomber (itself a then-new and disturbing concept) was caught through meticulous investigation, it sets up The FBI Story as a tale of how an organization can do no wrong. Stewart then plays an agent over the first few decades of the organization’s history, first in imposing some discipline over a lax and scattered organization, then in tackling progressively more difficult cases. In-passing, we get a look at the gallery of rogues that captured the American imagination from the 1930s to the 1950s —Ku Klux Klan, mobsters, Nazis and communists. Vera Miles plays the protagonist’s wife, providing enough domestic incidents to tie the episodic structure of the film together. It’s charming in an intensely paternalistic way — clearly outlining the FBI as a good, even infallible force for order, and their opponents as enemies of the state. (One wonders how the film would have been less amusing had it been completed even a decade later.)  Stewart is often too old to play his role, but he is Stewart and, as such, almost unassailable as the lead voice in the film. Some of the vignettes do represent a revealing look at episodes of American history, even as heavily fictionalized as they are — there’s something about its unspoken racist assumptions (just wait until it talks about Native Americans) that present history filtered through 1950s mainstream attitudes, and the dissonance with modern values can often be arresting. Despite its heavy-handed moral patronization, The FBI Story nonetheless remains a curiously involving film: the script can often be wryly funny, and Stewart’s charm does patch up a lot of issues. It certainly makes for a fascinating case study in media literacy, or how entertainment can serve the state’s interest in hyping its police as essential, righteous and all-powerful.

  • Possessor (2020)

    Possessor (2020)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, March 2021) Fiction genres are tricky in that they can be as much about content than tone. Science Fiction, for instance, can be about “stories in the future,” but SF can also be about a way to tell a story, with unspoken but strong conventions as to which kind of approach is forbidden. Along those lines, it’s interesting to see something like Possessor pop up, telling us a familiar story of jacked-in assassins taking over other people’s bodies, but doing so in a way that owes a lot more to gory body horror than traditional SF. It’s almost too easy to point out that it’s from Brandon “Son of David” Cronenberg — but with his filmography so far, younger Cronenberg seems to be tackling topics very similar to the earlier films of his father. Possessor is kin to his earlier Antiviral in being put together in a way that’s deliberately off-putting to viewers. A mixture of gore, blood, violent imagery, unpleasant topics, droning soundtrack and actors put in unglamorous makeup, it’s a familiar story told in unfamiliar ways, with a mean attitude and an unforgiving finale. Never mind the assassination plot having to do with a corporate takeover: the core of the film is in the way the lead character is manipulated in getting rid of anything tying her back to humanity. It’s both unpleasant to watch (you’ve never seen Andrea Riseborough look so awful, or Jennifer Jason Lee playing such a falsely-frumpy middle manager, or Tuppence Middleton being put through such a wringer) and unnerving in how it goes from one uncomfortable set-piece to another. The body-snatching assassin thing is almost a common trope, but few other films have consciously looked into the anti-heroic, anti-power-fantasy flip-side of such things. The toll of the job is immense, and the film goes in a very different, almost decidedly noir nihilism in solving the conflict. I’m not sure I’m ever going to see Possessor again, but I’m not at all indifferent to the result.

  • Welcome to Sudden Death (2020)

    Welcome to Sudden Death (2020)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, March 2021) No one, really, no one was clamouring for a sequel to the Jean-Claude van Damme thriller Sudden Death, but here we are: A 2020-vintage update called Welcome to Sudden Death, featuring an ex-special operative battling terrorists during a big-league basketball game. Michael Jai White plays the van Damme role: a tough family guy, trying to save the arena crowd but being especially concerned by his two kids caught in the area. While the bare bones of the plot are solid in those Die Hard-in-an-arena ways, we can’t necessarily say the same about the execution — odd misguided attempts at humour permeate a film that’s not particularly funny (much of it revolving around two ill-conceived comic characters) and could use some gravitas to sell the tension. The dialogue is not refined, and the functional direction doesn’t really help. There are a few better moments (I defy anyone not to cackle at a CGI-enhanced shot where the hero shoves a body above his head and on a shelf behind him) and a few engaging performers (Sabryn Rock, for instance) but much of the film plays along the same beats as other low-budgeted action movies. There’s some irony in having the sport changed from hockey to basketball when the film is being visibly filmed in Winnipeg’s hockey-centric downtown arena. The amount of violence is a touch too gory for this kind of film. It’s movies such as Welcome to Sudden Death that can make anyone realize how many movies are products made to specifications, to fill production slots for precise genre expectations. Most movies manage to rise above this reality, but this one rips the illusion.

  • Deep Blue Sea 3 (2020)

    Deep Blue Sea 3 (2020)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, March 2021) As much as I have some fondness for the original Deep Blue Sea, I really wasn’t impressed by its long-delayed sequel. Fortunately, Deep Blue Sea 3 finds a bit of a middle ground: it’s not a good film, but it avoids most of the pitfalls of terrible low-budget sequels. “Low budget,” these days, does give you a bit more than it used to — thanks to CGI and international tax breaks, filmmakers can now create impressive settings (such as this instalment’s small flooded island), feature aggressive creatures and shoot digitally in a way that lowers production costs for better image quality. In other words, Deep Blue Sea 3 often gives the impression of being a more ambitious film. (The underwater sequences, notably, look expensive.)  The plot links with the second film are there but not essential — all you need to know is that there are smart sharks out there, and they consider our characters as snacks. There’s some thematic content about climate change and corporate money corrupting science, but soon enough we’re back in shark-chomping mode, enlivened by the small flooded town setting in which the action takes place. Having better-developed characters than usual for those movies helps a bit: Tania Raymonde makes for an attractive heroine, but the ensemble cast nearly all gets a good scene or two — to the point where we’re actually sorry to see most of them go, unlike some monster movies where you just wish for all of them to die. Deep Blue Sea 3 is not a great movie, but it’s watchable, even entertaining — which, compared to other works in the genre, is not a bad result at all.

  • Tremors: Shrieker Island (2020)

    Tremors: Shrieker Island (2020)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, March 2021) While it is a truth universally acknowledged that the first Tremors is an all-time monster horror/comedy, few will disagree that its sequels were terrible. Expectations for Shrieker Island were accordingly low… which may serve to explain why this seventh entry is actually… not too bad? Of course, we’re still grading on a curve here: “not too bad” may be as modest as holding our attention for the running time and have a few set-pieces along the way. Here, the film seems to take its cues from Kong Island by moving the production to Thailand and then pumping up the creatures to skyscraper height. Michael Gross is back as series protagonist Burt Gummer, and he’s actually one of the best parts of the film — taken out of retirement to investigate creatures on a tropical island with rich game hunters. Time will tell if Shrieker Island ends up being as concluding an instalment as it’s meant to be, but to its credit, the film plays that moment absolutely straight, as if there would never be another movie. The CGI-fuelled action beats are limited by a budget, but generally allow for some acceptable action sequences, and the amount of worldbuilding around Grummer’s status as a monster-hunting legend is not bad. It doesn’t make Shrieker Island any more than a monster film, but it’s not unwatchable, and that’s roughly all we’re asking for.

  • At Home in Mitford (2017)

    At Home in Mitford (2017)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, March 2021) How much do I like Andie MacDowell? Apparently well enough to look forward to stereotypical Hallmark TV romantic comedy At Home in Mitford, the kind in which a successful career professional comes back to her childhood small town and goes through the whole romantic-triangle experience. (But not too much lest moral complexity intrude.)  The narrative is familiar—but, as usual, the fun is in the nuts and bolts: MacDowell (magnificent in her late fifties) plays a divorced children’s book writer who goes back to a small town to find inspiration and sell her uncle’s house. Of course, romance walks in under the guise of the local episcopalian priest, who inspires her again, takes care of a boy left without family, is a friend to dogs and in all aspects outshines the real estate agent who would otherwise be the other romantic suitor. The small-town atmosphere of this kind of film is portrayed with enough unrealistic nostalgia to be charming, and no serious problems show up on the way to the ending. It’s interesting that the film plays both of its leads (she in her late fifties, he in his late forties) as at least 10–20 years younger — they have concerns and past histories more typical of late-thirtysomething folks rather than the more interesting romance that people their age would otherwise have. But that’s part of the strong fantasy of those kinds of films — perhaps the only surprise is that it doesn’t take place at Christmas. Is At Home in Mitford a good film? No! Absolutely not! It’s terrible! But it’s comforting, unchallenging and deliberately as innocuous as possible. I am somewhat amused that the most vicious IMDB reviews are from readers of the novel on which the film is based — apparently, it’s got it all wrong.

  • Reckless (1935)

    Reckless (1935)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, March 2021) Discussing Hollywood’s refusal to acknowledge the Depression is probably not best tackled in discussing slight drama Reckless, but watching the film in all of its rich-person melodrama leads to thinking about the lifestyle that much of Hollywood presented as normal during that decade’s movies. Offering escapism to a cash-strapped nation, Hollywood spent far much more time talking about the problems of the Manhattan upper-class than the working people, and that was somehow completely acceptable. So it is that Reckless features famous signers, oil billionaires, regrettable marriage, sudden suicide, public scorn and musical numbers — in other words, nothing like life. It definitely feels artificial, and the charm of stars Jean Harlow and William Powell (who were a real-life couple at the time) doesn’t do much to save the results — both of them were far better used in comic vehicles rather than overwrought dramas such as this one, and as a result Reckless feels like a joyless production, another studio product with very little heart to it. The star-power does make the film more interesting, but only just.

  • Quatermass 2 (1957)

    Quatermass 2 (1957)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, March 2021) You wouldn’t necessarily expect a 1950s British movie based on a TV show to be still interesting, but the Quatermass series remains remarkable for how it reaches for a more intellectual kind of filmed Science Fiction than its contemporaries, creating a more credible backdrop for adventures that played off familiar tropes in better-than-average fashion. So it is that Quatermass 2 contemplates a somewhat typical alien invasion (and possession) story, but one that’s handled with more dexterity and subtlety than many of its contemporaries or, indeed, later examples of the form. It’s executed in stereotypically British fashion, all the way to the stoic attitude, political details and mild-mannered details, and that’s what makes it fun even today. Production values are adequate, although (as one may expect) the black-and-white cinematography and middle-grade special effects ensure some distance. Still, I was more pleasantly surprised than disappointed by the results. Quatermass 2 is the second Quatermass film I’ve seen (I seem to be going backwards in seeing them) and I’m starting to understand why the series is so appreciated in some circles. In fact, now I’m beginning to wonder why there hasn’t been a more modern take on it.

  • Tarnished Angel (1938)

    Tarnished Angel (1938)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, March 2021) Tracking down an interesting actor’s filmography can take you places you don’t necessarily expect, and that’s how recording a day’s worth of Ann Miller movies can land you in the middle of Tarnished Angel, a 1930s crime drama lambasting religious swindlers. The story begins in Manhattan, in a nightclub where the entertainment (including a young Ann Miller, playing the sidekick) is scared off by a police raid. Unwilling to subject themselves to such further shenanigans, the protagonist (Sally Eilers) flees town and eventually decides on a new career: religious faith-healer shows, helped by “cripple artists” and some showbiz flim-flammery. This is not meant to be a particularly dramatic film—even the most suspenseful moments are handled in a broad audience-friendly way—but there’s some substance underneath the plotting. Watching the film for Ann Miller is not particularly rewarding, but then again—she was at the beginning of her career here, playing in supporting roles that didn’t account for much cumulative screen time. At least she gets to open the film strong with a good singing number before fading into the background as the third wheel in the protagonist’s entourage. There’s a quick conclusion that upends the idea of the charlatan, but much of the film’s best moments are spent dealing with an unscrupulous heroine amazed by the success of her own racket. Tarnished Angel is watchable, even intermittently fascinating in its depiction of 1930s faith healers, but not exactly an enduring classic.

  • Sherlock Gnomes (2018)

    Sherlock Gnomes (2018)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, March 2021) It takes a special kind of twisted inspiration to make a Sherlock film with garden gnome characters, but considering that Sherlock Gnomes is a sequel to Gnomeo and Juliet, inspired lunacy is expected. Moving from small-town England to London to accommodate its premise, Sherlock Gnomes reuses (some) of the previous film’s characters as a way to spin off its own Sherlock Holmes parody, investigating a mystery and confronting an antagonist along the way. It’s not exactly a top-notch animated film, but it’s pleasant and funny enough to watch. There’s a bit of Elton John magic to the soundtrack, and some of the jokes as the film gets into some Sherlockian minutiae can be somewhat amusing. (Mary J. Blige as Irene? Yes, that works.)  As weird as the side-step into action/mystery can be, it does position Sherlock Gnomes as being sufficiently different from its predecessor to avoid the impression of the same thing repeated too closely. It’s still very much playing in the idiom of late-2010s animated films (songs, jokes, action sequences), but it’s a strong formula, and one quite resistant to missteps.

  • Jewel Robbery (1932)

    Jewel Robbery (1932)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, March 2021) The reason why William Powell still has legions of fans even today is that his specific skills as an actor could be magic provided the right material — and Jewel Robbery is very close to being an ideal Powell vehicle. Playing that most cherished of old-school characters, the gentleman thief, Powell goes for his best suave persona: impossibly refined, smooth, irresistible to the ladies and very good at his chosen trade, he easily shines whenever he’s on-screen, although he gets a run for his money from frequent co-star Kay Francis. The theatrical origins of the film can best be seen in impeccable dialogue that takes advantage of the freedoms of its Pre-Code production — most notably in its “funny cigarettes” (ever wanted to see 1930s stoner comedy?), its adulterous heroine, but also having a criminal as a protagonist, and making sure he gets a happy ending. There’s a strong kinship between Jewel Robbery and contemporary Trouble in Paradise, but also with later generations of charming criminals equally successful in larceny and in love. It’s a shining example of the kinds of great movies that the Production Code took away for thirty years, and yet another showcase of Powell’s charm. This being said, Jewel Robbery stands up quite well on its own: it’s a slyly sexy, frequently funny, completely likable crime comedy romance, and it’ll make Powell fans of anyone who doesn’t already know him.

  • Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama aka The Imp (1988)

    Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama aka The Imp (1988)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, March 2021) Look at that tile. No, don’t just look at it. Take it in. Revel in its greatness. Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama. Don’t dwell too much on how the film will never equal the promise of its title. Chuckle at how it’s also known as The Imp, which is one of the shortest titles on record. Yes, it’s possible to see a film based on a title alone. Alas, expectations quickly get tempered once the Full Moon production logo shows on-screen — this isn’t a company known for good movies, and even their so-bad-they-re-good titles aren’t a substitute for, you know, actually good movies. This being said, Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama does deliver at least half of what its title suggests—it’s a silly horror comedy that does bring together much of what made 1980s horror films so interesting—dumb premise, college-aged protagonist, buxom nudity, rubbery special effects, unconvincing violence and nonsensical plot developments. The silliness has something to do with six young people breaking into a bowling alley and being held captive by a wish-granting imp, but if you expect everyone to walk away with their fondest desires made real, then you’re not paying attention to how this is a cheap horror film. It’s watchable — and while this sounds like faint praise, it’s actually much better than many of its humourless, overly grim contemporaries. On the other hand, I’m stopping well short of calling it something worthy of being a cult classic or a hidden gem. Director (and Full Moon stalwart) David DeCoteau moves through the motions. The film probably contributed quite a bit to the genesis of later Full Moon production Evil Bong, but doesn’t quite make the most of what it has at its disposal. Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama is a disappointment only if you compare it to the genius of its title or any of the characteristics of a good film — but it does much better when put against other cheap 1980s horror films.

  • It Happened to Jane (1959)

    It Happened to Jane (1959)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, March 2021) I’m almost certain that I will forget the title of It Happened to Jane tomorrow, but I won’t so quickly forget that the film co-stars Doris Day and Jack Lemmon, or that its plot revolves around lobsters and trains. As a romantic comedy, it gets going when a lobster processing plant owner (Day) sees her shipment ruined by the neglect of a railroad company — the fun starts when she gets a friendly lawyer (Lemmon) to successfully sue the railroad and earns as payment… a train. The respective charms of both actors are well used, as they each play within their screen persona. The flip-side of this degree of comfort is that the film itself quickly becomes unremarkable. This is a middle-of-the-road effort for both of them, and it’s hard to say whether the finished film would have been better if it had played more seriously or more absurdly. (The smile we get in seeing Lemmon shovel coal in a train is a strong hint, though.) It’s pleasant to watch but curiously insubstantial, which is a weird thing to say given its plot elements and the quality of its stars. It doesn’t help that Day (an actress I find mildly likable but saddled with a bland persona) pales in comparison to Lemmon’s frequently-frantic antics. The final result is perhaps most interesting for its bucolic northeastern setting and winks at the burgeoning TV landscape rather than for how well it executes a lacklustre plot. If you accept that It Happened to Jane is an average comedy of its time, you also have to acknowledge that late-1950s comedies were in an odd place — too late for the golden era of musicals, but too early for the reinvigoration that the permissiveness of the 1960s would bring to the genre.

  • I Care a Lot (2020)

    I Care a Lot (2020)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Amazon Streaming, March 2021) Even the most cynical “OK Boomer” critics will have a hard time not getting incensed over I Care a Lot’s protagonist in the opening moments of the film, as it shows a hardened “caretaker” deliberately engineering the takeover of a retired woman’s life in order to lock her up in a retirement home with no communication privileges, and liquidate her assets for profit. All legal, all ethical, she maintains — but as the attempted assault that begins the film shows, it’s a reprehensible racket. Rosamund Pike, in full-blown ice queen mode, truly sells the character and, along the way, earns our complete enmity. If you’re still around after that infuriating opening, things get far more interesting when it becomes obvious that the charming old lady that was taken away from her own life is revealed to be the mother of a ruthless crime boss (Peter Dinklage, quite good), who stops at little in order to get his mom back and ruin the life of the protagonist. As the responses and counter-responses escalate, we’re left hoping that no one will be left standing by the end of the film — while the homicidal mob boss is a terrible human being, our retiree-exploiting protagonist feels even worse. Alas, I Care a Lot has its own ideas about who should be the hero of this story, and it doesn’t earn itself any favour by giving all the breaks to its sociopathic protagonist cloaking herself behind gendered rhetoric. I know, I know — anti-heroes are in at the core of black comedies, and it does build to an ironic comeuppance of sorts. Still, I’m left more annoyed and unsatisfied by the result — I’d have plenty to say about cinematic amorality and how it’s now frequently presented as a progressive triumph when it bolsters traditionally downtrodden demographic segments, but I’m going to keep poking at that thesis until I get something more useful than reactionary out of it. In the meantime, what else to say? I Care a Lot is competent filmmaking from writer-director J. Blakeson with a pair of great performances at its centre, but any film that builds itself up on pure hatred for its protagonist shouldn’t be surprised if it finds itself in the cold.

  • The Midnight Sky (2020)

    The Midnight Sky (2020)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, March 2021) As someone with great affection for Science Fiction that plays by the established rules of physics, there’s a strange mixture of hard-science moments and cheap plotting tricks at play in The Midnight Sky, and if I can really like some of its scenes, I’m far cooler on the overall film. Maybe the source of the problem lies in the original book — but it’s not as if Hollywood hasn’t changed whatever it wanted when adapting existing works. Director-star George Clooney is better than the mess of a script, as his magnificent old-man beard commands attention whenever he’s on-screen. Set against a frustratingly vague global catastrophe, he’s apparently the last survivor on Earth, and he happens to have the right mixture of skills and equipment in his polar hideout to be able to communicate with the returning crew of a Jovian expedition — and warn them not to land. (As if they couldn’t see it for themselves?) At times, such as when the space ship crew goes outside to fix a communication problem, the film is about as hard-SF as it gets — bringing back fond memories of Gravity and other successful space adventures sticking to realism. At others, such as when it discusses a habitable (but hitherto unknown) Jovian moon, slides into Adam-and-Eve territory, concludes on coincidental parentage, or goes for the now-exasperating fictional-character trope, The Midnight Sky looks like a bunch of naïve clichés strung together, sorely testing the patience of those expecting more substantial material. It’s hard not to play the spot-the-inspiration game in cataloguing which films did all of this earlier and better. I’m marginally kinder to Clooney’s directorial skills — the film fluently uses terrific visual effects and strings together a number of intelligible action sequences, expanding Clooney’s technical range beyond his previous more intimate films. Still, The Midnight Sky is a film that goes for a narrative-heavy experience (although not a dialogue-heavy one: several sequences play out wordlessly) but creates an unpleasant mismatch between the credibility of its execution and the unbelievability of its plot. There are reasons why those clichés are done or on their way out — while the film goes for an “uplifting rebirth of the human race” conclusion, more realistic viewers will recognize that humanity is doomed even if it wasn’t heading back to a terrifyingly dangerous outer planet. It does betray a film that really hasn’t thought through the consequences of its narrative choices, and it’s hard to trust the result after that.