Reviews

  • Now, Voyager (1942)

    Now, Voyager (1942)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, June 2019) One of the disadvantages of looking at a past movie star’s body of work is that the later evolution of their screen persona can unfairly prejudice some of their earlier work. When I think about Bette Davis, for instance, I’m picturing a tart-tongued anti-heroine with panache. In Now, Voyager, however, we’re asked to believe her as a timid spinster who blooms as she travels around the world and falls for a sophisticated man. I am, in other words, not entirely convinced by Davis as a romantic ingenue (although she does look cute in round glasses), and the film’s opening sequences are a wild ride as the film crams an entire film’s worth of character development in a few minutes. Still, it clears the air for more complex romantic drama in an old-school sense, with some emphasis on mental health issues. The story is not quite as happy as you’d expect from a Golden-age Hollywood movie. While Now, Voyager may not be the film you’d expect, it does get better as it goes on and builds to a wistful romantic climax with classic imagery and dialogue (“Oh, Jerry, don’t let’s ask for the moon. We have the stars.”)  No wonder it’s fondly remembered even today.

  • BMX Bandits (1983)

    BMX Bandits (1983)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, June 2019) Through a strange alchemy, some movies go beyond creating embarrassment into some kind of awesomeness, so clearly do they defy the rules of cool and good taste. Or at least that’s what I tell myself in trying to justify seeing BMX Bandits, an early-1980s teenage adventure film that features no less than a teenage Nicole Kidman (in her feature film debut) as the leaders of a gang of bicycle riders. She looks cute in red curls and is arguably still the best reason why the film is worth a look. But that would be minimizing the sheer energy through which the film tries to make BMX bicycles look cool, with overdone synth music and audacious camera movements. BMX Bandits is clearly a film for the kids—not only do they take up the lead roles, saving the day when the adults can’t, but the villains are more comedic than threatening. Directed by then-journeyman Australia director Brian Trenchard-Smith, the film takes a long trip through Sydney for its climactic chase sequence. The low-budget film clearly has rough edges (there isn’t a lot of flow from one shot to another), dumb comic bits, useless flourishes (such as funny sound effects) and hopelessly dated early-1980s trends. But it’s still enjoyable on a basic level, and the Australian scenery does add quite a bit of local not-quite American colour. Still: It takes quite a bit of work to make BMX bikes look cool, and BMX Bandits should get some kind of award just for that.

  • The Front Runner (2018)

    The Front Runner (2018)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, June 2019) As a political junkie, I’m a natural audience for the kind of political docufiction such as The Front Runner—which joins the slew of HBO political movies, and similar titles such as Shock and Awe. But let’s be careful—The Front Runner is a dissection of the Gary Hart adultery scandal of 1988 without much of a political axe to grind, except for looking at the inner workings of a campaign in crisis mode, as a sympathetic candidate is ultimately brought down by an affair. The good news is that the film can boast of an impressive cast (an older Hugh Jackman, and fine character work by Vera Farmiga and J. K. Simmons), a competent director (Jason Reitman, keeping the mayhem moving at an understandable pace) and some good production values taking us back to 1988. There are a few good moments despite the story being chronologically rearranged for impact and a few crucial details (such as Hart’s comeback campaign a few months later) being left unmentioned. But The Front Runner does have issues. In having to follow facts, it does run out of narrative steam in its last act as the candidate can’t quite grasp the trouble he’s in, and all that’s left after the mid-movie confrontations and investigative work are the recriminations and the throwing of the towel. Perhaps more problematic is the film’s thematic development—considering that much of the last act is a back-and-forth between a sympathetic candidate and a combative media, it’s a natural occasion to examine questions of ethics, monogamy, or whether personal issues affect leadership. Alas, that’s when the film turns ambivalent, neither arguing forcefully for a position nor making points that would be relevant to a contemporary audience. (Considering a current administration that’s so stained with overlapping scandals that none of them seem to stick, there would have been a golden opportunity here to make relevant parallels.)  The Front Runner ends up feeling non-committed, muddled, anticlimactic. As a political junkie, I still like it… but there was a better movie here trying to get out—even if it does get some recognition for not straying too far away from the facts.

  • The Return of the Pink Panther (1975)

    The Return of the Pink Panther (1975)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On TV, June 2019) This is the first Peter Sellers film I’ve seen since diving deep into Sellers’s biography, and it’s fair to say that the disappointment at uncovering the actor’s worst traits definitely has echoes in the way that I’m reacting to the film. But not that much, as The Return of the Pink Panther is Sellers at his most rote and formulaic: Donning costumes, affecting different mannerisms (alas, the French dub means that I didn’t get the voices, even if that “alas” is qualified by how much I don’t particularly care for the accents). My appreciation for the Pink Panther sequels isn’t high to begin with: I didn’t like the Pink Panther sequel I watched a few months ago, and I still don’t here. Despite my lack of enthusiasm for The Return of the Pink Panther, it’s not a complete waste—some of the plotting is amusing, some of the costumes work and for all of its repetitiveness, some of the slow-motion scenery destruction is worth a chuckle or two. Christopher Plummer does have presence as the master-thief villain, as does Catherine Schell as another one Clouseau’s inexplicable string of love interests. Sellers himself is willing to do anything for a laugh, but it is a bit too much and the same considering the superficial variations in disguise. At this time in the series, this was the fourth Clouseau film and the third to star Sellers—you can argue that the series hadn’t yet degenerated in further self-copying. But even at this relatively high level of quality, The Return of the Pink Panther can feel as annoying as it is entertaining.

  • August: Osage County (2013)

    August: Osage County (2013)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, June 2019) There is a built-in perversion of expectations in August: Osage County that is as provocative as it is frustrating. If you picture a theatrical play (or a movie) about a dysfunctional family, you already have a rough outline of how it’s going to be structured already pre-assembled in your head. The family will get together. They will exhibit the aberrant traits that make them dysfunctional. There will be shouting. Some people are likely to be punished. But as the story advances, the family will reunite, and those most sympathetic characters will get back together toward the end, having resolved some of their difficulties and being ready to make even further progress going forward. Well, take those comfortable preconceptions and throw them away, because August: Osage County ultimately goes in a very different direction, shattering family bonds until we’re left with individuals. I had been curious about this film ever since watching the uncompromising Killer Joe—both are well-regarded movies adapted by Tracy Letts from his own plays, and this one featured an ensemble cast of capable actors. Julia Roberts goes toe-to-toe with Meryl Streep, and some unusual choices such as Ewan McGregor and Benedict Cumberbatch are to be found elsewhere in the cast. This is definitely an actor’s film, guided along with the pen of a professional playwright. As such, be ready for meaty dialogue, explosive revelations, off-kilter plot development and a merciless conclusion as a family crisis featuring a disappeared patriarch brings people home and detonates repressed fault lines in their relationships. It’s often very darkly funny, with extreme actions and language (Roberts hasn’t sworn as much on-screen since Mystic Pizza). While I enjoyed much of the film on a word-for-word basis, the ending did not sit right with me for a while—until I played around with it and realize how much it upended traditional expectations about how that kind of movie is supposed to go. But as I re-read my review a few weeks after watching the film, I’m somewhat more sympathetic toward what it manages to achieve, and honestly think that being forewarned is being better prepared to appreciate it when it comes. Do not expect a final weepy get-together—August: Osage County isn’t that kind of film.

  • The Hand that Rocks the Cradle (1992)

    The Hand that Rocks the Cradle (1992)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On TV, June 2019) I’m old enough to remember the chatter around The Hand that Rocks the Cradle back in 1992, combined with a mini-spate in home-infiltration thrillers along with Single White Female, and Sliver the following year. Decades later, the effectiveness of the film remains even as it’s easier to see how it blatantly manipulates audiences. The first few minutes of the film, for instance, have everything accompanied by ominous music to underscore that we’re watching a thriller and things are about to get really, really bad. Then the coincidences and vengeful plans and underhanded tactics multiply as our lead couple welcomes into their homes a young woman with very personal reasons to do them harm. Everyone’s upper-middle-class nightmares come true as she worms her way into the family, pits everyone against each other, isolates them from their friends and, in the final act, goes after them with a shovel and murderous intentions. It’s schematic, predictable, blunt and over-the-top and yet, even now, it’s still unnerving and infuriating at once. Rebecca de Mornay is terrifying as the psychopathic antagonist, easily outshining Anabella Sciora for the entire film. Julianne Moore pops up briefly, as does John de Lancie. Director Curtis Hanson doesn’t miss a trick from the thriller genre, which does get slightly annoying in the ending stretch of the film as it becomes a more standard psycho-inside-the-house sequence. The female empowerment message in The Hand that Rocks the Cradle (because, of course, it’s got to end with the young wife protagonist taking on the psycho killer—largely useless husband need not apply) is somewhat similar to the spate of home corruption thrillers of the early 1940s (Gaslight, Suspicion, etc.)—the woman is the mistress in her own house, and intruders have no idea who they are messing with.

  • Toni Erdmann (2016)

    Toni Erdmann (2016)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In German with French Subtitles, On TV, June 2019) I can think of an almost infinite list of more enjoyable things to do than to watch a nearly three-hour-long German comedy of humiliation. Unfortunately, one of those things is being obsessive about completing best-movies lists, and writer-director Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann did make a splash in the mid-2010s, earning an Academy Awards nomination along the way. Despite the long list of things going against it, I had to see it. As luck has it, the film is slightly better than what I feared: As it digs into its portrayal of a prankster father and his grown-up careerist daughter, it finds a few things to say that are rarely seen in cinema, and manages a few impressive set-pieces along the way. That, however, is pretty much the extent of my positive comments, because at two hours and forty-four minutes, Toni Erdmann sorely tries anyone’s patience. Its mixture of cringe-worthy comedy set in a blank shooting style doesn’t make it any easier to watch (the film begins with a handheld shot of a door for a full minute, so it’s not as if you’re not warned as soon as possible), something magnified by the cultural barrier of the film’s comedy—it does remain a German film set in Romania. The film has a few excruciating sequences that don’t quite seem to fit with the rest of the film (just wait until you delve into the main character’s sexual fetishes), adding both more irrelevance and length to an already trying result. Toni Erdmann ends up belonging to those movies that reward you for watching every fifteen minutes or so, and end up best appreciated as a checkbox next to a title that you will never have to see ever again.

  • Lords of Dogtown (2005)

    Lords of Dogtown (2005)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, June 2019) I like movies that are about a specific time and place, and Lord of Dogtown couldn’t be more specific about taking place in California during the mid-seventies. There was an unprecedented drought at the time, and that led to many pools being drained for the summer, which happened just as skateboarding was revolutionized by the introduction of urethane wheels. The script, written by Stacy Peralta (who was close to the events and people described) focuses on a group of friends during that summer as they go skateboarding from one empty pool to another, breaking up and turning professional in their practice of the sport. Lords of Dogtown is not a good-looking movie: in an attempt to emulate the look of contemporary cameras, director Catherine Hardwicke goes for a harsh bleached and grainy look. But her direction is impressive, going handheld in an attempt to stick as closely as possible to the action. The stunt work in the action sequences is in-your-face, with several actors taking spills along the way. The cast itself is worth a look, including a number of people (Heath Ledger, America Ferrara, Sofia Vergara, Emile Hirsch, Rebecca de Mornay) that went on to star in much bigger movies. Baby-faced Michael Angarano is even more baby-faced here. There are also tons—and I mean dozens—of cameos from the movie and the skateboarding world. The French translation is surprisingly well done—The period soundtrack is excellent, and there’s even a good pun in here that wouldn’t work in the original English. While Lords of Dogtown is more impressive as a time-travelling capsule and an action showcase than a traditional dramatic film, that’s fine—not every movie adapted from real events has to be an Oscar-baiting drama.

  • Killing Hasselhoff (2017)

    Killing Hasselhoff (2017)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, June 2019) The popularity of novelty songs has waned through the years, but the concept itself is sound—a piece of music meant to amuse more than anything else, and where the musical qualities aren’t meant to be at the forefront. With Killing Hasselhoff, I’m wondering if we need “novelty film” in our vocabulary—a film meant to tickle memes and jokes around a piece of pop culture. Heck, maybe those films would even be better if they were even more self-aware of their intentions. Many of them could take lessons from Killing Hasselhoff, as it fully gives in to the enduring popularity of TV star David Hasselhoff in the twenty-first century. It’s meant to be a silly self-aware low-budget comedy playing around a two-word high concept and it doesn’t do too badly within that framework. There’s an interesting cast onboard: Ken Jeong gets a leading role as a nightclub owner who gets desperate to pay off his debt, Jon Lovitz is not annoying (for once), Colton Dunn is very funny as a gay assassin and then, of course, there’s The Hoff playing a caricature of himself. It’s not meant to be refined: The situations are usually contrived (how many Baywatch and Knight Rider references can you fit in a single film?) and the dialogue is far too blunt at times. But there are a few laughs here and there for those who enjoy low-budget comedies. That’s all a bonus, considering that most people will watch Killing Hasselhoff just because it happens to be available on cable or streaming service, and they won’t be able to resist the premise-in-a-title. Don’t expect much beyond the novelty aspect of the film and you just may be surprised.

  • Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)

    Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, June 2019) I’m about three-quarter satisfied by Bad Times at the El Royale, which means that it’s worth a watch but also worth keeping expectations in check until the end. That’s admittedly difficult to do at the beginning of the movie, as writer-director Drew Goddard carefully sets up an irresistible situation with a motel carefully split down the middle of two states, and assembles a crew of characters with deep secrets. There’s a rising anticipation throughout the film’s first thirty minutes as we don’t quite know what’s going on or where it’s going—only that this is a very stylish crime thriller and that we’re in for quite a ride. The film gets better once the secrets start spilling out, with nearly every character not being what they initially appear to be, and some masterful sequences along the way: Goddard is guiding viewers to and away from genre expectations through his showy screenwriting and direction, and it’s that delicious self-awareness that propels much of the film’s first two acts. A conspicuous but enjoyable soundtrack does tie up everything in a great package. The cast is exceptional, in between known names such as Jon Hamm, Jeff Bridges, Dakota Johnson and Chris Hemsworth—but it’s lesser-known Cynthia Erivo who’s the revelation here. (Bizarrely, French-Canadian Wunderkind Xavier Dolan also appears in a small evil role.) Alas, all of this is a bit too good to stay true: the promise of the film ends up being better than its execution when its second half settles down for a far more familiar kind of thriller, losing speed and breaking the unity of space and time by adding new characters, new situations and new directions in a moment. Suddenly, the breakneck pacing of the film slows down to a crawl, and we’re left with a frustrating number of characters doing far less interesting things. It’s not a good idea to put the climactic scene in the middle of the film rather than at the end. Still, I really liked Bad Times at the El Royale despite its flaws—that first half is an intoxicating bit of filmmaking, and settling for a merely good second half isn’t quite enough to make the film not worth a look. At this point, I’ll watch nearly anything that Goddard does … but I do wish he’d be more consistent.

  • Tarzan the Ape Man (1981)

    Tarzan the Ape Man (1981)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On TV, June 2019) You all know the Tarzan legend, but there isn’t quite another take like the one in Tarzan the Ape-Man. Weirdness starts from the studio logo, with a Tarzan yell coming out of MGM’s lion. Then it’s off to the nude girl figurehead of Svengali productions. Then off to a jokey narration as then-superstar Bo Derek is introduced as Jane well before Tarzan. Oh yes, amazingly enough, this is a soft-core erotic take on Tarzan, still chaste enough to be classified as a mainstream film fit to play on French-Canadian TV, but with enough nudity to place it in the middle of the early-morning schedule. Produced and directed by John Derek (the husband of), it’s a very self-aware film, deliberately putting Jane’s story first ahead of Tarzan—it takes 45 minutes until Tarzan strolls into the frame, and Derek (the wife of) happens to be in a wet white robe at the time. But the craziness doesn’t stop there. Definitely overwrought at times, Tarzan the Ape Man features one of the most melodramatic “Nooo, god why did you do that!” (Backlit with superimposed rainbow, no less) in movie history. But wait: it gets better. If you accept the snake being an all-purpose phallic symbol, then the scenes in which Derek gets attacked by a snake and rescued by Tarzan (in slow motion, for several minutes) gets funnier and funnier. Alas, the unintentional laughs aren’t as constant as you’d think. Tarzan the Ape Man remains a very, very long film especially when the camera lingers on, convinced via John that Bo Derek is God’s gift to primitive mankind. (I could describe the body-painting sequence, but you wouldn’t believe me.)  And there’s a paradox here that makes any attempted reinterpretation of Tarzan the Ape Man as a feminist reimagining a bit moot, considering the copious amount of male gaze (indeed, outright husband gaze) in the film. At least the nice scenery is there, ensuring further similarities with The Blue Lagoon. Predictably enough, the portrayal of native population is straight out of the colonial era. I can’t say I liked Tarzan the Ape Man all that much, but there’s definitely some material here for connoisseurs of unique bad movies.

  • Star 80 (1983)

    Star 80 (1983)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, June 2019) The early 1980s were an interesting time in Hollywood’s history—a period where there was a battle going on for the soul of Hollywood, lines drawn between the New Hollywood of grimy dark stories, and the purveyors of Pop Entertainment that sought to bring cinema back to its crowd-pleasing origins. We all know how things played out, but even as late as 1983 you could still see movies steeped into 1970s aesthetics and themes. A movie like Star 80, for instance, which details the abusive relationship between a Playboy playmate and her homicidal ex-boyfriend. It’s all based on a true and sad story. (Hugh Hefner and Peter Bogdanovich both show up as characters, with portrayals consistent of what we know of them.)  Given that this is a movie about a centrefold model, expect a fair and persistent amount of nudity—but keep in mind that Star 80 delights in contrasting the eroticism of the lead character with her bloody end, so it’s not exactly wall-to-wall fan service. At times, the film does give the impression of indulging in trash exploitation—the regular cuts from the biographical narrative to the maniacal murderer muttering about his revenge do get a bit ridiculous after a while. Mariel Hemingway is nice and doomed in the female lead role, while Eric Roberts is uncommonly slimy as the prototypical abusive, over-controlling boyfriend from hell. The role is written without any subtlety, and he holds nothing back—giving an intensely unlikable performance that actually quite good from an actor’s perspective but unbearable to the audience. Much of the same can be said about Bob Fosse’s direction: an atypical choice for him, with blunt-edged effectiveness. Pseudo-interviews are interspaced here and there to present the illusion of a documentary and further tie the film to 1970s cinema-vérité style: points given for a collage approach that was relatively new at the time, but still not quite satisfying. The overall effect is, frankly, a bit dull—it doesn’t take a long time to figure out where the thing is going, and the film just keeps going there relentlessly, with little character nuance beyond the angelic victim and the irremediable killer boyfriend. When you look at the way the 1980s turned their back on New Hollywood, you can point in Star 80’s direction as an example of why.

  • Hope and Glory (1987)

    Hope and Glory (1987)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, May 2019) There have been many movies about WW2, many movies about the bombing of England and many movies about civilian populations suffering from war. But don’t think there are that many movies like Hope and Glory. Writer-director John Boorman’s biggest conceptual leap here (in semi-autobiographical mode) is to see the home-front devastation from the eyes of a kid—a nine-year-old boy for whom war is just part of life, with bombed-out buildings offering plenty of opportunities for adventure. What jolly good fun it is to play in the rubble, watch dogfights in the sky, encounter parachuting Nazis and have Hitler bomb your school! Yes, the irony is palpable throughout the film, and its message even more potent because it avoids the expected mawkishness of such films. In fact, Hope and Glory is best experienced thoroughly spoiled: Knowing that nothing really bad happens to the protagonist and his family is a key to appreciating this off-the-wall take on the Blitz. It works as a kid’s comedy, it works as a testament to the resilience of the human spirit, it works as an affectionate family portrait. While Sebastian Rice-Edwards gets a lot of screen time as the young boy, Sarah Miles (as the mother) and Ian Bannen (as the grandfather) are quite strong in their roles. There are more essential war movies than Hope and Glory, but there aren’t as many that try to do something true and different with that kind of material. It’s well worth a look.

  • Papillon (2017)

    Papillon (2017)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, May 2019) I’m not a fan of remakes and I’m not a fan of Charlie Hunnam, so the chances were really good that I would dislike this remake of the classic escape drama Papillon. But to my surprise, it’s not that bad a take. It doesn’t measure up to the original, and Hunnam is certainly no Steve McQueen, but the more assured visual aspect of the film, combined with a mercifully short running time, do lend a few additional qualities not necessarily found in the earlier film. The high concept remains the same, though, as an intellectual Parisian safecracker (Hunnam) is condemned to life in perpetuity in a tropical French Guyana penal colony renowned for its cruelty. On his way over there, he meets a frail counterfeiter (Rami Malek) and create an alliance out of desperation, each of them realizing they need help in order to simply survive. Over the next few years, their enduring friendship and harsh living conditions lead them to plan escapes. A series of escapes, considering how often they’re caught and brought back. As an adventure story, this Papillon holds up rather well on its own—the problems begin once you start comparing it to the first film, which may admittedly not be a problem for the younger audiences targeted by the remake. Perhaps what stick most in my craw about the remake is that by virtue of having been shot in Europe, its landscapes are no match for the lush tropical surroundings of French Guiana and that’s like removing an integral character from the remake. I can accept that Hunnam is boring and that the remake is useless, but not accurately portraying the environment is harder to forgive. At least the rest of the film isn’t all that bad.

  • White Fang (1991)

    White Fang (1991)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, May 2019) A boy and his dog … in gold-rush Alaska. Adapted from the Jack London story but with the brutal violence considerably toned down in order to fit within the confines of a Disney movie, White Fang is a frontier adventure in the classical mould, bringing us back to late-nineteenth-century Alaska alongside so many gold rush hopefuls. Then there is the titular half-dog, half-wolf, the star of the show despite the human characters. A young Ethan Hawke shows his charm as a youngster off to make a fortune, listening to more experienced prospectors and befriending the lead canine character along the way. The images aren’t bad—the recreation of a frontier town is captivating, not to mention the Alaskan scenery—but the focus here is on the animals, and the film’s almost-mystical connection between human and canine. Beyond the dog performances, Bart the Bear turn in a good scene as an enraged animal pursuing our human protagonist. White Fang remains a family film, but it’s not entirely dull for older viewers. Of course, it’ll do better with dog people.