Reviews

  • The Revenant (2015)

    The Revenant (2015)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Video on Demand, May 2016) From the first moments, it’s obvious that The Revenant is going to be a beautiful film, a long film and a film with a lot more on its mind than a survival/revenge story. It could have been a cheap and efficient 90-minute exploitation film, considering the nature of the story: As far as incredible stories of survival are concerned, it’s hard to beat a gravely wounded man in 1790s American wilderness travelling 300 kilometres to seek the man who left him for dead and killed his son. Extreme survival, justified revenge, beautiful nature backdrops… No-one would have faulted The Revenant for focusing on the primal survival/revenge story. But in the hands of director Alejandro González Iñárritu, the result is a few steps above the strictly necessary. A savvy blend of nature shooting and cutting-edge special effects allows for lengthy, almost unbearable sequences of violence set against spectacular natural landscapes. In-between harsh weather, aggressive bears, warring white groups and wronged natives, there are many moving parts in The Revenant, and the script effortlessly plumbs at the complexities to be found in even such a so-called wilderness. Leonardo DiCaprio is remarkable as the hero of the story, even though Tom Hardy also does a lot as the antagonist. Still, the stars here are cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki and director Iñárritu, transforming an exploitation premise into A-grade filmmaking. It’s true that the result could have been a bit shorter and less repetitive, but it feels a bit ungrateful to ask for less of an excellent film.

  • Project Almanac (2015)

    Project Almanac (2015)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, May 2016) Seen from a comfortably middle-aged perspective, there’s something almost endearing in science-fiction movies that plays with familiar genre tropes from a very specific demographic perspective. So it is that when the teenage protagonists of Project Almanac discover time-travel, they rush to use it for … passing exams, seeking love, winning the lottery and attending Lollapalooza. Go, teenagers, go. Of course, things get complicated very quickly in the film’s haphazard sense of causality—they can always go back to fix mistakes, but the rules for doing so seem to change depending on the whims of the script. The main message, predictably, remains the bad old “don’t mess with the timeline” shtick. There is a lot to dislike in Project Almanac for those who are north of thirty: Director Dean Israelite’s found-footage angle is exasperating, the focus on teenage obsessions can be twee and there’s a lot of noise both literal, visual and figurative in the film. Still… I didn’t have a bad time watching it. It has a bit of energy, some self-awareness and a few clever moments when the camera settles down. As a playful take on a familiar SF device, it earns some fair attention. It’s not necessarily for everyone, but at a time when SF devices can always benefit from being introduced to younger audiences, Project Almanac is a bit better than you’d expect. Consider watching it on your mobile device to minimize the shaky-cam cinematography.

  • Fantastic Four (2015)

    Fantastic Four (2015)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, May 2016) The release of this Fantastic Four reboot was accompanied with wild rumours of a troubled production, an out-of-control director and such vehemently bad reviews that the worst could be expected from the final result. Unfortunately, most of those low expectations are met: Fantastic Four is a mess of a movie, dull and bland in the ways that comic book movies used to be before their formula was perfected, and disjoint to the point of incoherence. The detailed story of the film’s production may or may never be known, but, in the meantime, we’re left with a dour film that rehashes an overly familiar origin story, veers into a generic third act and can’t be bothered to make us care about archetypical characters that, let’s face it, shouldn’t take much work to flesh out. No matter why directory Josh Trank lost control of his film, the result feels botched and hurriedly completed to satisfy contractual obligations: There’s no sense of joy to comic book characters that should exemplify it, and if Fantastic Four very briefly forays into a fascinating body-horror sequence, it quickly forgets all about it moments later. What’s too bad is that it features good young actors who can’t be blamed for the mess: Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan and Kate Mara, in particular, can’t do much with the featureless material they’re given. (Mara, in particular, is given material fit to make her exceptionally unlikable, which is not how she comes across in other films.) Fortunately, all three have made better movies before and after, so their careers are probably OK. The inanity of the script may be organic or due to studio meddling—it’s hard to tell, but it’s not hard to be disappointed for the results. While some of the most vitriolic reactions to Fantastic Four may be due to frenzied Marvel fan-activism (as in: “Marvel should be doing Fantastic Four films! Let’s hope it tanks so that Fox give the rights back!”), the movie as made available feels like a throwback to fifteen years ago when studios given comic book properties didn’t even bother to treat the material with respect. No surprise is the result is almost instantly forgettable and (as hard as it may be to type this), makes Fox’s previous two Fantastic Four movies look good in retrospect. Strange world. But mark me down as interested if ever “Fantastic Four: The Director’s original vision with unfiltered commentary” ever comes out.

  • The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)

    The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, May 2016) I will admit it: I expected far worse from The Exorcism of Emily Rose, and I’m pleasantly surprised at the result. Keeping in mind that expectations may be the key to good reviews, there is something fascinating in the way this film blends a courtroom procedural and religious possession horror, cleverly allowing dual versions of events to be shown on-screen. (Of course, as with nearly all horror movies, the paranormal version is far more compelling—otherwise why are we watching it?) This unusual sensibility helps explain why the film can boast of such a good cast, from Laura Linney’s conflicted lawyer protagonist to Tom Wilkinson as a tortured priest, with a good supporting turns by relative newcomer Jennifer Carpenter in the title role. Considering director Scott Derrickson’s subsequent filmography, we can already see in The Exorcism of Emily Rose the atmospheric conviction that would elevate many of his later films. It’s certainly enough to paper over the script’s overly dramatic manifestations of evil that would strike many as ridiculous. Still, this film’s biggest strength is to do the usual in a slightly unusual way, almost hiding behind the trappings of a legal thriller to blur the shape of its horror thrills. It does manage to keep audiences interested, which is more than we can say about many other similar movies. The tension between rationality and the supernatural is explored competently—just don’t pay too much attention to the claims that it’s based on a true story. Now popping up late at night on cable TV channels The Exorcism of Emily Rose remains a nice little surprise, especially for anyone expecting a formula exorcism horror thriller.

  • The Transporter Refueled (2015)

    The Transporter Refueled (2015)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, May 2016) Rebooting the Transporter series without Jason Statham’s bigger-than-life stature wasn’t a good idea, and the best that The Transporter Refueled can do is fight its way to a generic thriller with a few occasional good moments. Ed Skrein is serviceable but unremarkable in the lead role: he doesn’t embarrass himself, but doesn’t shine either. Ray Stevenson is more fun as his father, and one of the film’s two good ideas is to make the film turn around a father/son relationship too rarely portrayed in movies—let alone action movies. The Transporter Refueled’s other good idea is to put much of the film’s propelling motivation on a group of vengeful women—although your mileage may vary on this, given the camera’s leering gaze on them and the feeling that this is merely another way to crank up the film’s exploitation content. It wouldn’t matter so much if the result were memorable—but sadly, The Transporter Refueled feels far too much like everything else in writer/producer Luc Besson’s Europacorp’s generic action portfolio, with merely adequate direction, by-the-numbers writing and uninspired performances. Writing this review a few days after seeing the film, I can testify first-hand that the film doesn’t leave much of a lasting impression. Actresses presented as being more attractive than they are, unusually prominent father/son relationship, a climax set in an airport, some car chases and shootouts … and that’s pretty much it for the details. As far as the overall impression is concerned, you can line up The Transporter Refueled alongside a list of other similar thrillers and have a hard time picking them out of a line-up. As a franchise reboot, that’s not exactly a confident first step.

  • Z for Zachariah (2015)

    Z for Zachariah (2015)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, May 2016) As post-apocalyptic thrillers go, Z for Zachariah plays things more intimately than most. There are only three characters in the story, hence the drama: Margot Robbie initially stars as a young woman who has almost unexpectedly lived through a global nuclear disaster, her universe now limited to a small valley where the radioactive fallout can’t enter. She’s managing to hang on, but her world is turned upside down when she comes across another survivor, a scientist played by Chiwetel Ejiofor. Their relationship is difficult to begin with, yet things get even more complicated when a third man, much younger and friendlier (Chris Pine) also makes his way in the valley. The resulting tension isn’t pleasant for anyone, especially when science and religion are set up as mutually incompatible pursuits, and an unhealthy rivalry begins between the two men, leaving our heroin scared and disturbed from her lonely life. Far from being cheerful, Z for Zachariah works well as an acting showcase for all three actors (with Robbie earning a chance to prove the kind of dramatic talents that don’t fit with her persona in blockbuster movies) but get annoying when it aims for simplistic allegory. As a feminist twist on post-apocalyptic stories, it’s inconclusive—another five minutes of definitive resolution may have helped matters, especially given the liberties taken from the original novel. It amounts to a film that qualifies as mildly interesting but not essential, unless you’re a post-apocalyptic junkie or a fan of the three actors. At least it does a few unusual things in the sub-genre, and it handled with some competence.

  • Cooties (2014)

    Cooties (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, May 2016) Cooties’ big concept is simple, revolting and funny at once: What if only kids carried a zombie epidemic, and what if our heroes were besieged high-school teachers? By the time the faculty is viciously killing their pre-teen charges, feel free to be disgusted or darkly amused by it all—the film has already gone too far to care. Elijah Woods stars as the nebbish protagonist (in an interesting reversal from his turn as a student battling possessed teachers in The Faculty), with a few comic actors in other supporting roles. The limits of the budget often show (most notably in not offering a wider view of the carnage once it gets going) but the writing isn’t bad and the film does manage to hit many of its intended targets. It’s relatively successful, in fact, at minimizing the gross-out factors of a story in which adults kill kids—while it still feels wrong, it’s more transgressive than unacceptable, which is the tricky moral balance that the film had to meet in order to work at all. This being said, the best audience for Cooties remains the dark-laughter horror crowd, especially those who don’t mind yet another low-budget zombie comedy.

  • Paper Towns (2015)

    Paper Towns (2015)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, May 2016) I felt moderately clever in finding strong similarities between The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Town … but that lasted only until I realized that both are movie adaptation of novels by John Green. Both feature disaffected teenagers trying to break free of what is expected of them and coming to some kind of personal epiphany. More significantly, both are somewhat wittier takes on familiar young-adult elements. In Paper Town’s case, a shy protagonist is pushed into an adventure of self-discovery by a far more audacious neighbour on which he harbours a crush. An enjoyable first act (involving a wild night of revenge) too quickly leads to a more sedate follow-up treasure hunt and road trip to a non-existent city. It’s relatively satisfying to watch, although some of the material can feel leisurely, and the film takes some pleasure in not delivering a conventionally pat conclusion. The journey is the destination, of course, and when it comes to teenage characters, I’d rather spend time with self-aware worrywarts than moronic caricatures. Nat Wolff plays a sympathetic protagonist, even though his job remains to be befuddled by Cara Delevingne’s far more self-assured heroine. Paper Town will reach its audience among high-schoolers, but it has a few things to offer to older viewers as well, and a few welcome departures from the usual downtrodden path of teenage romance.

  • Pitch Perfect 2 (2015)

    Pitch Perfect 2 (2015)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, May 2016) The original Pitch Perfect was an all-too-rare surprise: A crackling good movie disguised under less-than-promising clothing. It not only featured a number of great performances (notably a career-best role for Anna Kendrick and a breakout turn by Rebel Wilson), but managed to hit, at least three times, a quasi-magical state of pure joy. All of this to say that it set almost ridiculous expectations for its rapidly inevitable sequel. To its credit, Pitch Perfect 2 does try to replicate much of its predecessor’s highlights. We get the signing performances, the banter between the characters, a joyous song battle, an underdog competition and some hilariously inappropriate colour commentary. Elizabeth Banks does well at the helm, and the vast majority of the first film’s cast is back for more of the same. It succeeds at being a breezy comedy, toning down some of the original’s weaknesses (there aren’t that many vomit jokes, for one thing, and the romance is far funnier here) and maintaining much of the charm. It even throws in some fan-service homoeroticism for good measure. Pitch Perfect 2 is not, however, quite as surprising nor quite as successful as the original—something that should be considered inevitable rather than disappointing. Those who liked the first movie should at least keep this in mind: the sequel is a decent follow-up and it should flow well in a back-to-back viewing.

  • Maggie (2015)

    Maggie (2015)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, May 2016) As much as I’d like to claim that the zombie subgenre is played-out and should go away, there are always new off-beat ways to approach the same topic. In Maggie, the emphasis is placed on a very low-key family drama set in a post-apocalyptic world, in which a father faces the gradual transformation of his daughter after she’s been infected. It obviously won’t end well, which puts even more importance on the moment-to-moment character journey of the story. Maggie isn’t your usual action-driven horror movie: it’s an extended mourning period, with occasional flashes of danger considering what she is evolving into. The big draw of the film, from a mainstream perspective, is that the role of the father facing the gradual end of his daughter has been given to Arnold Schwarzenegger, here playing a solid man made powerless against what is happening to his child. He does well despite being asked to venture outside his usual persona, but if this is the kind of role that actors cherish, it’s not likely to be considered a must see. Maggie is a quiet, mournful, low-intensity drama and it works at what it does. On the other hand, stretching even a requiem to feature-film length will test the patience of a number of viewers, despite the odd glimpses at a world where zombies have been normalized. Maggie is an average movie, which means that it will work best for those who are already predisposed to the story it means to tell—people outside that group may not find it as compelling.

  • The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet (2013)

    The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet (2013)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, April 2016) Any new Jean-Pierre Jeunet film is an occasion to be happy, even when they don’t quite work. While The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet doesn’t approach Jeunet’s finest films (the best of which remains Amélie), it still packs more visual inventiveness than any other three movies by other directors. The story is suitably eccentric, as the youngest offspring of a grieving western-USA family invents a perpetual motion machine (no points for hard science here) and sets out alone on a cross-country trip to deliver a speech in Washington. Shot in English in North America, this still feels like a very Jeunet film, marrying a quasi-retro vision of the world with frequent visual effects for a result that often tries for charm. For such a polished film, The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet has flown under the radar for a long time and holds a few surprises: Canadian viewers will be surprised to see Rick Mercer pop us as a talk-show host in a film that also features Helena Bonham Carter (looking really good), and Jeunet stalwart Dominique Pinon. For all its qualities, though, The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet doesn’t quite work as well as it should. Making grief a dominant emotion of the film undercuts some of its more whimsical moments, reminding us at odd times that there’s a big tragedy lurking under the quirkiness. It’s not easy to just sit back and enjoy the film, taking away what’s usually one of Jeunet’s strengths. Nonetheless, it’s time well-spent—the inventiveness of the film papers over some rougher moments, and any Jeunet film is enough to brighten a day.

  • Ride Along 2 (2016)

    Ride Along 2 (2016)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Video on Demand, April 2016) Anyone who goes into Ride Along 2 should expect nothing else than a watered-down re-thread of the first film. It’s in the nature of comedy sequels to play it safe and keep doing the same, so it’s not surprising to find out that this sequel does exactly that. Once again, the chemistry between Ice Cube and Kevin Hart remains the best reason to see the film, with much of the humour stemming from their respective characters interacting. Otherwise, it’s the kind of cop-comedy made countless times before—including the Miami locale. Even acknowledging this built-in tendency, Ride Along 2 is not particularly well executed: the set pieces are routine, the plot isn’t that intriguing and the film doesn’t have as much in store for surprises. Perfunctory and barely meeting expectations to the point of not warranting any extended discussion, Ride Along 2 will go the way of most comedy sequels: forgetfulness, followed by endless bundling with the first film in DVD collections.

  • The Benefactor (2015)

    The Benefactor (2015)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Video on Demand, April 2016) I must be watching too many thrillers, because I kept expecting The Benefactor to slip into one even as it does not intend to do so. The premise certain suggest that it could be, though, as a single rich older man fixates on improving a young couple’s life, even when they come to resent his intrusion. There comes a few points where another kind of film would have jumped the rails into thriller territory—the older man killing the husband, trying to get close to the widow, etc. But The Benefactor, as it turns out, is a drama about an older character trying to work through his psychological issues. It’s a story of redemption rather than obsession and Richard Gere isn’t bad at all as an older man trying to work his way through a terrifying amount of guilt. Much of the film plays with an uncomfortable undercurrent of tension, sometimes undistinguishable from cringing. It does eventually lead to a hopeful place, though, albeit the mannered way it gets there is almost enough to make anyone wonder how a straight-up thriller version of the base premise would have turned out.

  • No Escape (2015)

    No Escape (2015)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, April 2016) There’s not really any way to say this nicely, so let’s get it out of the way first: No Escape may not necessarily be a xenophobic film by xenophobic people, but wow does it play the xenophobia card heavily. What is problematic here is not a film in which an innocent American family finds itself stuck in a popular uprising hours after arriving in an anonymous Southeast Asian country. It’s a film in which the family seems to be facing hordes of anonymous foreigners that are specifically targeting them for violent rape and death. Even worse: Help usually comes from other foreigners, or natives that are in service to foreigners in a film. It’s hard to avoid a bit of unease at the way the film makes its points—especially in recognizing that some sequences work well exactly because of the way the film uses faceless hordes of bloodthirsty opponents. Amusingly enough, part of it probably isn’t due to intentional racism as much as a genre tool mismatch. Writer/Director John Erick Dowdle has a few well-received horror films to his credit, so it’s worth noting that some of No Escape’s best moments (an escape from a hotel under siege, soon followed by an escape from a bombed-out office) are straight out of zombie horror filmmaking. The equivalence of foreigners to zombies is disturbing, but that it works at a basic level may be most disturbing of all. Elsewhere in the movie, Owen Wilson and Lake Bell’s performances are sympathetic enough to paper over thinly written character and gain them some sympathy as parents in a horrifying situation. (The kids are also very good and believable as kids.) Meanwhile, Pierce Brosnan shows up in a role that should be more substantial but somehow isn’t. No Escape does show a basic ability at presenting thrills and chills, but it would be so much better had it taken more care with its depiction of foreign characters. Then, at least, we’d stop feeling guilty for whatever qualities the film has.

  • Ricki and the Flash (2015)

    Ricki and the Flash (2015)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, April 2016) I only saw Ricki and the Flash because of “Meryl Streep as an aging rocker” and after watching the film, I can confirm that “Meryl Streep as an aging rocker” is pretty much the only reason you need. Here, Streep plays an older woman who has sacrificed everything (including a marriage and three children) to music. Her nights playing at a local bar may still be glamorous, but her days as a cashier aren’t. Things start to change when she finds herself drawn to reconciliation after her daughter goes through a suicidal depression. Much family comedy/drama ensues, with Kevin Kline playing back-up as her ex-husband. While Ricki and the Flash is written by Diablo Cody, there’s little here to wow anyone: Much of the film seems tepid, chugging along to a halfway-celebratory conclusion. There are some pacing issues, most notably in the last half-hour where the film slows rather than pick up to a conclusion. Streep remains the film’s best asset throughout, picking up a guitar and credibly signing in-between an unusually sympathetic of a woman who may or may not have screwed up her life. At least she can still sing and carry a tune, which is what the curiously pat ending stops at. Ricki and the Flash is obviously aimed at a particular public, meaning that anyone who falls out of it is likely to find it a bit lengthy and flat. Streep’s pretty good, though, if that hasn’t been said enough already.