Reviews

  • 54 (1998)

    54 (1998)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On TV, August 2015)  What is it about the Disco era that makes every single historical film about it feel so… dour?  Was it the way it imploded upon itself in a few months?  Was it that it gave way to the AIDS era?  I’m not sure, but there are a lot of disco-themed films, from Funkytown to Party Monster and Discopath, that ultimately show Disco as a false front for existential emptiness.  All of this throat-clearing is meant to say that 54 still stands strong as pretty much the same fall-from-grace narrative, wistfully recalling an era of excess before taking it all away from the lead character.  It feels very, extremely, completely familiar as a nominal protagonist played by Ryan Phillippe discovers Disco at the famed Studio 54, befriends plenty of interesting people, and then becomes completely disillusioned about it all.  Two or three things still save the film from terminal mediocrity: First is obviously the period recreation, especially early on when we discover the excesses of Studio 54 at the same time as our protagonist does.  Then there are a few performances worth talking about.  Neve Campbell was on the cusp of superstardom in 1998, and her role here plays off of that then-popularity.  Salma Hayek has an early-stardom role as a signer that makes an impression.  This being said, the film’s best and most affecting performance is Mike Myers’ decidedly dramatic turn as Studio 54’s owner, a sad role with a terrific scene set on a money-covered bed.  Myers has never done anything half as dramatically powerful since then, and it’s with the same kind of sadness that we can look at 54 more than fifteen years later, measuring it against the end of the Disco Era’s promises of non-stop fun.  The film itself may struggle to distinguish itself, but it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have one or two redeeming qualities.

  • Seal Team Eight: Behind Enemy Lines (2014)

    Seal Team Eight: Behind Enemy Lines (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, August 2015)  I normally wouldn’t stop to watch a straight-to-video third sequel in a series where most people don’t even know about the second and third film, but it turns out that this fourth film in the not-really-connected Behind Enemy Lines series is directed by Roel Reiné, a surprisingly effective low-budget director who, somehow, always manage to get a few impressive action sequences in otherwise unremarkable films.  So it is that I got my interest’s worth in Seal Team Eight: Behind Enemy Lines, which heads to Africa for a rather predictable story about a SEAL team investigating the acquisition of nuclear material by a local warlord.  The story is a big ball of nonsense (with an mysterious antagonist whose identity can be deducted from the very first briefing scene), and the actors aren’t particularly skilled, but the action sequences and the atmosphere of the film aren’t bad at all – some of the stunts look genuinely dangerous, Reiné gets the most out of his location shooting and he has a knack for capturing striking images. (Alas, one of those is of a human being blown into paste.)  The subpar screenplay hurts the film most toward the end, with a fairly mean-spirited turn into misogyny near its unsurprising conclusion.  Still, as long as you know what you’re looking for (action sequences looking great despite a small budget, that is), then Seal Team Eight: Behind Enemy Lines has something for you.

  • Blades of Glory (2007)

    Blades of Glory (2007)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, August 2015) I have a soft spot for comedies that take on a relatively specialized subject and then try to milk as many laughs out of it.  Blades of Glory is recognizably “a Will Ferrell film”, which is to say a broad mainstream comedy that relies on Ferrell’s particular brand of humor.  And yet, it executes the usual formula competently, can depend on a couple of good performances and even features Montréal as Montréal. Ferrell is less annoying than usual in a role that benefits from machismo arrogance rather than simply his usual man-child persona.  (The film itself also gets a lot of comic mileage in confronting bad-boy macho aesthetics with those of figure ice-skating, and not all of it is mean-spirited.)  Fortunately, the jokes work, while Will Arnett and Amy Poehler make for a good pair of antagonists.  The ice-skate chase through Montréal is funnier if you have an idea of the city’s geography (unsurprising hint: it’s all over the place).  The cast includes a number of famous and infamous figure skaters, and the work required to transform Ferrel and Jon Heder in world-class skaters seems curiously effective.  While Blades of Glory isn’t much more than an assembly-line mainstream Hollywood comedy, it’s well-tuned for its purpose and works reliably well as getting its smiles.  (Useless personal trivia: When I travelled to Los Angeles in 2006, my only encounter with Hollywood filmmaking in the wild came at the Los Angeles Stadium, when I saw a few trailers tagged as being from “Blades of Glory”.  I find it a bit ironic that it would be for a film that features Montréal so prominently… which is where I boarded the plane for Los Angeles. )

  • I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (2007)

    I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (2007)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, August 2015)  Social progress can be measured in laws and statistics, but it’s also a matter of unsaid stereotypes and evolving culture.  Watching I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry eight years after its initial release, I’m stuck most strongly about the film’s uneasy relationship with gay stereotypes, as it presents two heterosexual men marrying for obscure (and frankly nonsensical) administrative benefits.  On one hand, the film is good-natured enough to (eventually) argue firmly in favour of progressive values, show homophobia in a bad light and affirm that sexual orientation isn’t something that should be discriminated against.  Coming from the mid-naughties, after Canada had legalized same-sex unions but before most of the US followed suit, that wasn’t too bad.  But then again I Now Pronounce You Chuck &  Larry crassly makes a lot out of stereotypes, characters spouting regrettable epithets and a barely-repressed attitude that “isn’t it hilarious to pretend to be gay???!?” as a freak-show.  I certainly hope that the very same plot wouldn’t be developed in the same way today.  It’s best to consider I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry as a relic of its time, at a moment when same-sex marriages were past reprobation, but well before they were normalized.  More shocking is the realization that this review spent nearly two hundred words discussing social progress before mentioning that this is an Adam Sandler film, and that he is more or less up to his usual crude shtick here. He is, of course, portrayed as a strongly heterosexual man (and the film stops just as a same-sex kiss with Kevin James was coming up.)  Don’t think that the film is all harmless: As disturbing than the gay stereotypes is seeing Rob Schneider in yellow-face, with a broad and unfunny imitation of an Asian character.  Otherwise, the dumb comedy of I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry pales in comparison to its socially-risky premise: it’s all dumb gags, obvious developments, flat direction and an expected conclusion.  There may be something interesting to say about slipping a dose of progressive values to Sandler fans under the deceptive guise of a dumb comedy, but I’ll let others tackle that train of thought –I’ve blathered long enough about the film already.

  • Grudge Match (2013)

    Grudge Match (2013)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, August 2015) Grudge Match isn’t an unofficial remake of Rocky Balboa, but is sure does feel like it at times, as a retired boxer played by Sylvester Stallone takes up the gloves once again to face an old rival.  But while Rocky 6 tried hard to keep up the serious underdog tone of its series, Grudge Match thankfully seems willing to let the natural comedy in its premise run free.  Or so it seems for a while, it bits and pieces –because far too often, Grudge Match lets go of its comic premise and muddles down in emotional sequences that take away from its strengths.  It doesn’t help that the film is deeply conventional – it’s not so bad when the characters are exchanging barbs or indulging in easy physical comedy, but when Grudge Match gets serious, it also gets dull.  Still, there is considerable entertainment in seeing Robert de Niro take up old glories (although this does nothing to calm critics claiming that his twenty-first century output so far has been almost entirely riffing on his previous career), and Stallone arguably plays a better take on his Rocky Balboa character.  Alan Arkin once again plays crusty-old-guy better than anyone else, much as Kevin Hart can somehow remain a non-obnoxious motor-mouth.  It’s also good to see Kim Basinger again in a substantial role.  The laughs rescue the film from rote emotional familiarity –there is, in particular, a single-shot silent gag involving a bridge, jogger, a scooter and careful composition.  Still, Grudge Match is pretty good entertainment, especially for anyone in the mood for a solid way to pass the evening.

  • Boyhood (2014)

    Boyhood (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, August 2015) It would be tempting to criticize Boyhood’s endless digressions, hefty running time and scattershot plotting, but that would be missing the point of the film.  Famously filmed over twelve years, Boyhood is about the little moments of early life – the dumb conversations with friends, the visits to church, the breakups and the trips and the fights and the dress-downs and the ways lives changes.  Even as Boyhood grinds to a halt for family parties, philosophical digressions and daily minutia, there is a poignant resonance here with everyone’s universal experiences.  Despite my uneventful early years as far away from Texas as possible, I could certainly find flashes of similarities between my boyhood and moments of the film.  Boyhood lives in the interstices of other flashier stories, and there’s something almost profound in the way it combines the very intimate with the epic sweep of a twelve-year story in which the protagonist visibly matures before our eyes.  The cultural references are amusing (albeit liable to make older audiences reflect on the passage of time as in “was that twelve/ten/eight years ago already?”)  Acting-wise, Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette provide welcome anchors of continuity, which somehow becomes more and more important as Ellar Coltrane and Lorelei Linklater do a great job aging twelve years in nearly three hours.  It doesn’t take much to zone out during Boyhood (perhaps evoking the first image of the film, reflected on the poster) as the film effortlessly puts us in a reflective mood, thinking about our lives and how they go on, one small moment after another.  Unique in scope, Boyhood is another small triumph for iconoclast director Richard Linklater, once again doing fascinating things with cinema.

  • We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks (2013)

    We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks (2013)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, August 2015) You could ask why anyone should watch a documentary about a story that’s both not that old (The Wikileaks saga peaked in 2009-2011), and so well-covered just about everywhere (starting with Wikipedia’s interminable articles on Wikileaks, Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning) that another take on the same events would be redundant.  But Alex Gibney is a top-level documentarian, and he understands that the art of the doc is largely based on selection of material and emotional impact.  So it is that We Steal Secrets structures its material in a way that makes a complex issue relatively clear, and does amazing things in presenting Instant Messenger chats: The use of pauses, selective highlight of text and isolated sentence fragments in exceptionally powerful.  Roughly 30 minutes of the 2-hour film is made of computer-animated segments, providing a visual unity to the film that could have been diffused had it been a straight-up succession of talking heads.  While Assange himself is typically missing from the film’s roster (he’s not really the type to contribute to fair-minded depictions of him or his activities, as proven by his over-the-top reaction to The Fifth Estate and other examinations) and while Manning is obviously absent by dint of being detained, We Leak Secrets thrives on a series of good interview subjects.  While some of the remote psychoanalysis of Assange and Manning is a bit exasperating, most of the talking heads say interesting things –perhaps the most interesting of them being ex-CIA head Michael Hayden, who says things you may not expect from a man of his experience. (The title of the film is his.) Otherwise, We Steal Secrets is generally even-handed, giving voice to dissenting, even fringe opinions, while trying to be as clear as possible about its topic.  Heartbreak is inevitable, especially as the film delves into Manning’s crushing isolation, the actions of Adrian Lamo and, later on, a testimony by one of the woman who accused Assange of sexual impropriety.  I’ve been casually following the Wikileaks story for a while, and couldn’t find inaccuracies in the finished product.  (Wikileaks posted a detailed rebuttal, but Assange’s thin skin is legendary and he’ll be forever unsatisfied by anything short of hagiography.)  I have seldom been disappointed by a Gibney documentary yet, and if We Steal Secrets seems to be his most obvious topic yet, it’s as slick and fascinating as any of his other films.  As a first-pass attempt at history-making, it seems fairer than most… although I believe that the final word on Wikileaks, Assange and Manning is yet to come.  

  • Funny People (2009)

    Funny People (2009)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, August 2015)  There is a good reason why Funny People often comes up in any discussion of Adam Sandler’s career: While Sandler has done dramatic roles elsewhere (Punch-Drunk Love, Reign over Me), his turn in Funny People as a terminally-ill famous comedian trying to grapples with his impending mortality builds upon his performances in other, far sillier movies.  It’s a masterful use of an existing actor persona by writer/director Judd Apatow, and Sandler actually gets some dramatic mileage out of his role.  A good chunk of the film isn’t bad either: the dramatization of the stand-up comedian’s life in Los Angeles is fascinating, and the film features a bunch of good performances by other actors, from an unusually serious turn for Seth Rogen (with similarities to material later explored in 50/50), to fine performances by Leslie Mann, Eric Bana, Jason Schwartzman, Jonas Hill, Aubrey Plaza and a ton of comedy cameos.  (The Hill/Rogen interactions are fascinating, especially given the trajectories that both of their careers took afterward).  Some of the meta-commentary about Sandler films, usually seen through glimpses of the terrible movies featuring the protagonist, are a treat for any followers of American comedy films.  Happily, there is some thematic and emotional heft to it all, striking a good balance between comedy and drama.  But it could have been better.  The first half of Funny People is conventionally satisfying… then comes The Twist, and the second half of the movie seems at odds with the first, the pacing slowing down to a crawl, the setting, characters and tone changing significantly.  Apatow, of course, does what he pleases –and his films have never been accused of being too short.  But at two-and-a-half hour, Funny People seems to lose its way at some point, and tightening up the result could have worked wonders.  Still, Sandler’s striking performance remains, and the result is an impressive collaboration between a gallery of notable circa-2009 comedians.

  • Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)

    Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, July 2015)  Nobody expected much from the reboot of the Planet of the Apes series, but Rise of the Planet of the Apes ended up being a surprise success, taking seriously one of the campiest premise in cinema history and turning it into something both worthwhile and surprisingly affecting.  This sequel, surprisingly or not, improves upon its predecessor.  Plot-wise, this is a far busier film: Years after the deadly pandemic triggered in the first film, the apes have clustered north of San Francisco, living more or less unaware of the group of humans that have congregated in the city.  But when the human, fearing energy shortages, start poking around north to take advantage of an unused hydroelectric dam, the gears of war are set in motion.  Much of the film is spent is squirming regret, as the two groups move closer to all-out violence.  Of the human cast, Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman and Keri Russel have the best roles, but the real focus here are the apes and how they are portrayed.   The stunning special effects of the original (good enough to make us forget that practically no real animals were used in the making of the film, just digital effects) are used even more effectively here.  Director Matt Reeves does well with the good material he’s given, to the point that a scene that impossible to describe soberly (an ape riding a horse, firing an assault rifle in each hand!) ends up not ridiculous, but terrifying.  Defying the odds for a second straight film, this Planet of the Apes reboot series is looking like a better and better idea.

  • The Prince of Egypt (1998)

    The Prince of Egypt (1998)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, July 2015)  The story of Moses isn’t exactly unknown, so seeing an animate film take it on seems a bit superfluous.  But in the hands of Dreamworks Animation (then a brand-new studio with something to prove), The Prince of Egypt ends up being a lively, even exciting presentation of a familiar story.  The integration of traditional animation with computer-generated imagery is a bit dodgy (as is the case for most animated films of that time), but the animation itself is usually solid.  The songs are fine, the characters make an epic story somewhat approachable and the expected high points (the plagues and the parting of the red sea, obviously) are indeed highlights of the film.  The prince of Egypt, even more than fifteen years later, compares favorably to the far more technically polished Exodus: Gods and Kings. 

  • Underworld: Rise of the Lycans aka Underworld 3 (2009)

    Underworld: Rise of the Lycans aka Underworld 3 (2009)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, July 2015)  I had skipped Underworld: Rise of the Lycans on account of being bored senseless by the first two installments of the Underworld series, but the fourth film was a step up, and I thought that the third film maybe could be closer to the fourth one’s quality.  Alas, that’s not to be: This medieval prequel may actually be duller that the first two films, so lost in its own dull vampires-versus-werewolves mythology.  It is, simply put, boring, dull, lifeless – and that’s not even mentioning the flat direction, monotonous color palette and meaningless plot.  Even mere days after watching the film, I’m struggling to remember anything of note to mention.  Rhona Mitra is the same shape and color as Kate Beckinsale, but she can’t do anything to save this film from terminal pointlessness.  Entirely useless, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans isn’t worth anyone’s time.

  • The Annihilation Score (The Laundry Files 6), Charles Stross

    ByChristian Sauvé Book Review

    Ace, 2015, 416 pages, 34.95 hc, ISBN 978-0425281178

    There’s a notion of a quote rummaging around my brain, something along the lines of “in difficult times, you will recognize your true allegiances”. Although that’s far too dramatic for what I’m trying to get across: I haven’t been reading a lot these days, displaying an uncommon ability to tell myself, “Oh, this book can wait until I have more time”. Except for any new Charles Stross book, which I end up ordering almost on the day it’s available. So it is that I practically haven’t read any fiction in a while, but I had Stross’s latest novel in my hand a mere four days after its North American publication.

    But then again, I’ve already written about how Stross’ The Laundry Files is my favourite ongoing series. Blending humour, horror, technical references and a wry understanding of contemporary fiction, it’s a series made for a very particular set of readers, but a set of which I am part. It’s also a series that keeps evolving. The first volume wasn’t meant to lead to a series, and the first four volumes had very different intentions (and methods) from the latter ones. But here we are now, with The Annihilation Score, sixth novel in a cycle that may or may not stop at the ninth instalment.

    A few things are different in this volume. For the first time, the story isn’t narrated by “Bob Howard”: As anticipated by a few previous volumes in which the story escaped Bob’s narration to feature other perspectives, and finalized by Bob’s ascension to a high-level Laundry position, this new novel is narrated by none other than Dr. Dominique “Mo” O’Brien, Bob’s now-estranged wife following the dramatic conclusion of the previous volume.

    Mo is not Bob (even though Bob’s technical patois and sense of humour has clearly influenced her narration) and it shows: Much of the book is spent seeing her trying to hold it together as she must deal with simultaneous crises. Not only does she have to deal with the fallout of her decision to separate from Bob, but the United Kingdom has to face the appearance of super-powered individuals in the build-up to Case Nightmare Green. She’s stuck trying to coordinate a government response while, oh yes, keeping demons both literal and figurative at bay. She doesn’t entirely succeed, especially when she also ends up developing superpowers of his own.

    As with most Stross books, the joy of the novel is in seeing a different take on familiar topics. Eschewing super-heroic conventions, Stross does his damnedest to figure out how a nominally competent government would react to the appearance of superheroes. How to integrate them in law, procedures and government operations. How to combine the British ideal of policing by consent to the power fantasies of supernatural powers. For those Laundry Files fans reading from within Westminster bureaucracies, there’s some glee in seeing how Stross imagines setting up a new public service department from scratch, down to making sure the furniture is delivered and installed.

    If you’re reading to keep up with the increasingly complex cast of character, The Annihilation Score has a heck of a payoff in seeing Bob’s girlfriends team up to fight evil. It also provides a different (and far scarier) perspective on Bob himself—it’s becoming clear that Bob isn’t quite who he used to be, and that the way he has portrayed himself in the past few novels is a mask trying to pretend that he’s the same likable tech guy of the first three books. The Laundry universe expands to accommodate everything coming out of Stross’s idea factory, and the result still hangs together decently.

    In many ways, The Annihilation Score is a test for readers of the series—is the series about Bob or The Laundry itself? Is Bob still a hero? Is the series designed for comfort reading, or for a few upsetting shocks along the way? It’s not the same kind of novel that the first volume in the series was. Fortunately, Stross trains his readers well—over time, the probability of nuclear annihilation in Stross series approaches 100%, and the series has shifted gears so many times by now that The Annihilation Score feels like a natural extension of the series. Even as I have dramatically curtailed my fiction buying habit, one certitude remains—I’m ordering the next Laundry File novel the week it comes out.

  • Predestination (2014)

    Predestination (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, July 2015) I don’t normally approve of movies changing the title of their literary origins, but considering that Robert A Heinlein’s “All you Zombies” is both an instantly-recognizable spoiler and a strikingly misleading title, let’s see the retitling of the story as Predestination as the first of the writers-directors Spierig Brothers’ many good decisions in adapting this seminal SF short story.  Given that the short story pack a lot of punch in a few thousand words, it’s not entirely surprising that there’s enough material here for an entire film, along with a slight but pleasing coda that brings us a bit beyond the short story without robbing it of its twisty power (and adding an extra thematic layer to it).  Part of the problem in discussing the film is in deciding how much to say – Ethan Hawke is pretty good in the lead role, but Sarah Snook is absolutely spectacular in a far more difficult role.  The film is carefully written and directed, taking place in a slightly alternate world that owes much to the fifties’ vision of the future.  Predestination’s success is even more remarkable considering that the source material couldn’t be trickier to adapt –one wrong decision, and the sheer preposterousness of the entire story would crush it lifeless.  But the result, amazingly enough, holds up –and it also holds up for those readers who know every twist and turn of the original story.

  • The To Do List (2013)

    The To Do List (2013)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, July 2015) Teenage sex comedies aren’t exactly rare, but what distinguishes The To Do List from the pack are that it dares take the perspective of an awkward but intelligent overachiever who get to set her own agenda when it comes to losing her virginity during her pre-college summer.  Setting the film in 1993 ensures that the answers to her fumbling exploration of the issue aren’t an Internet search away.  (Incidentally, I realized watching the film that 1993 was also the year of my pre-college summer.  Gee, I’m getting old when 1993 earns nostalgia points…)  The film does have a pleasant narrative drive, but it quickly becomes obvious that it’s not even slightly interested in being sexy –merely amusing with a side-order of cringe-worthy.  Aubrey Plaza headlines the film, but while I liked her a lot in other supporting roles, here she seems a bit generic –fortunately, supporting performances from Alia Shawkat and Sarah Steele as the protagonist friend have more personality.  The film’s low-budget is sometimes apparent, and the humor is uneven.  But I really don’t want to be overly critical of The To Do List: The female gaze of the film, written and directed by Maggie Carey, is undeniably more interesting that most American Pie-inspired boys antics and the conclusion seems surprisingly mature given the sub-genre of the film.  It is, in other words, the kind of small-scale film, imperfect and easily overlooked, that’s nonetheless a small success in its own way.  It would be a shame not to see it.

  • Couples Retreat (2009)

    Couples Retreat (2009)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, July 2015) The best and worst thing about Couples Retreat is how resolutely predictable it can be.  A fairly traditional (albeit PG-13-rated glancing at R) Hollywood comedy about matrimonial reconciliation, it relies heavily on the comic persona of its lead actors: Jason Bateman plays the straight-man with a bit of unpleasantness lurking at the edge of his personality; Vince Vaughn plays the overgrown-frat boy loudmouth; Jon Favreau is a lout… and so on.  Characters are established early and seldom deviate from their broad personalities, the reconciliatory ending is a foregone conclusion and the gags along the way tend to be fairly obvious.  Much of the details are inane bordering on moronic (I’m still figuring out why Guitar Hero would need a dedicated salesman) but the film goes have the “tropical retreat romantic comedy” atmosphere in the tradition of Just Go With It, Blended or Forgetting Sarah Marshall.  Even though most jaded viewers may not appreciate the leisurely pace of characters on holidays, there’s a little bit of vicarious living in spending an hour or so in tropical settings.  The main players are up to themselves: Bateman and Vaughn don’t really stretch their persona, but Jean Reno makes for a fun self-help guru while Peter Serafinowicz has a small but hilarious role as a demanding host.  All of the film’s slight qualities don’t manage to make it stand out as anything but a middle-of-the road kind of comedy.  There was potential for something a bit more unnerving (a comparison between trailer and final film suggests that at least one risqué subplot was cut out –although a reference to realized infidelity stays in the film and comes as a bit of a surprise.) but in the end embraces traditional values.  And yet, as predictable Couples Retreat can be, it’s also comforting in a way.