Reviews

  • The Kindness of Strangers (2019)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, January 2022) Prepare for misery as you approach The Kindness of Strangers, an ensemble drama that nonetheless focuses on the torrent of pain, fear, danger, humiliation and precarity experienced by a young mother and her two sons as they seek to escape their abusive husband/father by running away to Manhattan. Their journey takes them as far down in society as anyone would imagine, but by the end of the film they’re able to bond with people ready to help them. (Plus, a violent action from the antagonist that ensures that even he, as a cop, is put away for a long time.)  There are many noble intentions here, whether it’s rooting for a vulnerable woman and her kids, or trying to portray the web of interactions that becomes necessary to offer help to someone in need. Unfortunately, The Kindness of Strangers often feels like a mechanical exercise. An international production where simply figuring out the country of origin is an adventure, writer-director Lone Scherfig’s film feels pulled and pushed in various directions so frequently that, by the time we’re done, nothing remains except platitudes and easy decisions. The ensemble cast is not bad—Zoe Kazan does make for a likable protagonist, Andrea Riseborough remains intriguing throughout, Bill Nighy plays to his strengths as a sympathetic but somewhat befuddled figure and Jay Baruchel makes the most out of a supporting character. Still, it feels rote, arbitrary, overly manipulative and yet not terribly effective at it. In other words, The Kindness of a Strangers often feels like a slog that doesn’t lead anywhere interesting. Sure, things get better for the characters—but in a film where the interconnection between strangers is supposed to be an important thematic element, it falters when it comes to the moment to make a point. Not worth a look considering much stronger films dealing with similar issues.

  • Tintin et les oranges bleues [Tintin and the Blue Oranges] (1964)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Fourth or fifth viewing, On TV, January 2022) As someone who grew up on Tintin albums and whatever movies were re-run on over-the-air TV, there’s quite a bit of nostalgia in revisiting Tintin et les oranges bleues after a few decades. I still remembered bits and pieces of the film, but not enough to make this a repetitive experience. It’s not bad—the visual similarities to the comic book are astonishing, and the sense of adventure in mid-1960s Spain makes for a strong atmosphere. (Alas, the version still broadcast on French-Canadian TV channels is faded and dull—I’m told there’s a more recent restoration, but this wasn’t it.)  But while this second live-action Tintin film has a few fun gadgets, stunts and characters and was probably my favourite growing up thanks to the focus on Professeur Tournesol, I now like the previous live-action film (Tintin et la toison d’or) a bit more due to its sense of adventure. Oh well—I’m not sure how much of Tintin et les oranges bleues holds up for modern kids who haven’t mainlined the albums yet: it suspects that the decrepit, gritty, almost disreputable cinematography doesn’t help, nor the rather strong stereotypes about the Arabic characters. For me, though, it’s quite a bit of fun and a welcome excuse to revisit a film I saw a few times as a kid.

  • Balto (1995)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On TV, January 2022) Fans of Jack London’s Call of the Wild will feel in familiar territory in Balto, a dog-in-Alaska story executed as a classically-drawn animated film with a live-action framing device. As far as kid-focused animal adventures go, Balto is nicely executed despite the annoyances—the blend of a rather serious story of adversity in the face of a medical delivery is sabotaged by the comic talking animals shtick that was (and remains) so prevalent in those films… Jack London it isn’t, finally. Still, the adventure can be involving, the animation is squarely in what was the norm before CGI took over, and the pacing is not bad. The framing device feels useless and the facts of the “true story” that inspired the film are to be taken with a great deal of liberty. Director Simon Wells would go on to make better (The Prince of Egypt) and so much worse (Mars Needs Moms) that we would never direct again. Balto makes for an acceptable family film today—nothing groundbreaking (the irony being that it was released the month after the epochal Toy Story, tanking its box-office) but still something reasonably entertaining, especially if dogs-in-the-wild stories are your thing.

  • Justice Society: World War II (2021)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, January 2022) Another six months, another direct-to-video DC animation movie. Justice Society: World War II is slightly more distinctive than most in that it takes a contemporary framing device focusing on The Flash and then jumps back in time to present an alternate take on Justice Society’s actions during World War II. I’m not always a big fan of those DC animated films—while most of them are watchable largely as background material (unimpressive animation, straightforward scripts, tepid pacing with low plotting density), the better ones are rare. While this one is not exceptional, the focus on a different cast of characters is welcome (anything with Black Canary and the newest Iris West is fine by me) and there are a few interesting details here and there—an alternate Superman as an unheroic war correspondent? Aquaman brainwashed into becoming a Nazi? Wonder Woman giving Flash a ring for his engagement to West? Not bad. Those help Justice Society: World War II into being a better-than-average entry, even though the sideshow aspect means that we’re still far from an essential.

  • The Gingerdead Man (2005)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, January 2022) Over the past few years, my reviews have chronicled my growing “appreciation” (it’s not the right word) for the work of Charles Band—a filmmaker specializing in low-budget, low-horror, high-comedy movies made for the sub-theatrical market. The Gingerdead Man does reflect many recurring elements of his filmography—short duration, unserious approach, substandard production means, and inanimate objects possessed by evil. But it’s crucially missing those elements that take the best of his film into something approaching viewing pleasure: sex-appeal, comedy or inspired lunacy. Gary Busey does feature in the opening scene and then as the voice of the possessed gingerbread man, but that’s really not enough to compensate for perfunctory production values and comedy that lead to more shrugs than chuckles. Band is often a director who succeeds in spite of himself, and The Gingerdead Man may be closer to the norm than an exception. Band’s Full Moon production company clearly thought well enough of the concept to produce three more follow-ups (including Gingerdead Man vs. Evil Bong, a crossover with another Full Moon property), but we’re certainly not forced to have the same opinion.

  • Shella Record— A Reggae Mystery (2019)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, January 2022) As someone who has spent far too much time on the Internet tracking down anything I could find on relatively minor artists from decades past, there’s something both fascinating and relatable in writer-director Chris Flanagan’s multi-year journey as described in his documentary Shella Record—A Reggae Mystery. The quest begins in a used record store, where Flanagan discovers a terrific 1970s reggae track from “Shella Record”—an otherwise unknown artist with no other known tracks, which is mind-boggling considering her exceptional vocal performance. Flanagan’s initial investigation takes him around Toronto, but trying to get more information from the record producers meets a dead-end. A lucky break from a radio show airing then sends him to Jamaica, where he makes a pilgrimage to some sacred places of reggae and digs through the wreckage of a fire-ravaged studio to find the song’s original recording. Along the way, he confirms that this Shella Records is really Sheila Rickards, a jazz singer whose post-Jamaica whereabouts are unknown. After this initial breakthrough, the search slows down: trips to New York City and Los Angeles bring some colour to the search, but produce few results. Finally, it takes a private investigator with an interest in the paranormal to provide the very satisfying third act that the film deserves. Footage captured throughout the multi-year quest is enlivened by material from Flanagan’s miniature work and (less satisfyingly) by dramatic re-creations of historical events. Still, the documentary is steadily engrossing, and the final stretch brings authentic closure to the mysteries raised by the film’s first hour. Flanagan makes for a likable protagonist, but it’s the twists and turns of the tale that make it memorable. Best of all, the documentary illustrates an even happier ending, with the now-fully credited song being republished on vinyl, digitally mastered and played around the world to a new audience. Give it a listen, and see if it makes you want to watch the film.

  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, January 2022) For this third (and final) instalment of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, the crew heads to (of all places) feudal Japan thanks to some supernatural shenanigans that are barely surprising in the so-called logic of the series. It’s inane, but compared to the insanity of the previous instalments, it’s almost unremarkable. The overall plot isn’t anything special, but Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III’s best moments are in seeing the irreverent turtles longing for pizza and making pop-culture reference à la Clint Eastwood in this historical context. It’s not much, but I’m not sure writer-director Stuart Gillard aimed any higher—clearly aimed at kids with a fascination for martial arts, pizza and ninjas, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III fails to make the most of its admittedly decent production values. I’d say too bad, but really—were we expecting anything different at this point?

  • Ron’s Gone Wrong (2021)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Disney Streaming, January 2022) Techno-skepticism makes it to family animated movies in Ron’s Gone Wrong, a middle-school comedy that doubles as a metaphor for how technology increasingly pervades our kid’s experiences. Here, a fictional company called Bubble develops an all-purpose robot (“B-bot”) meant to help kids make friends, but our story focuses on the only boy at his school without a B-bot. Out of desperation, his parents finally find him one—a damaged unit that should have been scrapped and barely works out of the box. Much of the main plot has our protagonist dealing with a not-so-defective robot and navigating the tricky web of social interactions at school, but there’s an arguably more interesting subplot showing how well-intentioned technology can be misused by people with less noble motives. Fortunately, Ron’s Gone Wrong works well in the execution: while the film shies away from telling people to destroy their phones and delete their social media accounts, it does make a reasonable case for technology as a help for fulfilling human desires rather than becoming a goal by itself. The animation is quite good (especially from newcomer Locksmith Animation, even if it has the Aardman pedigree), and the script is a well-engineered machine. The culmination of much of the craziness is a wild playground sequence that makes not sense from an IT security viewpoint, but does get a few laughs. As a family film, Ron’s Gone Wrong is more interesting than many, considering that adults will keep making the techno-parallels that may be missed by some of the younger audiences.

  • A Matter of Time (1976)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, January 2022) The weirdness about A Matter of Time starts early: What is Vincent Minelli, once a darling director of MGM’s golden age, doing shooting a film for low-rent studio American Pictures International? Why are the sumptuous Roman exteriors act as background to such stilted dialogue? For that matter—why does Ingrid Bergman look so dreary in a bad wig, while Liza Minelli looks so good in a good one? For that matter, why are Bergman and Minelli slumming in a film shot in TV aspect ratio? Why does the film feel like a crash between A Star is Born and a Broadway musical? Well, maybe the year can be a clue—well past the Golden Age of musicals, late in Bergman’s career, early enough in Minelli-fille’s career to be part of a project for Minelli-père. (It ended up being his last movie after a six-year silence, capping an illustrious thirty-six-year-long career.)  The result is not unwatchable—Minelli is unusually cute with a long wig and there are a few nice moments here and there. But Minelli-fille aside, A Matter of Time often feels like a tired attempt at recapturing various glories—those MGM musicals, for one, but also the short glorious Hollywood-on-the-Tiber energy of the early 1960s. For a film that mixes fantasy and reality, it’s a clunker—the framing device brings down the film, and even from the opening narration (“This is a true story […] adapted from a novel”), it’s reaching for gravitas that it can’t quite create by itself. Whether you can claim that the film is the result of Minelli-père’s veteran direction is unclear: According to rumours, an initial three-hour-long film was cut to barely 97 minutes, which probably accounts for much of the resulting choppiness. A Matter of Time remains an essential part of movie history if you’re interested in the Minellis, but it may remind you that in Hollywood, career endings are seldom glorious.

  • I’ve Been Waiting for You (1998)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, January 2022) You would think that a horror film about a teenager being possessed by a witch would be sexier, funnier or better than this, but I’ve Been Waiting for You certainly isn’t worth any wait: This made-for-TV film (there goes the sexiness) is inspired by a glum YA novel (there goes the fun) and in execution seems copy-pasted from other YA slashers of the era (there goes the quality). Executed on a modest budget by Christopher Leitch, the film struggles to attain narrative velocity. Indifferent acting doesn’t help, nor does perfunctory production values or straightforward directing. It’s amazing that a premise as rich in possibilities (both high and low) at multi-generational witchery and revenge could lead to an unremarkable slasher. Clearly aimed at an undemanding teen market at a time when they were even less demanding than usual thanks to the Scream-inspired mini-boom, I’ve Been Waiting for You leaves no lasting impression.

  • A Walk in the Spring Rain (1970)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, January 2022) The lead casting in A Walk in the Spring Rain is promising: Ingrid Bergman (in a rare late-career American film) and Anthony Quinn in a complex mature romance between the neglected wife of an academic on a sabbatical in Tennessee, and a rural local quite unlike her husband. There’s further drama, but you’d have a hard time getting excited for it, as the film unspools leisurely with no real stakes and even less passion for its own material. Quinn plays his rough persona and Bergman is rarely less than quite good—but the film itself can’t measure up to its location shooting, its premise or the power of its actors. It’s almost obscure today, which is understandable enough: there have been far better movies about similar topics, and this one is often a chore to get through.

  • Swing Shift (1984)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, January 2022) Sometimes mentioned as the movie during which Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn fell in love, Swing Shift is frustratingly inconsistent to watch. It tries to do a little bit of everything, but in doing so seems to be ignoring what makes it special. I was most intrigued by the WW2 home-front aspect of the film, as women sign up to work in airplane factories while their husbands are off to fight the war—there’s some predictable sexism, but also a bit of comedy, empowerment, self-actualization and further drama as their work becomes redundant at the end of the conflict and they’re let go from “the best job they’re ever had.”  That aspect of the film, while not completely new, is intriguing and could have supported an entire film. Nice production values, contemporary attitudes and some colourful supporting characters do help in creating a WW2 film more credible than those made during WW2 itself. Alas, there’s also a far more conventional love triangle that ends up swallowing the rest of the picture in its conventional maw—whenever the film threatens to get too interesting, Hawn and Russell (with some support from Ed Harris) go back under the spotlight for material that feels perfunctory compared to the rest of the film. Swing Shift’s production history tells us that the original script is not what ended up on screen—the picture was wrestled away from director Jonathan Demme late in production, with half an hour of new material shot to emphasize the love triangle. The result is a disappointment in more ways than one—it doesn’t end with a climax as much as a return to disappointing normalcy for the lead character, and little payoff for her colleagues on the assembly line. The feminist sensibilities of the film seem smothered in a decided unthreatening romantic triangle with an underwhelming finish. Much of what happened between the first version and the released one is described in detail in a rather wonderful Sight and Sound article, but you don’t need to understand how the original cut was less conventional to be frustrated by what’s on screen. But, hey—there’s Hawn and Russell are the beginning of their still-ongoing relationship, so at least there’s that.

  • Encanto (2021)

    Encanto (2021)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Disney Streaming, December 2021) I really shouldn’t care all that much about what happens to a film from a gigantic multi-billion entertainment behemoth, but as of this writing, the cultural impact of the sixtieth mainline film by Disney Animation Studio is slight — Encanto, like many other films of the 2020s-so-far, has suffered from the COVID pandemic scrambling the usual marketing and release institutions of Hollywood. While new Disney movies are usually a Big Deal, this one briefly popped up in theatres (at a time of contagion-wary audiences) before finding a home on the Disney+ streaming service. As a result, it’s not clear whether it has had any cultural impact yet — quantifiable popular interest is down compared to other Disney films, and there’s a sense that it may be too closely associated with Raya and Coco to develop a distinct identity. It’s early, though — and I suspect that in time, the true winners of these strange plague times will become clearer. [December 2022: I worried needlessly: Encanto, a year later, has found its public and then some!]  It may or may not help that Encanto is, in the end, roughly of similar quality than other Disney films — the Mouse knows how to make movies, and this one is just as satisfying as most of their New Renaissance era. Not necessarily a classic, but a solid well-crafted hit with just enough to set it apart once you watch it. Heading to Columbia for inspiration, Encanto is about a family with magical powers… and the lone offspring that does not. Exceptionally cute in look and behaviour, Mirabel (ironically the name of an infamous Montréal-area airport) struggles to understand why she’s not gifted as the rest of her family, but ends up being the ideal one to investigate why their powers are slowly weakening. Clearly taking after the South American tradition of magical realism, but pushing it into, well, magical fantasy, Encanto also benefits from the musical talent of Lin-Manuel Miranda as he contributes eight songs to the film and several of its highlights. The fantastic opening “The Family Madrigal” is clearly in Miranda’s style in cadence and delivery, while the theme of “What Else Can I Do?” brings to mind Frozen’s power ballad “Let it Go.”  “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” has the film delivering some well-paced editing, rounding up the best songs of the film. As for characters, it’s tough to ignore the magical Casita taking care of the domestic needs. While I found the ending perhaps a bit too subtle in fixing the character’s thematic issues (the film clearly wasn’t going to go for “what happens after the magic fades away?”, but it could have been clearer in exposing the pre-renewal hidden conflicts.), it ages well upon reflection. I expect that Encanto will, similarly, do well in future and repeat viewings — the Disney formula is a formula, but it’s a good one that succeeds and builds trust that the next films from the studio will also be worth a look. As the sixtieth full-length Disney Animation Studio films, Encanto joins a large and illustrious group but doesn’t look out of place.

  • Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde (1971)

    Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde (1971)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, December 2021) I’ve seen so many Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde films by now that it takes a lot to register something distinct — Most of the remakes are alternate takes on specific aspects of the story, whether transforming the story into psychological thriller (with no physical transformation) or viewing the story from another perspective. But Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde goes for something that still feels, fifty years later, stranger and more perverse — making the murderous alter ego to the meek Doctor Jekyll as a seductive woman passing herself off as his sister. There’s a clear exploitation angle to the result — notably through some not-so-gratuitous nudity — but the subtext made overt by this change is often far more interesting than conventional takes on the same material: the female being deadlier than the male, the frisson of instant transsexuality and all that. Now, is it feminist? I have no idea, and I’m the wrong person to ask — but there’s something just a little bit needling in having Stephenson’s story reuse the femme fatale trope. Bond Girl Martine Beswick is remarkably good here, and her resemblance to Jekyll-playing Ralph Bates is used to good effect. While the first half-hour is ordinary (albeit enlivened by the story’s explicit integration of the Jack the Ripper myth, as well as the infamous Burke and Hare), the film kicks in high gear once Hyde makes her appearance. I’m not sure Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde ends on that high a note, but there’s a lot of gender-bending, expectation-subverting fun along the way for those who are familiar with the Jekyll/Hyde story.

  • From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler aka The Hideaways (1973)

    From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler aka The Hideaways (1973)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, December 2021) The first hour of The Hideaways is borderline exasperating, as the film takes up the twee story of a boy and a girl escaping from their small town to hide in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It’s the kind of precocious claptrap that, for some reason, rubs me the wrong way — and since some of the worst examples of the subgenre date from the 1970s, the film seemed built to annoy from the get-go. Things pick up slightly once the two kid protagonists discover a statue in the stockrooms of the museum that may be worth a small fortune. The two kids become obsessed with proving the value of the statue, which eventually brings them to the house of an elderly woman, and viewers to the far more interesting third act of the film. The Hideaways significantly improves the moment Ingrid Bergman walks into the picture, bringing not only her usual charm, beauty and class, but the film’s most interesting character in the form of an older woman with a secret. Her character eventually lays down the film’s most interesting philosophical point about knowing a secret and eventually revealing it. That comes too late in The Hideaways to save it from an overall bad impression, but it does rescue it from complete worthlessness.