Ally Sheedy

  • Only the Lonely (1991)

    Only the Lonely (1991)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, March 2021) In the John Candy filmography, Only the Lonely remains a bit of an oddball. Eschewing the typical slapstick comedy starring Candy as an idiot who eventually does well, this romantic comedy takes its cues from the classic Marty in presenting Candy as a gentle but single policeman with a domineering mother who finally gets a chance at a romance with a shy girl… if only his mother stopped interfering. Candy avoids most of the slapstick here, in service of a more heartfelt and vulnerable character. It’s very much a film about an urban neighbourhood and the people that live in it: neighbours, shops and community events. In this context, Ally Sheedy makes for a rather adorable love interest, albeit one whose main role for much of the film is to absorb a terrifying amount of nastiness and scorn from the protagonist’s mom (a detestable Maureen O’Hara) until she snaps and precipitates the climax of the film. Written and directed by Chris Columbus (but produced by John Hughes), it’s never a surprising film (we all know where it’s going, and that’s part of the charm) but it’s reasonably well-made even when it’s almost completely unmemorable. But Candy is at his likable best, and Only the Lonely runs a long, long time on that strength. All the way to the happy ending, in fact, anything else would have been a betrayal.

  • WarGames (1983)

    WarGames (1983)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Second viewing, On TV, December 2016) I haven’t seen WarGames in over twenty years, although it feels as if that scene in Ernest Cline’s geek-fest novel Ready Player One nearly counts as a re-watch. I’m mentioning the novel because, in many ways, reviewing WarGames in the far future of 2016 clearly shows it to be an epochal film in terms of technological anxiety. Nowadays, a hacker causing a military incident would be a premise for a mildly dull thriller, “ripped from the headlines”, as they say. It certainly was ahead of its time: WarGames anticipates geek-chic through its brainy but clueless hero, clearly shows a primitive form of Internet normalization and correctly taps into an ever-more-relevant issue of pranks having far-reaching consequences ( … and that’s how you elected your newest president, America.) Matthew Broderick makes for an unusual hero, while Ally Sheedy plays a generic role well enough. While the film isn’t always clear on the tone it wants to use (there’s a notably darker sequence near the two-third mark), it does find its way in the third act, and works rather well in the end. WarGames definitely has aged, but it has become a curiously fascinating period piece. A must see for any technology buff, it’s undeniably one of the roots of today’s Internet culture.