Christina Ricci

Mermaids (1990)

Mermaids (1990)

ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

(In French, On Cable TV, August 2019) As a historical coming-of-age dramedy, Mermaids defies easy assessment. Yes, it’s cute (and reportedly cuter than its original darker vision was) and occasionally off-putting (what with a consummated relationship between a 15-year-old girl and a 26-year-old man) and often contrived in ways that are only possible in movies—yet reaching for a complex depiction of women of two generations figuring out what they want to do in their lives. The casting is probably the most spectacular aspect of the film, what with Cher as the family matriarch (the word being a bit too strong here, considering her loose and friendly parenting style) over a rebellious teenager played by Winona Ryder and a younger daughter played by Christina Ricci in her screen debut. Bob Hoskins also stars as someone who could be part of the solution to their issues. But the focus here is on the mother/daughter relationship, and the chosen tone is somewhere between comedy with serious moments. It’s a good film, but not a great one—and viewers will be free to further gauge the result based on their own biases and idiosyncrasies. I’m not sure anyone will put Mermaids on their list of essential films from 1990, but it does leave a favourable impression, wraps things up satisfyingly and gets a few good performances from known performers. You don’t have to pin it down exactly to appreciate it.

Casper (1995)

Casper (1995)

ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

(On TV, July 2019) Whenever we’re talking about older fantasy movies, one of the common refrains is how the film’s special effects have aged. This makes Casper especially surprising, given that it was the first film to feature full-CGI main characters (a few months before Toy Story), and yet the special effects hold up surprisingly well by today’s standards. It’s all thanks to some appropriate use of imperfect technology: The CGI characters in Casper are meant to be ghostly, transparent and interact loosely with their surroundings, which explains why many of the telltale signs we usually associate with bad CGI don’t register here. Fortunately, the film that the effects support does have its moments of interest. While the main plot isn’t particularly distinguished (and it dates most severely whenever the teenagers on-screen do something cool by mid-nineties standards), there are striking moments of dark humour to the proceedings, to the point where you may be tempted to double-check that the film isn’t directed by Tim Burton or Henry Selick (close! It’s Brad Silberling’s debut feature, later of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events). Christina Ricci certainly burnishes her credentials as a proto-goth here, while Bill Paxton has a warm turn as a ghost-obsessed but sympathetic widower dad. Casper doesn’t amount to much more than an entertaining film, but sometimes that’s more than enough.

Buffalo ’66 (1998)

Buffalo ’66 (1998)

ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

(On Cable TV, May 2019) The Classic Hollywood system of making movies had, for the longest while, the fortunate side-effect of segregating responsibility of a film in multiple roles. In old-school Hollywood, the studio hired craftsmen to execute a vision, diffusing responsibility in case of failure. (The same remains true today for large tent-pole projects.) This diffusion of responsibility cracks when you turn to the director-as-an-auteur theory, and dissipates even further when a single person assumes writing, directing, producing, and often acting duties. At that point, the film is so aligned with a single person that it’s not only easy to find blame for what goes wrong, but it’s possible to dislike a person because of their movie. So anyway—here we are talking about Buffalo ’66, a film in which Vincent Gallo is the writer, director, composer and star. (Everything I’m reading about the film’s production history also suggests that Gallo effectively produced and cinematographed the film himself, despite not being credited as such.)  It’s not necessarily good news for Gallo that for most of its duration, the film is a near-constant irritant. Built on a shaky foundation of an unhealthy relationship (as an ex-convict kidnaps a girl to become his girlfriend), the film is voluntarily low-budget with a muddy cinematography and gritty-to-dirty atmosphere. Gallo isn’t that much more likable as a protagonist, apparently testing audiences to what they’ll still find acceptable in an intensely unlikable protagonist. But Buffalo ’66 does have its saving graces. The cinematography is frequently inventive, and Gallo works his film toward a redemption arc both for himself and for the narrative. Improbably enough, considering the film’s refusal to play to conventions, it ends up in something that feels like a happy ending, no matter what we can think of the terrifyingly bad way our lead couple gets together. So … congratulations are in order, I guess—Gallo could have made a thoroughly detestable film and didn’t, which does help us think better of him. (On the other hand, he did reportedly alienate nearly everyone involved in the film’s production from Christina Ricci on down, so there’s that…)

Addams Family Values (1993)

Addams Family Values (1993)

ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

(On DVD, August 2017) Normally, I’m not too happy to report that a sequel is “more of the same,” but given my enthusiasm for 1990’s The Addams Family, I’m almost overjoyed to say that this sequel is, indeed, more of the same. The plot is just different enough to be interesting (as Fester is seduced by a gold-digging, husband-killing new character) but the atmosphere of the first film remains largely the same. Under the macabre humour lies genuine family love (although some early segments do push the limits of sibling rivalry), and the jokes are best when they’re unexpected. (I laughed far more than I ought to have at a simple “I respect that” or “Wait”) The strengths of the two Addams Family movies are the set pieces more than the plot, and this one does have one of the most honest depiction of Thanksgiving put on film, as well as a hilariously juvenile justification (with slides!) from the antagonist. Director Barry Sonnefeld has made one of his good movies here (the rest of his career … hit-and-miss), but much of the credit goes to the actors themselves. Raul Julia is fantastic as Gomez, Anjelica Huston is just as good as Morticia (while her impassible giving-birth scene is great, it took me far too long to notice the lighting effect on her eyes, but then it became hilarious to see it used in all circumstances), Christina Ricci shines as Wednesday and Joan Cusak holds up as Debbie. This sequel clicks in the same ways the original did, and yet still feels fresh enough to avoid accusations of re-threading. At this point, don’t bother seeing the first film if you don’t have Addams Family Values nearby, ready to be watched.

The Addams Family (1991)

The Addams Family (1991)

ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

(On DVD, July 2017) There are times when you watch an older movie and it’s so good that you wonder why you haven’t seen it before. I’ll be the first to admit that The Adams Family isn’t a perfect film: As a macabre-themed comedy, it’s not built around a plot as much as gags and atmosphere, so it’s likely to be the kind of film that you find wonderful from beginning to end … or not. As far as I’m concerned, The Adams Family hits the right buttons in the right order. From the opening credit sequence (which features a font similar to Men in Black, also directed by Barry Sonnenfeld), it’s a ride through a darkly funny imagination. But there’s more than black comedy in play here: The appeal of The Addams Family isn’t necessarily in the macabre stuff as much as the solid family unit being demonstrated through the jokes. The lustful relationship between Morticia and Gomez is straight-up #relationshipgoals idyllic, and the film show over and over again that the Addams clan can rely on itself to take care of outsiders. And while the plot is simple, there’s some structural genius in the way it brings in an outsider to show what’s happening in that family, and to allow the intruder to be captured by the family’s charm. Otherwise, the jokes aren’t always obvious and even when they are, their delivery is perfect. (I laughed far too much at “Are they made from real Girl Scouts?”) The Addams Family does have the advantage of relying on an ensemble cast of terrific actors ideally suited to their role. Anjelica Huston has a career-best role as Morticia Adams, perfectly spooky and sexy at once. Raul Julia and Christopher Lloyd both get to ham it up as brothers, while Christina Ricci got her breakout role here as Wednesday Addams. The stable of characters works well, but the production design and loopy humour is what sets this film apart. This delight-a-minute visual extravaganza may not work on everyone else equally, but as far as I’m concerned, The Addams Family is a classic that I should have seen much earlier.

Black Snake Moan (2006)

Black Snake Moan (2006)

ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

(On DVD, April 2011) The marketing of this film scream southern exploitation, but the end result is more concerned with blues music and moral redemption than it is about tough-love cures for nymphomania.  Samuel L. Jackson turns in an impressive performance as a retired-bluesman gentleman farmer who sees himself obligated to reform a deeply troubled girl who ends up in his front yard.  (Christina Ricci, with a performance that’s both convincing and topless.) The surprise of the film however, is to see to what degree it manages to incorporate music as a guiding theme: Jackson himself is credible as a bluesman, and the soundtrack of the film holds up by itself.  But that’s not as much of a surprise when considering that Black Snake Moan (titled from a classic blues number) is written and directed by Craig Brewer, whose previous film was Hustle & Flow: The two films share a number of similarities going beyond southern atmosphere and setting, to disgraced protagonists finding redemption in music.  While Black Snake Moan doesn’t have many surprises and seems to move just a bit too slowly at times, it’s a success in presenting unusual characters in desperate situations and making us care for them.  Jackson is a force of nature in this film, and the nature of the character lets him show a little bit more of his range than usual.  The film isn’t nearly as offensive as the marketing would let you believe, and even if it cuts dramatic corners once in a while (the ending is a bit weak), it does feel a bit deeper than its first few minutes would suggest.  A few tonal adjustments may have helped make it a bit easier to consider… but would it have destroyed the film’s voice?  The DVD’s supplements (a few documentaries and an engaging commentary by director Brewer) lay to rest some of those questions as they explain the film’s origins in the director’s panic attacks, the weaving of musical and religious themes, as well as the advantages of shooting a film “at home” near Memphis.