Gina Rodriguez

  • Miss Bala (2019)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On TV, December 2022) As far as action thrillers go, Miss Bala has its own distinct sheen—sure, it’s a remake of a Mexican film, but that hardly matters for the American market. It stars Gina Rodriguez as an American thrust in the middle of Mexican drug cartel intrigue after a trip south of the border. While I gather that the original isn’t as heavy on the action and much grimmer in tone, this remake predictably goes out of its way to pepper the script with high-octane moments, female empowerment and an upbeat ending. Still, much of it is rather familiar material as an everywoman is stuck between powerful forces, learns not to be helpless, and takes down the crime lords herself. The film isn’t quite so stereotypical in its depiction of Mexico as many other Hollywood thrillers (the “yellow filter” effect is not completely absent, but not omnipresent either) but it doesn’t seem interested in digging into the roots of the violence it casually employs for thrills either. With Miss Bala, director Catherine Hardwicke delivers a middle-of-the-road action thriller that gives Rodriguez a few moments to bolster her action-heroine credentials if she so chooses… but the result is hardly memorable.

  • Kajillionaire (2020)

    Kajillionaire (2020)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, June 2021) I suppose that if you’re interested in quirky character-driven drama, Kajillionaire should be enough to make you happy. It’s not for everyone, though: Focusing on a family of small-time grifters multiplying elaborate schemes in search of two or three-figure payouts, it’s a film about serial schemers and liars, hardly the kind of person you’d like to meet (you’d be lucky to escape without your wallet — hopefully they don’t get your house keys). They are not normal people, and that’s especially apparent when it comes to the film’s lead, a twentysomething woman pretty far along the autism spectrum. Their miserable life does have a certain routine to it, but everything suddenly spins out of control when they befriend a young woman who seems curiously amenable to their lifestyle. For our protagonist, it’s a chance to grow up… but it’s not going to be easy. Anchored by Richard Jenkins and Debra Winger as the parents, the film is perhaps best served by its younger leads. While Gina Rodriguez looks great in an improbable series of close-fitting tops, it’s Evan Rachel Woods who impresses as the impassive, emotionless “Old Dolio” (the explanation eventually comes up) who has to get away from her exploitative, sociopathic parents. The narrative is self-consciously quirky to a fault, leading viewers a predefined plot that feels moved along by contrivances rather than organic developments. While the conclusion satisfies, it’s largely because we won’t have to spend one more single minute with these people. Writer/director Miranda July is clearly after something specific and deliberate here, but it’s not going to be for everyone.

  • Annihilation (2018)

    Annihilation (2018)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, January 2019) It’s rare to see first-class science fiction movies gets as weird and eerie as Annihilation—although, considering the source that is Jeff Vandermeer’s novel, it’s not that unexpected. The film clearly heads out to Stalker/Solyaris territory in presupposing a zone of strange phenomena and a group of explorers tasked with understanding some of what’s going on. Headlined by a power group of gifted young actresses (Nathalie Portman, Gina Rodriguez, Tuva Novotny and Tessa Thompson in glasses and curly hair—yes!), this film gets more and more unsettling as the group gets closer to the source of the anomaly, and it takes them apart in very literal ways. The really good production design and rainbow-hued cinematography give justice to the uncanny visuals and troubled subject matter—the film is not interested in theatrics (or even understanding what’s going on) as much as in studying grief, terminal melancholy and self-destruction. Everybody has a bad past in this film, and it’s that past that challenges them more than the alien presence at the heart of the zone. Compared to the writer/director Alex Garland’s previous Ex Machina, Annihilation is more subtle, more hermetic, more suitable to a range of interpretations (what’s with the tattoo thing?) than its preceding nuts-and-bolts nightmare. It’s just as thought-provoking, however, and a good example of the avenues that filmed Science Fiction has not yet fully explored.