Kevin Pollak

  • Numb (2007)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, July 2022) Is it possible to have too good a cast? Maybe, when it creates expectations that the rest of the film can’t match. So it is that Numb, at first glance, offers an intriguing list of names: Matthew Perry, Kevin Pollak and Mary Steenburgen—not a bad cast for a comedy dealing with serious themes. In this case, we have Perry playing a Hollywood screenwriter who comes to experience depersonalization disorder. What begins as an intriguing premise, however, soon turns into something far more familiar—a low-octane dramedy in which a middle-aged man (well, nearly middle-aged: Perry was around 37 when the film was shot) finds solace in going out with a girl nearly a decade younger than he is. Yes, I’m being a bit too dismissive—but Numb does itself no favours by going back to some very familiar plot beats and mishandling some less obvious ones. The numbness of the main character doesn’t really resurface past the halfway mark of the film, and you could replace it with a generalized ennui without changing much of it. The film does have one high point, and it works to the rest of the film’s disadvantage in offering a glimpse at what a better, more coherent film could have been: Steenburgen shows up as an older therapist who ends up developing unprofessional feelings for her patient—another bit of male fantasy, sure, but one that’s handled at such a higher (welcome) pitch of comedy that it ends up making the rest of the film feel much blander in comparison. In the end, it’s hard to avoid feeling that Numb (even allowing for the fifteen years since its release) is taking us to overexposed territories—oh, no, poor aging white guys in Hollywood, shoving their midlife crises down our throats as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. (Spoiler alert: I am a middle-aged white guy; I had a midlife crisis; it wasn’t interesting at all. )  If Numb leaves you unengaged, let me reassure you: it’s not because you’re dissociating, it’s because the film is honestly just dull.

  • Middle Men (2009)

    Middle Men (2009)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On DVD, April 2010) Some worthwhile films fall through the cracks, and this is one of them: A slick mixture of laughs and thrills set against the turn-of-the-century internet porn rush, Middle Men features slick editing, a snappy soundtrack, plenty of nudity, some good screenwriting, a surprising number of recognizable actors and slick cinematography to deliver a fairly enjoyable film.  The voice-over narration wraps up a film that pleasantly jumps back and forth in time (sometimes for mere seconds), explains the way pornography has been a significant factor in the internet’s popularization and reaffirms why doing business with the Russian mob is always a bad idea.  (The unrated DVD also has a bravura long-shot set at an orgy that actually manages to make a narrative point.)  Luke Wilson is the film’s likable protagonist, a businessman who accidentally becomes a porn mogul.  Surrounding him are such notables as James Caan as a crooked lawyer, Kelsey Grammer in a memorable one-scene sketch, Kevin Pollak as a sympathetic FBI agent and a near-unrecognizable Giovanni Ribisi as a paranoid inventor.  Taken on its own terms, Middle Men is a fast-paced film that feels considerably bigger than its small budget, with enough good narrative moments to leave a good impression.  It has a few flaws, like a few unnecessary emotional flashbacks, a too-innocent hero and a script that could have been tightened, but nothing major.  But the film isn’t the whole story: the behind-the-scenes drama is almost as interesting as the end result.  Some digging quickly reveals that Middle Men is not only based on a true story, but that the businessman whose story it is actually financed the production of the film itself… and lost most of its money when the movie failed at the box-office.  The post-film real story features accusations of fraud, broken bones and other unpleasantness… enough to set up a sequel or two.