Mark Rylance

  • Don’t Look Up (2021)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, January 2022) Sometimes, the situation is just so horrible that all that remains to do is laugh. That, in a nutshell, seems to be Don’t Look Up’s approach to jet dark comedy, as it shows a comet heading to earth for an extinction-level event, and humanity is unable to agree that there is an issue, let alone how to stop it. Post-truth degeneration, government capture by corporate interests and inability to distinguish substance for entertainment are only three of the planks on which the film builds its acid sarcasm. From the opening moment, where scientists having discovered the impending event are rushed to the White House… only to wait endlessly for a dismissive President, the film announces its viciously cynical approach to the material. Originally written in response to inaction on climate change but executed during the Covid pandemic, Don’t Look Up manages to hit its targets, often too precisely: it often gets difficult to laugh at the film, considering the uneasy knowledge that much of it could indeed play as stupidly in reality as the film’s most sarcastic musings. Leonardo DiCaprio is rather good in the lead role, even if Jennifer Lawrence is not always well-used. Among the supporting actors, Mark Rylance is an infuriating highlight playing an evil corporate version of Mister Rogers, while Meryl Streep and Jonah Hill are convincing to the point of being despicable as the film’s delusional villains. The uniqueness of the film’s approach suggests that the transition of writer-director Adam MacKay from silly comedies to politically-charged satire over his last few films (the best of which remains The Big Short) culminates into something special here—a big-budget primal cry. But while it’s easy to agree with Don’t Look Up in its informed depiction of human stupidity, the film’s execution is disappointing. The uneven comedy levels of the film are one thing, but they’re not as damaging as the curious lulls and weird pacing—the first half-hour doesn’t quite match the rest of the film in temporal terms, and the film can’t quite land on a secondary comedic approach beyond dark cynicism. I’m not going to hit the film too hard on its scientific mistake (never mind that comets are dirty snowballs with few precious metals; or that suddenly spotting a comet from the middle of a light-polluted city is more contrived than plausible), but there’s a lingering impression that the screenwriters were so happy with their central metaphor that they didn’t invest more time in smoothing out the details. In many ways, Don’t Look Up is one of the films that best encapsulates the oppressive absurdity of 2021—and I hope that it will soon be perceived as dated and hysteric rather than dated and made naïve by later events.

  • The BFG (2016)

    The BFG (2016)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, August 2018) While The BFG was a box-office disappointment, I think it will modestly endure as a decent family movie thanks to some solid directing from Steven Spielberg: He’s been making popular entertainment for so long that he gives the impression of being able to direct them on autopilot and still deliver the same level of quality. Here, his roving camera once again takes centre stage as he tells the story of a young girl and her Big Friendly Giant friend as they fight against less friendly giants. The queen, and then the British military eventually get involved. I’m not going to pretend that The BFG is a hidden gem: there are some basic issues with the film that hold it back—notably the somewhat repulsive character design, non-jolly discussion of children being eaten, some uncanny-valley issues in presenting almost-human CGI characters, the exasperating malapropisms and many of the cheaper jokes. On the other hand, the direction is superb, the special effects are very well done, and the film’s second half becomes wilder and wilder in terms of plotting and incidents. Newest Spielberg muse Mark Rylance is quite good as the titular BFG, while Ruby Barnhill sustains a lot of attention as the teenage protagonist. Meanwhile, my inexplicable crush on Rebecca Hall continues unabated thanks to a minor but solid supporting role. While there isn’t much to the film’s plot, the wall-to-wall special effects are used wisely to heighten the fairy-tale nature of the film and create characters from motion-capture technology. Considering The BFG‘s disappointing box-office returns, it’s likely that we won’t see anything similar for a while … so let’s appreciate what we’ve got.

  • Bridge of Spies (2015)

    Bridge of Spies (2015)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Video on Demand, February 2016) 2015 has been a year heavy in spy movies, but most of them emphasized comedy and action at the expense of any halfway realistic look at the profession. Fortunately, here comes Bridge of Spies to compensate for this sensational excess. Written by the Coen brothers and directed by Stephen Spielberg in his more serious mode, Bridge of Spies is a fictionalized account of the real-life Cold War heroics of James B. Donovan, an American lawyer who, almost by accident, became involved in clandestine activities. Selected to defend a man accused of spying in the US, our protagonist (ably played by Tom Hanks, making the most of his everyman persona) ends up ably defending universal values against an American government trying to pillory a target. His troubles aren’t over once that’s done, given how he then finds himself travelling to Berlin to negotiate an exchange of prisoners at a time where the Wall is going up and no-one seems quite sure who to believe. Relatively low in action (although it does feature a harrowing sequence in which Gary Powers’ U2 is shot down over the Soviet Union), Bridge of Spies makes up for it in portraying its hero as a man with a briefcase and strong principles. Mark Rylance provides crucial support with a laconic performance as a curiously sympathetic spy. At times, Bridge of Spies does run too long, and feels just a bit duller than it could have been. Compared to even the best of the other spy movies of 2015 such as Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation or Kingsman, it feels positively adult, though, and that’s a substantial part of its charm. Consider it an antidote when you’ll be tired of seeing spies merely shown as gun-toting action heroes.