Mary Elizabeth Winstead

  • Make It Happen (2008)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, February 2022) I’m amazed that Make it Happen doesn’t have a higher profile, but I think I can explain why… and acknowledge that my own interest in the film isn’t that innocent. Let’s address that last idea first, since it may be the film’s biggest selling point for some: If you had told me at any point over the past few years that there was a film about Tessa Thompson doing burlesque dancing, you would not have been safe standing in the path between me and the nearest screen. But it’s true! Make It Happen dates from the late-2000s dance-movie craze, and it happens to feature a pre-stardom Thompson (in one of her first movie roles) as a dancer at a burlesque-influenced club. Now, let’s be clear on pain of setting far-too-high expectations for the film—this is burlesque-light at best, and Thompson’s showcase number is very chaste even when it showcases her quite well. It’s rated PG-13 for a reason, and the film doesn’t really go anywhere beyond most of the dancing movies of the time. It’s also very conventional in terms of plotting—ye olde “small-city girl moves to the big city, sees her initial dreams dashed, gains experience in a tangentially-related way and then finally achieves her ambitions” dramatic arc that’s been a staple of musical comedies since the 1930s. It’s thin to the point of feeling that the film ends abruptly, but it’s not necessarily unenjoyable. While Thompson is the focal point of my interest in the film, she’s a supporting character: Mary Elizabeth Winstead does rather well in the lead role, convincingly gyrating as her character should. The film is structured in a way that it’s clear when the dance numbers are on—in the proud tradition of musical comedies, each dance number becomes its own minifilm with specific cinematography and a focus on the performers. Director Darren Grant isn’t that good a director for big dance numbers, but the point gets across. (Incidentally, this was the last of the four films in Grant’s eclectic filmography that I hadn’t yet seen.)  Make it Happen amounts to a pleasant watch—nothing wild, nothing particularly memorable unless you’re a Tessa Thompson fan (and if you’re not—what’s wrong with you?) but something far more enjoyable than its near-obscure status nowadays would suggest.

  • Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn (2020)

    Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn (2020)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, August 2020) One of the reasons why I own a surprisingly large number of Batman graphic novels is the vast cast of supporting characters in his orbit. Not only villains, but allies as well – many of which can sustain stories by themselves, and that includes Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey, which, curiously enough, have been mashed together in this very stylistically different spinoff, Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn. As the story goes, Margot Robbie enjoyed playing Quinn so much in Suicide Squad that she pushed for a film of her own, and brought in the Birds of Prey to reinforce the film’s female empowerment themes. Far closer to Deadpool than anything else in the DC repertoire, this Birds of Prey is, from the title onward, designed as a garish neon piece of fourth-wall-breaking comedy. The rhythm certainly roars forward: Director Cathy Yan moves things with breakneck speed (especially in the first half-hour of the film, which jumps all around its chronology thanks to Quinn’s scattered narration) and the numerous action scenes have a good distinctive kick to them all. (I see that John Wick’s Chad Stahelski helped with some sequences, which makes complete sense.) The action is cleanly shot in full frame, with some impressive stunt work and (I’m guessing) copious use of CGI to stitch it all together. Acting-wise, both Margot Quinn and Ewan MacGregor are up to their usual selves, while it’s good to see Rosie Perez with another big role, Mary Elizabeth Winstead makes an impression despite a late arrival, and Jurnee Smollett is a bit of a revelation as Black Canary. I had a decent amount of fun throughout, which is more than I can say about most of the recent DC universe movies. But there’s a limit to how much I can like Birds of Prey when it starts labelling the actions of a murderous anarchic woman-child criminal as female empowerment. Much of Birds of Prey cribs from the now-cliché list of grrl power tropes, from queer sexual identities, punk rock aesthetics, sociopathic behaviour and systematic portrayal of male characters as terrible. (I only counted two likable male characters – one makes unhygienic sandwiches, while the other is a member of a crime family who saves the heiress of another crime family.) A gender-flipped Harley Quinn would be pilloried, and while I can understand while we’re giving a pass to this one, I’m not all that happy about the direction that this is taking. I agree that superhero films are too male-centric and that they’re too dour, but I also think that they’re also becoming far too sadistic for their own good, and I have considerable issues with the post-Arkham Asylum sexed-up direction taken by the Harley Quinn character. While I enjoyed Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn almost as much as what I was expecting from its whimsical title, it does have its quirks to hold it back.

  • The Spectacular Now (2013)

    The Spectacular Now (2013)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, December 2016) What? Miles Teller playing a cad who learns better?!? Well, yes: for an actor as young as he is, Teller has already developed a strong screen persona that’s part arrogance and part cynicism. Time will tell if he can sustain it (especially given his similarities with a younger John Cusack) but, in the meantime, he’s effective and even entertaining in those roles. In The Spectacular Now, Teller plays a high-school version of a character we usually see in older stages of life: the underachieving boozer/womanizer, getting by on minimal effort and apparently willing to dismiss everything and everyone but secretly harbouring some long-lasting emotional scars. Focusing on a girl as kind of a rebound Pygmalion project seems like a passing fancy at first, but we know it’s not going to be as simple as making his ex-girlfriend jealous so that he can get back with her. Not too far from the recent John Greenish mode of teenage moviemaking, The Spectacular Now does have the grace to play between drama and comedy, with flawed characters, difficult situations, uncomfortable choices and characters growing up. Shailene Woodley is fine as the romantic heroine and Mary Elizabeth Winstead makes a remarkable appearance as an older sister, but it’s Teller’s film. The film is remarkable by what it doesn’t do—namely, fall into the traps of the usual teenage dramedies … although I’m a bit worried that, along with The Way Way Back and other John Green-adapted films, it’s forging a set of new clichés for that subgenre. Time will tell, as time will tell whether this will remain a definitive performance for Teller’s early career.

  • 10 Cloverfield Lane aka Valencia (2016)

    10 Cloverfield Lane aka Valencia (2016)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, November 2016) Much has been written about how 10 Cloverfield Lane started life as a small bunker thriller named Valencia (in fact, hilariously enough, on the film’s first day of availability on Netflix Canada, the only way to find it was to search for “Valencia”), only to be radically altered by the addition of a special-effects-heavy ending to tie it to the so-called “Cloverfield” mythos. That certainly explains the weird change of pace toward the end and the feeling that the result doesn’t entirely belong together. Still, there’s a lot to like in the Valencia part of 10 Cloverfield Lane, as a small-scale thriller located in a confined space, with three characters that are only too willing to inflict harm on each other. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is fine as a young woman on the run who wakes up from a car accident to find herself stuck in a bunker, but John Goodman is impressive as the bunker’s owner, hovering at the edge of sanity with a dangerous streak of aggression. Director Dan Tratchenberg knows how to milk suspense out of a confined environment, and clearly establishes the setting before using it to good effect. (I’ll be honest: That bunker is so nice that I wouldn’t mind spending a few days in there.) The suspense is handled well, and the film plays nicely with unanswered questions for those who don’t know where it’s going. Still, the ending does stick out quite a bit, and I really don’t care if or how or why this film relates to 2009’s Cloverfield. “Anthology series” seems promising, but it would work better if they didn’t play games with the audience. Frankly, I wouldn’t have minded just getting Valencia.