McKenna Grace

  • Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Amazon Streaming, May 2022) I would be of the right age to be a big devoted Ghostbusters fan, except for one thing: I don’t really go nuts for those intellectual property franchises (in the language of our corporate cultural oppressors) that are being periodically unearthed in the name of big profits. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug when you’re a studio executive greenlighting projects in an ever-more-ferocious entertainment landscape, and I feel an almost-pigheaded instinct to rebel against attempts to regurgitate and repackage older properties as something we should get excited about. (Heck, the last time I was tempted to let go and give in to the nostalgia gave me the mediocre The Matrix Resurrections, which is a lesson that should last me years.)  So, when I approach Ghostbusters: Afterlife, an umpteenth attempt to re-create the success of the original film, it’s almost natural that I would conclude that the film would be much stronger if it got rid of its Ghostbusters legacy to focus on the story it has to tell. Worryingly leaving the urban backdrop of Manhattan for the wide-open expanses of the rural Midwest, Afterlife focuses on the adventures of a brainy teenager (the very likable McKenna Grace) as she awkwardly tries to fit in a small town and starts investigating the legacy of her eccentric grandfather. The film is most engaging when it’s its own thing, following a family trying to figure out what to do next, and uncovering a world-threatening prophecy from a place that couldn’t be farther away than The City That Never Sleeps. But, of course, such a film can’t help but directly tie itself back to the Ghostbusters mythology (even if it ignores the much-maligned 2016 reboot and only pays a minimal acknowledgement of Ghostbusters II) –all the way to bringing back nearly everyone from the original film and lasciviously playing up even the logo reveal. Whom are we trying to fool here? If it doesn’t work (as it didn’t in 2016), we’ll be back with another instalment in 5–10 years. If it works, we’ll keep digging up these corpses for more necrophilia on a regular basis (and this isn’t that outlandish an exaggeration, considering what CGI is capable of doing now). I would have liked Ghostbusters: Afterlife had it stood on its own as simply Afterlife – but then again, it’s an open question as to whether the film would have been made at all had it not vampirized the franchise for funding. You’d think that, as I grew older, I would be both grouchier and more nostalgic – but now it looks as if I’m just overwhelmingly grouchy, even about nostalgia.

  • Gifted (2017)

    Gifted (2017)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, January 2018) Frankly, I expected the worst schmaltz from this family melodrama featuring a genius-level kid. Hollywood seldom deals well with genius, and the temptation to turn this into a syrupy rote “brain doesn’t matter at much as heart” Hollywood pap seemed irresistible from the plot synopsis. But Gifted actually works better than expected thanks to a few winning performances and generally well-executed conventions. Chris Evans is rather good as a smart-but-troubled ordinary guy trying to raise his genius niece despite significant challenges. McKenna Grace is fine as the genius kid, while Jenny Slate is immensely likable as a teacher trying to help. Octavia Spencer does her best with a limited role, while Lindsay Duncan is suitably hissable as the antagonist. Director Marc Webb returns to simpler drama after disappointingly overblown superhero films, and the genre suits him much better. Otherwise, Gifted is a straightforward family drama, not too syrupy and decently heart-warming when it needs to be. Some of the plot turns aren’t necessarily happy (and the conclusion is bittersweet enough). The details are interesting: there’s a cute Lego reference, and the look at mathematical academia is intriguing despite a bit of showboating with a celebrated “unsolvable” problem. Gifted doesn’t avoid the usual “heart> brain” stuff, but it does seem to come to its conclusion honestly. It could have been much worse, and the result is palatable enough.