Rachel Ticotin

  • F/X2 (1991)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Second viewing, On Cable TV, May 2022) Amusingly enough, I had much clearer memories of F/X2 than the first film, even though I last watched both sometime in the early 1990s. That doesn’t make sense – the second film is clearly inferior to the first, and even the set-pieces aren’t quite as good. Here’s to the unpredictability of human memory. One of those sequels that clearly tries to ape their predecessor, F/X2 picks up a few years later, as our protagonists are a bit older and still definitely richer from their previous adventures. Our protagonist (a still-likable Bryan Brown), now independently rich, is now a freelance toy/illusion designer, while his ex-police partner (Brian Dennehy, wisely reintroduced in the first few minutes rather than waiting out an entire act) has purchased a bar as a hangout. The inferior nature of this sequel can be felt from the opening sequence, a vast pile-up of contrivances that eschews logic and simplicity in order to show-off the renewed premise of the film (a practical special-effects designer fights a small conspiracy in order to clear his name) and get the plot going on a shaky foundation. We’re supposed to be too wowed by the FX tricks to care, but it doesn’t work that way: instead, we spend the sequel aghast at the leaps of logic, unimpressed by the contrivances and underwhelmed by some curious choices – such as bringing back a very sympathetic character only to kill her off. There are two upgrades here – a bigger budget (most clearly shown in the opening and closing segments) and the beautiful Rachel Ticotin as the female lead. Otherwise, F/X2 is notable for a few proto-Internet thrills (in showing a suspense sequence revolving around the successful transfer of an electronic file) and a plot that takes us from a stalker murder to bits of business reaching all the way to the Vatican. There are, clearly, some memorable moments here – including a clown puppet – but I wouldn’t trust my teenage self as an authority on this film: it’s not bad if you’re looking for more of the same material found in the first film, but that doesn’t make it much of a thriller on its own.

  • Fort Apache the Bronx (1981)

    Fort Apache the Bronx (1981)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, March 2019) In a fit of perverse humour, I decided to watch Fort Apache the Bronx right after the original Fort Apache it references. The comparisons are not kind to the 1981 film in more ways than one. Obviously, it’s not as much of a classic as the original—the titular reference is an ironic nod at the state of New York City’s Bronx by the late 1970s—with entire city blocks destroyed as urban blight, and a police force under siege by so-called barbarian forces. But the episodic police drama does miss one of the earlier film’s most interesting point—that “the other side” opposing the policemen actually had valid grievances for going to war and was portrayed in something of a sympathetic fashion. There’s not much of that here—Paul Newman plays a young cop assigned to the worst precinct in the city, and coming to grip (or not) with its casual lawlessness, drug use, unpunished crimes and code of silence regarding abuses by police officers. Fort Apache the Bronx is a grim movie, and it exemplifies the prevailing attitude that “drop dead” NYC was then considered unsalvageable. The rubble-strewn post-apocalyptic atmosphere is worth a watch by itself but remains hard to shake, and it’s good to have such anchor points as Newman, Rachel Ticotin as a likable nurse, Danny Aiello or Pam Grier as no less than a cop-killing prostitute. The unusual plotting, mean to unsettle viewers used to tidy endings, feels very New Hollywood with its unabashed grittiness and refusal to comfort audiences. Still, it’s not that dour of a film despite the setting: the burnt-out cynicism of the police characters, used to “holding the fort” against the criminal hordes, manifests itself through biting black humour. In keeping with the nihilistic 1970s (and in opposition to the reactionary 1980s), Fort Apache the Bronx is at ease with the idea that peace in a neighbourhood can depend on police leniency—things start turning truly sour when a new inflexible police chief comes in and demands stricter crackdowns. The slice-of-life plotting doesn’t have much of a main plot and features a number of clichés along the way, but forty years later it feels like an anthropological expedition in an alien land. I ended up liking quite a bit better than I thought at first.