Tessa Thompson

  • 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.

  • For Colored Girls (2010)

    For Colored Girls (2010)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, September 2021) Adapting a theatrical play that relies on the strengths of that medium to the big screen in a risky exercise, and writer-director Tyler Perry doesn’t make things easy for himself in choosing to impose his vision on a fiercely feminist work. You can certainly feel the clunkiness at play when the film shifts gears from a rather straightforward (if harsh) melodrama to flights of eloquent soliloquies as the characters give voice to their innermost thoughts. As an ensemble movie with many ongoing subplots, For Colored Girls gets both the benefits of the form and its drawbacks — it can boast of a stellar cast in Janet Jackson, Loretta Devine, Thandie Newton, Kerry Washington and Whoopi Goldberg, plus a pre-stardom Tessa Thompson… I mean, wow. On the other hand, with no less than ten lead characters, the development of the subplots can be abrupt and sketchy. Coupled with Perry’s intentional lack of directorial flair and sometimes on-the-nose writing, it does make the film creak in places, and the accumulated melodrama (which gets absurdly dark in places) flirts dangerously with unintentional amusement. The biggest irony is that the film truly becomes magical in its most theatrical moments, as the women give voice to the stage soliloquies and unload the meaning of the stage play’s original title for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf. (You can read some of the soliloquies, but they’re far from being as effective as when heard from actresses who get the cadence of the words.)  If nothing else, the film will make you wonder if you can find and listen to the original. It would be easy to focus on the film’s structural and directorial shortcomings — there’s something in Perry’s traditionalism that feels out of place (it’s hard not to notice that the film’s sole gay character is a self-loathing liar who gives AIDS to his wife — yikes) even as the film is a powerful progressive work by itself. Some of the weirdness even comes from the original play — it makes sense for all of the male characters (at one minor exception with little screen time) to be evil and destructive, considering the intent of the work to focus on women’s lives at their lowest point. Still, I rather like the result: It’s a wonderful showcase for the actresses involved, and when the film takes flight, it does carry the power of the original work. Even a decade and many more black-women-focused films later in a far more diverse cinematic landscape, For Colored Girls still packs some punch.

  • Dear White People (2014)

    Dear White People (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, July 2021) My motives in watching Dear White People were not noble or progressive: Like many, many (white?) people, I’ve had a crush on Tessa Thompson for years and here was one of her movies that I hadn’t seen. Arguably the movie that made a number of critics take notice of her, Dear White People features Thompson as a film student and provocative campus activist, notably through her radio show addressed at, well, “dear white people.”  Clearly taking on racism on American college campuses in the early 2010, the film hasn’t lost any of its provocativeness seven years later. Its fast pace, sardonic sense of humour, interesting characters and refusal to be righteous in its racial commentary still give it a distinctive edge over more recent and far more numerous works tackling race relations in America (including a successful spinoff episodic show on Netflix). There’s a welcome vivaciousness to the film’s editing, which flips between title cards, an ensemble of characters, and a framing device taking in the aftermath of a party leading to a race riot. It’s a film that pokes at racists and activists alike, but not in a hypocritical both-sides fashion — the racists are clearly to blame for the racism (even if, at times, the film clearly caricatures them), but even the loud activists take a moment late in the film to reconsider if they’re really making progress, or making themselves feel better for shouting back. It’s a significantly more textured and nuanced look at social activism than the self-satisfied progressiveness that often comes out of recent productions, and there’s something to be admired in the film’s refusal to claim to have all the answers. It also helps the film become a dramedy in its own right rather than a soapbox — the characters have complexities that define them more than stereotypes or roles, and the actors have quite a bit of material to use. Thompson is clearly the highlight, but she has the most flamboyant role even as Tyler James Williams, Brandon P. Bell and Teyonah Parris also have great material and know how to play it. Writer-director Justin Simien’s vision for Dear White People still feels fresh and relevant even after seven years of tumultuous events in American race relation discourse. Go in for Thompson, stay for the witty filmmaking.

  • Men in Black: International (2019)

    Men in Black: International (2019)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, December 2019) As much as it pains me as a movie critic to recognize that someone else (I forget who) said it best, the biggest problem with Men in Black: International is that it takes a blue-collar premise and tries to make it glamorous globetrotting. This shouldn’t be much of a revelation—after all, much of the humour of the first film boiled down to the sight of two policemen being confronted to the hidden wonders of the universe and taking a decidedly jaded approach to it all. The sequels faltered when they went too big, and Men in Black: International again stumbles when it expands the mythology of the series into international espionage intrigue—this is not what the series is about, and the laughs get increasingly distant the more you get away from the initial core idea. I’ll give it one thing, though: the absence of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones isn’t that big of a deal when they’re replaced by Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson. (Regular readers of these reviews know how much I like Thompson, so I won’t dwell on it again. Much.) The decision to take the series out of New York City to a country-hopping series of episodes isn’t as compelling, though, and ties into the film losing the focus of the series. None of this would necessarily be fatal if the execution had been up to par, but unfortunately it isn’t—the plot is basic by espionage standards (since that’s the standard that the film is going for) and the identity of the mole being hunted throughout the film is absurdly, insultingly easy to guess well ahead of time. The jokes frequently fall flat, and even the magnetic charm of the lead actors can’t save the film from falling flat. There’s quite a bit of dashed expectations here—the series was uneven—but even low expectations wouldn’t have saved Men in Black: International from the constant disappointment of the film being unable to make good use of its potential. Some behind-the-scenes drama may explain the dismal result (through a bad case of producer interference) but the damage is done and doesn’t care about production problems: the film as available is more forgettable than anything else once you throw in the lead actors and that’s a clear step down from even the divisive second and third instalments. Save the world, stop the sequels.

  • Creed II (2018)

    Creed II (2018)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, August 2019) There isn’t much in Creed II that’s new or surprising. After mining Rocky II in the first Creed, this sequel heads back to Rocky IV for inspiration, bringing back the Russian menace for an encore. The novelty of seeing a competent contemporary take on the Rocky mythos not being as strong in this second instalment, we’re left with another run through the usual rebirth narrative of those films. Director Steven Caple Jr. steps in Ryan Coogler’s shoes and acquits himself decently: even though the bravura filmmaking of the first isn’t as pronounced here, there are a few nice moments along the way, including a reprise of the infamous Rocky IV training montage that doesn’t quite match the original but provide a high point of the film. Otherwise, though, Creed II outmatches Rocky IV in nearly all aspects: The story isn’t as silly, the pacing is better and there aren’t any wacky robotic digressions. Michael B. Jordan turns in another impressive physical performance in the lead role, while Tessa Thompson (now far better-known that she was at the time the original was filmed) once again does well as a character meant to be clearly more than the usual girlfriend character. (She sings!)  Still, and it’s weird to write this, it’s Sylvester Stallone who impresses most in a strictly dramatic age-appropriate performance, providing gravel-voiced gravitas to the protagonist and having a short dramatic arc of his own along the way. Dolph Lundgren also turns in one last great performance, humanizing a stock series villain and offering a number of parallels with Rocky’s own experience. Creed II isn’t innovative in any way, but it is well handled enough to provide an entertaining moviegoing experience. It’s also good enough to somewhat redeem Rocky IV, and that’s another unlikely comeback story.

  • Sorry to Bother You (2018)

    Sorry to Bother You (2018)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, July 2019) At a time when nearly every Hollywood movie seem scripted by computer and assembled mechanically (yes, even the good ones), it’s refreshing to see a film that strikes out on its own, offering pugnacious social criticism and heading in narrative directions that you wouldn’t necessarily guess from the opening scenes. So it is that writer-director Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You is a surreal, ambitious, flawed and immensely likable debut. It starts as a silly comedy in which a young man gets a telemarketing job in order to escape poverty. But there’s a deliberately overdone style to let us suspect that there’s far more here than a straightforward comedy. Indeed, the cinematography of the film, the various clues about an indentured-servitude megacorporation and the film’s growing themes of dehumanization show us a slightly alternate version of reality where everything is for sale, starting with integrity. The protagonist, played by the likable Lakeith Stanfield, only finds success on the phone after finding his inner “white voice,” but it only gets much, much wilder than that, to the delight of some and the chagrin of others. By now, I’m such a Tessa Thompson fanboy that every new movie with her feels like a gift and she doesn’t disappoint here as a visual artist who ends up being the (slightly hypocritical) voice of reason to the protagonist’s gradual ascension through corporate ranks. There are tons of celebrity cameos here, but many of them are audio-only. The weird sense of humour of Sorry to Bother You is delightful (if not always controlled), especially when its scabrous nature illustrates a sharp criticism of pervasive capitalism. The mixture of high and low humour is fantastic, and makes much of the film’s heady themes seem far more accessible. The strong pro-union message of the film is particularly likable — (North-) America can certainly use some of that these days. Sorry to Bother You is certainly odd, divisive and too weird for some and I like it a lot just for that: the science-fictional surrealism on display makes for a welcome change of pace from mimetic realism, and I admire the audacity of aiming in that direction. I certainly have my quibbles with the final act (and specifically its ending) but I’d rather not change a thing than lose this very peculiar vision. Science fiction comedy, political satire, strong actors and audacity—what’s not to like?

  • Annihilation (2018)

    Annihilation (2018)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, January 2019) It’s rare to see first-class science fiction movies gets as weird and eerie as Annihilation—although, considering the source that is Jeff Vandermeer’s novel, it’s not that unexpected. The film clearly heads out to Stalker/Solyaris territory in presupposing a zone of strange phenomena and a group of explorers tasked with understanding some of what’s going on. Headlined by a power group of gifted young actresses (Nathalie Portman, Gina Rodriguez, Tuva Novotny and Tessa Thompson in glasses and curly hair—yes!), this film gets more and more unsettling as the group gets closer to the source of the anomaly, and it takes them apart in very literal ways. The really good production design and rainbow-hued cinematography give justice to the uncanny visuals and troubled subject matter—the film is not interested in theatrics (or even understanding what’s going on) as much as in studying grief, terminal melancholy and self-destruction. Everybody has a bad past in this film, and it’s that past that challenges them more than the alien presence at the heart of the zone. Compared to the writer/director Alex Garland’s previous Ex Machina, Annihilation is more subtle, more hermetic, more suitable to a range of interpretations (what’s with the tattoo thing?) than its preceding nuts-and-bolts nightmare. It’s just as thought-provoking, however, and a good example of the avenues that filmed Science Fiction has not yet fully explored.

  • Westworld, Season 2 (2018)

    Westworld, Season 2 (2018)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, June 2018) The problem with second seasons of high-concept shows is that you don’t quite have the same element of surprise in reserve. In Westworld’s case, it means that the dizzying timeline tricks and character revelations of the first seasons can’t be exactly reproduced, and that the show has to work within known parameters. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they don’t try to keep things interesting. Set in the few days immediately after Season 1, this second series follows characters as they react to the events of the first season, revealing new secrets along the way and digging even deeper in mind-twisting questions about personalities and predetermination. Thanks to the endless wonders of flashbacks, simulations and body/mind separation, nearly the entire cast is back (yes, even those confirmed dead), meaning that the solid acting talents of the series are once more on display. Tessa Thompson gets a deservedly more prominent role, while Ed Harris, Thandie Newton and Rachel Lee Evans all keep on doing what they did so well the first time around. While I was initially disappointed by the series’ renewed focus on the park (I expected the hosts to escape in-between seasons), the park’s uncovered secrets made things even more interesting. And while this second season is straightforward about its dual-timeline structure, it does experiment with storytelling in focusing certain episodes on specific characters (some of them peripherals) and taking trips in other theme park areas to hilarious parallel effect. My pick for most-improved character goes to Lee Sizemore, formerly an annoying writer here transformed into the incarnation of everything he wished for (including a late empathy boost for his own creations) in a neat commentary on the relationship between creator and characters. Meanwhile, the season’s best episodes (setting aside the season finale that features so many character deaths that it feels obliged to have a few resurrections as well) has to be the eighth, in which a relatively unsophisticated character discovers the true nature of his world in a mostly self-contained episode that spans decades of series history. There is, once again, a lot of material to digest in Westworld—the storytelling is challenging, the themes are explored to the point of pretentiousness, and the science-fiction devices used in generally compelling fashion. It all amounts to solid TV—worth following as it airs, episode after episode.

  • Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

    Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Video On-Demand, April 2018) I really wasn’t expecting Thor: Ragnarok to be anything more than a self-imposed completionist task on the way to Avengers: Infinity War. I found the first two Thor movies to be among the weakest of the MCU so far, both dull and imbued of their own nonsensical self-importance. Thor-the-character I liked largely because of Chris Hemsworth’s charm, and Loki is fine as one of the MCU’s most compelling antagonists, but the rest of the series was a chore—a small-town battle in the first film made for a poor high point, whereas the second film’s gleeful waddling in its own uninteresting mythology had me despairing about its self-referentiality. But a change of pace can do wonders, and it doesn’t take a long time for Ragnarok to highlight its difference. Under screenwriter/director Taika Waititi’s particular sensibilities, Thor become much funnier, much looser, and far more interesting. The ponderous visual atmosphere becomes influenced by rock music iconography, and a pitch-perfect use of The Immigrant Song makes for a showcase opening sequence that tells out that it’s fine to forget about the two previous movies. As a matter of fact, the opening of Ragnarok is so jolly, fast paced and self-deprecating that it made me worry that the film would be an insubstantial series of jokes without weight. But as it turns out, the film actually becomes more efficient once its charming hooks are deeply embedded: As the film builds its dramatic tension, the humour is balanced by action and drama and the result is quite effective despite almost completely destroying one of the MCU’s major settings along the way. It helps that Hemsworth meets a worthwhile match in Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie in terms of charisma—once you factor in Jeff Goldblum as an antagonist, Cate Blanchett proving that she can do darkly sexy and surprise appearances by a few MCU regulars, the film remains great good fun throughout. Waititi knows how to make a film that moves (his Valkyrie sequences are visually spectacular and innovative, which isn’t something we often say within the MCU), and the trip to another planet isn’t a distraction from the overall series. Ragnarok leaps over its limp prequels to become one of my favourite MCU films, which really wasn’t something I was expecting when I started to watch it.