Weekly round-up

More Quebec nostalgia and
souring on Sandra Bullock

RETRO ROMP: 1981

by MALCOLM FRASER
and CHRISTOPHER SYKES

1981
Ricardo Trogi’s (Québec-Montréal, Horloge biologique) third feature follows an ever-growing trend amongst young Québecois directors (Francis Leclerc’s Un été sans point ni coup sûr, Jean-Marc Vallée’s C.R.A.Z.Y.) to romanticize childhood memories of a those-were-the-days Quebec. While 1981 is an entirely likeable nostalgic offering by the award-winning director that is bound to be a big hit (at least amongst Francophones), it should also serve as a conversation starter: when will audiences tire of autobiographical childhood fare and Quebec-fatigue set in?

Charismatic Jean-Carl Boucher (who also had a lead role in Un été) stars as adolescent Ricardo, whose family has just moved to a new ’hood and must go through the laborious task of making new friends. After sticking out the first few rough weeks he becomes one of the “red sweater gang” and the four young boys rip around on their BMXs while lying about looking at Playboy, fingering female classmates and the like. A love interest elevates the drama when Boucher experiences his first coup de foudre with the flaxen-haired—and entirely unwitting—Anne (Elizabeth Adam).

Fans of French auteur Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie) will likely fall for the film’s setup, complete with a reminiscing voice-over from an adult Ricardo and numerous flashbacks to ’80s-era merchandise and pop culture. The young lad has a near-obsession with a calculator wristwatch, which made me root through a box of old gimmicks for my own. The aesthetics, however, are Trogi’s own and decidedly vanilla. (CS)

All About Steve
In this grating, dismaying romantic comedy, Sandra Bullock plays Mary, a newspaper crossword creator cursed with a remarkable lack of social skills. Her parents set her up on a blind date with news cameraman Steve (Bradley Cooper, recently seen in He’s Just Not That Into You—he’s the guy who looks like a robot’s idea of a Handsome Man). Ignoring his attempts to brush her off, she becomes an obsessed stalker, following him around the country as he chases news stories with narcissistic reporter Hartman (Thomas Haden Church, who has squandered his post-Sideways capital playing annoying assholes, most recently in the even more execrable Imagine That).

GRATING, DISMAYING: All About Steve

Speaking of He’s Just Not That Into You, anyone who had the misfortune of seeing it might recall that chief among its many flaws was the main character, played by Ginnifer Goodwin, an exasperating pest who never shuts up and develops obsessive relationships with men who clearly aren’t interested. Bullock’s protagonist in All About Steve is cut from the same cloth, and it’s equally unclear why anyone would think a movie based around such a character is a good idea.

Endlessly spouting trivia in a squeaky voice and generally acting like an overgrown child, Bullock is so irritating that it’s a relief whenever she’s off-screen—and I say that as someone who’s taken a lot of heat for defending her cinematic charms. As a producer of many of her own films, she has no one but herself to blame for her grievous quality-control lapses. She should fire herself. (MF)

BOTH FILMS OPEN THIS FRIDAY, SEPT. 4