Review - The Pack (2010 - Franck Richard)

(Due to the fact that I've already reviewed The Pack, the competition rules state that Doccortex has to review it instead. So here's the final review of the FA Cup of Actors as Émilie Dequenne faces Ellen Page, who scored a respectable 6.5 with The East - evlkeith)

It’s the final of the FA cup of actors and I’m faced with reviewing this offering from the tournament favourite Émilie Dequenne with equal amounts of anticipation and trepidation. After her steadfast campaign through to the final of the World’s premier acting knockout competition, her ultimate success relies on what I think of this grubby looking little horror film. My hopes are not high, but maybe her impressive pedigree in the game will pull her through this final challenge.

It’s strangely likeable for a French horror film but no less predictable, with grotesque characters performing unspeakable horrors to passersby in the rural heartland of the country. Dequenne, however somehow manages to hold our interest with a smouldering, tobacco stained performance as the hapless road tripper Charlotte. She single-handedly turns the film from something I would have mercilessly fast forwarded into a positive experience holding your hand as you charge headlong through a nightmare world of fat women in chain mail, hell’s angels and miners. (Yes, that’s coal miners.)

The rest of the cast, action and plot seem to swirl around her classy performance in a somewhat shambolic fashion. After picking up a mysterious hitch hiker Charlotte ends up a captive in a dubious bar/café establishment which not only serves up croissants, coffee and onions to French rural folk, but also acts as a feeding station for a gang of mutant zombie coal miners who rise from the earth now and again for a bite to eat. 

Although the miners are heavily stylised and moderately ferocious they’re no way near a frightening as their South Yorkshire cousins who chased me around a local golf course as a teenager due to the ‘Did you shout fore?!’ incident. Needless to say it all ends in tears as bikers, fat woman, zombie miners and an attractive French actress all meet up for the shack based resolution rumble.    

It’s a cut above the other French horror films I’ve viewed due the dark humour, the atmosphere and Dequenne’s excellent performance. Ultimately it’s fun, a little gory and engaging stuff but lacks anything particularly memorable or especially scary, (and to be honest evlkeith’s original review was way more entertaining than the actual film!) And for that reason…I’m sorry Emily because you were great…I’m rating the film just a little better than average at 6/10. I just hope that’s enough but I know how highly evl rates Page so I'm not hopeful…
6/10
Doccortex

How close was that? It all came down to half a point. But Ellen Page is the winner of the FA Cup of Actors. We will have the crowning ceremony soon... - evlkeith

Feature - The FA Cup of Actors - The Final

It's been a long year but here we are at the final of the FA Cup of Actors. Let's have a look at how our two finalists have arrived at this illustrious venue (for the respective reviews, just click on the titles):

Ellen Page

Round 1 - Natalie Portman  vs.  Ellen Page
                Hesher - 6/10           Whip It - 7/10 

Round 2 - Radha Mitchell         vs.           Ellen Page
                Melinda and Melinda - 3/10     Smart People - 6/10

Semi - Ellen Page   vs.   Jennifer Connelly 
           Peacock - 6/10     Dark Water - 5/10

Émilie Dequenne

Round 1 - Nathan Fillion  vs.  Émilie Dequenne
                Slither - 6/10         Our Children - 8/10

Round 2 - Émilie Dequenne      vs.      Barbara Crampton
                The Girl on the Train - 6/10    Robot Wars - 2/10

Semi - Émilie Dequenne   vs.   James Stewart
      Écoute le Temps - 6/10  Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation
                                                     - 5/10

Here are some lovely statistics:

Ellen Page
Average rating = 6.3
Highest rated film = Whip It - 7/10
Goal difference = 5

Émilie Dequenne

Average rating = 6.7

Highest rated film = Our Children - 8/10

Goal difference = 7

Dequenne is still the favourite, although it could be closer than once expected. Ellen Page didn't actually contribute that much to the quality of Smart People or Peacock and a case could be put forward that she shouldn't even be in the final. But she is in Hard Candy, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Juno and Super, so she's got some half decent films still in her arsenal. Dequenne meanwhile has been solid in each of her films, although the rarity (and cost - one is over a hundred quid on Amazon) of some of her films may limit her final selection. Only time will tell as we enter the final stage of the competition.

evlkeith

Review - Écoute le Temps (2006 - Dir. Alanté Kavaïté)

In the second semi-final of the FA Cup of Actors the young challenger Émilie Dequenne faces off against screen legend James Stewart. Who will come out on top?

Being a native French speaker I can easily translate the title without even the sneekiest of peeks at a English/French dictionary. Cut the Temperature is a biopic focussing on the early disastrous cake baking attempts of Mary Berry. Burning sweet food products is her speciality until an evil hunchbacked Cornish Pisky makes a deal with her: Mary's cakes will be perfectly cooked and to be generous, he will even throw in the ability to knock up gorgeous salad dressings. The downside is that Mary has to suffer with a permanently itchy bumhole. (Watch her on 'The Great British Bake Off', she's forever having a crafty scratch. Possibly.)

I think that the DVD distributor must have put the wrong disc into my box because the film I watched was very different to the above, more to do with listening to time. (Don't know where they got that from?) But despite the lack of Mary Berry this is actually a pretty ingenious film.

Charlotte's (Émilie Dequenne) mum - rumour has it in the local village community that she was a witch - has been murdered and Charlotte moves back into her old house to investigate. Everyone in the village is a suspect. Being a sound recordist, Charlottes starts to record the creaking in the dilapidated house. Imagine her surprise when the recordings turn out to be conversations that happened in the past - hence the listening to time thingy. Examining these conversations, Charlotte starts to piece together what has happened to her mum.

The cover had me interested from the start, looking like something from a bank heist or spy thriller. The criss-crossing threads have an altogether more interesting use linked to the time travelling sounds. As with Peacock it has made a pleasant change to watch a film that tries something different.

Despite the engaging premise this film never hits the viewer with a startling twist or a stunning revelation. Charlotte just plods along finding clue after clue until she works out who the cheeky murderer is. No thrilling finale to be had here.

This isn't one of Dequenne's finest performances but it's by no means bad. It's very solid within the parameters of the script. But the lack of anything of real quality happening within the final third could have left an opening for James Stewart. If Vertigo or Anatomy of a Murder comes up for him, it's goodbye to the competition favourite Émilie Dequenne.
6/10
evlkeith

If you like this you could also try:
White Noise, The Pack.