Un 32 août sur terre

The visual sensibility is there, with magnificent shots of the desert in particular, but also just a lively way of cutting from scene to scene. The story is more problematic here, the whole narrative kind of bizarre in a rape-y kind of way.

that pager scene in the montreal cafe

"Un 32 août sur terre", Denis Villeneuve's debut, is interesting if inessential. The photography and editing have quite a few inspired moments (dude likes his deserts), the acting is fine, the dialogues are mostly unpretentious, there's some good humour here and there and the will-they-won't-they dynamics keep the viewer on their toes. On the other hand, it lacks big moments, probably because the script doesn't go very deep in the characters, and the ending feels like a cop-out.

64.00.

Villeneuve's debut feature is definitely a case of total not being more than the sum of its part. The individual scenes are engaging cause they are competently directed, visually striking, the dialogues witty, the two leads Pascale Bussières and Alexis Martin have good chemistry together and the recurring use of 'Tout ecartille' as a theme song is inspired. But the movie as a whole is lacking, at the end I found I neither got to really know nor care for these two people.