Échangistes (2007) Online

(Pardon the poor quality of my English, I had an accident...) Simon Boisvert is back. The infamous Uwe Boll from Quebec keeps on going on with his terrible movies, without any kind of help from the government, who would never accept to produce such horrible scripts anyway.

This new entry in his filmography is he first one to receive coverage from "serious" media like Voir cultural newspaper. Even more surprising, the movie had a short (1 week) run in theaters. Does that makes the movie any better ? Hell no.

The film "interest" is fueled by a ridiculous controversy about "échangistes bars". But don't expect to learn anything new on the topic, even if Mr. Boisvert tries really hard to look serious by inserting cheesy scenes where the main characters talk to the camera about their "feelings". Actually, the movie is closer to a porn flick than a documentary, thanks to the overall poor acting (even if Mr. Boisvert has only two scenes this time), cheap musical score and amateurish directing (by Simon Boisvert himself).

Other than that, this is pure Simon Boisvert. The dialogs still scream "I am a 40 something from West Island who never really had a life". There are several memorable one liners such as "Babies are just good to fill diapers and vomit" or this one, by Boisvert himself : "You can still come on your girlfriend's back, I can only reach her butt now". There is also an healthy dose of prejudice inserted in the dialogs. The people on welfare are all crooks trying to take advantage of the system, you need to be rich to be somebody, etc.

Thank you for producing another classic Mr. Boisvert, I sure love to hate you.

That movie was quite intriguing. Although the title suggests that swinging is the main topic of the film, it is mostly a reflexion about infidelity. The story follows three very different couples who try swinging to fill a void in their life. That movie was shot with a shoestring budget, so purists might say that the film has low production values, uneven acting, and static camera work. But once you get past that, you embark in the story because whether you are single, have been married for 10 years, or casually dating, there will probably be something you can relate to in this film. It is actually very true to life, and that bothers viewers who are looking for Hollywood stories, or simply an escape from the daily grind. When I saw it at the movie theater with a group of friends, reactions were mixed. People who like independent films were disappointed of the lack of artistic pretension, and those who like big budget flicks are not used to "little films" like this one. But those who like a well written realistic story with characters using everyday language enjoyed that film, me included.

From the start, you know you're watching a bad movie...

What could have been a revealing journey to the still taboo world of swinging clubs ends up being just another embarrassing waste of 80 minutes.

The acting is mostly horrible: actors are waiting for their time to say the lines without a hint of credibility. At some point, the director thought it would be clever to have the characters speak to an off-camera shrink to comment on their feelings or actions. We'll, I couldn't help but smile at how clumsy that device was but I do understand it's purpose: since nothing in the main plot is giving us any idea as to what is going on in their respective heads, why not just tell it to the viewer and skip some more bad acting.

The dancing scenes in a dimly lit bar makes you think they didn't have the budget to light it properly. Sound is horrible as well as art direction. In fact, nothing is directed in this clunker.

Watching that movie was complete torture but it did teach me a lesson: making movies is not as easy as you might think, but apparently, getting a little cash to finance it must be. There's no way they got financing based on the script.

Skip !