August 32nd on Earth

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🎙️ EPISODE 415: 03.07.22 The lack of acknowledgement re this film's strange title and equally strange plotting device (title cards read the impossible dates of August 32nd, 33rd and so on) in almost all of the available reviews for this one online — including, miraculously, 17 IMDb user reviews — is itself suspect. Was it too dense or clever-seeming to even warrant a brief mention? It certainly struck me as the type of art student attempt for thematic relevance that I normally despise. But I was kind of charmed by it here. There's something ethereal, otherworldly, and profoundly beautiful at work here in Denis Villeneuve's first feature (which he also wrote). And that metaphor for being stuck in a rut, a holding pattern, a life which feels both incredibly finite and unending, sure that's a bit heavy-handed. But all things considered, this is quite a lovely, and surprisingly strong debut.

When I tore through the bulk of Villeneuve's filmography in late 2018, I neglected these two early works (this movie and 2000's Maelström) because they seemed too hard to find, and too far removed from his insanely prolific period beginning in 2009 where he made seven mostly huge films in just over a decade, culminating in last year's pandemic-delayed adaptation of Dune. (NOTE: I'll sink my teeth into that nine-year gap in filmmaking in my next review-link; why it happened and what it might mean in hindsight.) Suffice to say, I shouldn't be surprised this film looks as good as it does, and is as overall intriguing as I found it to be. Villeneuve is really good at this, and the best parts here are when it's really taking its time...


Anyone can include a ladybug crossing a road and hope it registers as pretty or profound. But it's another thing to defiantly make that so. This is far from perfect — the editing is a little too late 90s scatterbrained harsh, the initial reconnection of our two leads is too wordy, among a few other issues — but its strengths lie in how it turns what could have been trite farce (we made a pact to have a baby together if both is weren't married by age 30!) into something much more than romantic fodder.

It's best most moments are it's most deeply strange. And, sure, it's very funny how much of the plot is just hinging upon a seemingly random fascination with conceiving said child on a literal desert (they fly to Salt Lake City from Montreal) and the logistical practicalities of needing to trust what turns out to be a shifty cab driver to not abandon them on these white, desolate sands while they consider actually having sex or not. But who can argue with this...



There's something to this cabbie character, if not altogether half-baked. In a movie with so few auxiliary characters, his functioning as the transport between society (the real world) and the desert (somewhere beyond?), feels important. But perhaps he's just a foil for the Canadian cabdriver later in the film, who doesn't try to take advantage of our protagonist despite being set up to with ease (the ying and yang of life, so to speak). He's also seen reading a paperback about aliens which loosely ties to an extraterrestrial undercurrent throughout: there's mention of UFOs in the sky, the feel of the white sands is like another planet, they spend the night in a Japanese space capsule hotel room inside the Salt Lake City airport. They also discover a charred corpse on their trip back from the desert. It's never explained and it doesn't need to be. These elements, even if they're somewhat clunky, give this movie it's charm.

I also had some issues with the ending; the leading man's run-in with a band of violent teens which put him in a coma felt a tad deus ex machinish. But, overall, this first feature feels like something of a hidden treasure and is definitely worth your time.

Check out my RANKING DENIS VILLENEUVE episode here.

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 414 - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 415B ⫸

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August 32nd on Earth is a 1998 Canadian drama film directed and written by Denis Villeneuve, in his feature directorial debut, and produced by Roger Frappier. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. It stars Pascale Bussières and Alexis Martin, won the Prix Jutra for Best Actor. The film was selected as the Canadian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 71st Academy Awards, but was not nominated. It was released on September 17, 1998.