After their father dies, two half-brothers struggle with navigating their father’s legacy: their identity, their estranged relationship with each other, a bowling alley with a nightclub atmosphere, and his hunting club buddies. “Saturn Bowling” (2022) follows each brother starting with the younger Armand (Achille Reggiani), who lives in the margins of society and failed to launch. When Guillaume (Arieh Worthalter), inherits everything, instead of distancing himself from it, he tries to right his father’s wrongs by letting Armand run the bowling alley, but the privilege just enables Armand to fulfill his impulses. Meanwhile Guillaume’s real life as a cop gets more frenzied as his case load mounts.
If “Saturn Bowling” has a major problem, it is that publicity surrounding the movie gives away too much about the plot, which ruins the film experience. Anything examined here was already revealed though they could be construed as spoilers. The film follows Armand for the first forty-five minutes then switches its focus on Guillaume and reveals his profession as a brilliant investigator, who may be good at his job because he is too familiar with the perps. Director and cowriter Patricia Mazuy and cowriter Yves Thomas have been completely transparent about how they saw the siblings, and how the father’s off-screen existence balanced the brothers’ dynamic so his death is a destabilizing force for the two, who in the filmmakers’ eyes, are more similar than they may initially seem: no room for women, a cruel streak, stunted.
Regardless of their intent, once a creator releases its creation, the creator cannot control how its creation will be received and interpreted. “Saturn Bowling” has a hunting theme, and it is not instantly obvious how either brother hunts. Their father and his hunting buddies are entitled predators who believe that they have a right to occupy spaces without paying a price: the bowling alley, other countries, offices, and they are not wrong. They never face any consequences because while their actions are repugnant, they are never treated like criminals. Guillaume hunts criminals, but he also protects and associates with them, knowingly or not; thus perpetuating an unsatisfying and relentless cycle of keeping an impossible peace between prey and predator. Guillaume wants to be a protector and right past wrongs either by renewing his connection with his brother, protecting people from the hunters, or stopping a serial killer, but by being unwilling and refusing to condemn and completely separate himself from the past, he unwittingly perpetuates worse evil. Guillaume would take umbrage at being called corrupt, but the definition of corruption is refusing to punish people because they have a relationship with you even if you despise them, and they have committed criminal offenses. When the film first shows the brothers interacting, Guillaume’s behavior feels reminiscent of a sexual harasser in the way that he solicits his brother, which presents Armand as initially sympathetic.
Armand rejects his father in a superficial way but is a perfect though demented heir of his father’s legacy. It is easy to root for an underdog, and he appears homeless so rejecting his brother’s generosity/charity seems like a huge stance to take, but it is empty and meaningless. When faced with the brutal reality of living in the margins, possessing nothing of value or merit and being unable to spend any sustained time with women, he changes course and gobbles up his brother’s offer. He plays the big man with his brother’s resources. Armand becomes instantly unlikeable because of his interactions with Lorraine (Elisa Hartel), the only reliable worker at the bowling alley. Within seconds of getting his position through nepotism, he threatens her even though she never indicated that she was going to disobey his orders. He directs the rage that he has against his brother on targets who cannot hurt him like his brother, i.e., women.
Women’s bodies function as the battleground for the sibling rivalry and struggle for dominance. As horrific as the father and hunters are as embodiments of the past, which includes threatening women, implicit violence, and damaging their children, they somehow manage not to be the worst people in “Saturn Bowling.” This violence is part of the father’s legacy. While toxic masculinity transforming into violence is a valid theme, Mazuy’s approach would be radical in the eighties or nineties, but now seems like she is arriving to the party a bit late after Brian DePalma on this side of the Atlantic and Catherine Breillat among many on the other have already explored this issue using serial killers. Because the narrative is stale, it makes the whole story feel rehashed despite the superb execution.
Many reviewers referenced “Irreversible” (2002) because of one scene of unblinking, realistic femicide. It shows the precise moment when consent and pleasure exit the bedroom, and the goal becomes feeling powerful, not having sex. “Saturn Bowling” is a beautifully shot film although visually obvious with lighting as a metaphor. Red equals danger. Blue is a safe zone. Natural light means characters are sharing a realistic space, and character’s psychological state does not weigh down the scene. Plunging into darkness, the underground tunnel leading to the bowling alley, is a foreboding harbinger that the characters are willingly giving into their baser side.
“Saturn Bowling” may lose people with its depiction of Xuan (Y-Lan Lucas), an animal rights activist, which feels like a throwback to an eighties archetype of the woman who seems like a three-dimensional person but her actions seem inconsistent with her purported character. Mazuy casts her as Guillaume’s love interest. Guillaume’s attraction to Xuan makes sense, but the reverse does not considering how they meet and what she learns about Guillaume early in their relationship. Xuan is supposed to be an empathetic, fearless, champion of justice so her desire and actions seem contrived. Would she really not press charges against an assailant because she has the hots for Guillaume? Then at the eleventh hour, even though they have zero relationship, she puts on her cape to take care of Guillaume when she hears that he needs someone. This behavior seems like a throwback to another time, but twenty-first century women are built differently; however, Mazuy is from a different generation and French. A lot of French women from her generation appear to have a complicated dynamic by tolerating and accepting as the norm a lot of problematic signals, which Mazuy seems to be calling out and condemning. Xuan exists to bear witness and show emotion because the brothers and other men cannot. She is the audience proxy to show revulsion and act as a living, breathing moral compass. She is a complete person whose actions serve men and the script, but are not credible given Xuan’s profile.
“Saturn Bowling” is a tedious thriller, not an example of the fresh though brutal New Extreme film which inflict harm at the beginning and end with revenge. The only extreme featured in this film is pretending that daddy issues have not existed since Cain and Abel.
