Titus De Voogdt, Delfine Bafort, and Johan Heldenbergh head a mostly forgettable cast, which tends to fall so far into the background, you’ll often forget more than just three actors are in Steve + Sky… and for what it’s worth, I believe this stems more from the supporting cast’s lack of charisma than it does from any real star power the three headliners bring to the table. The film is more of an inciting situation which throws Steve and Sky together, followed by randomly pointless character bits, which stil… could have worked had either star been in the least bit interesting. De Voogdt does the best he can with the main role, but unfortunately, his Steve acts with little-to-no rhyme or reason, and ends up condemning the film’s status as a mindless romp through the lives of two deadbeat characters.
I don’t have to like characters to enjoy a film, but I must feel drawn in to their plight, if for nothing more than to see them get their just desserts. With Steve + Sky, the film plods along in an effort to achieve “character piece” status, but all that’s really accomplished is they simply “do stuff” for an overly long 100 minutes, when writer-director Felix Van Groeningen finally — and mercifully — calls an end to the proceedings. At the end of this ride, I honestly wondered what point the film had just made that hadn’t already been made far better by many a crappy film. Hopefully, Van Groeningen’s next effort will focus more on storytelling aspects in addition to his characters, and less on the aimless A.D.D. brain droppings that too often pass for good cinema, both here and abroad.
Video
Maybe it’s just for effect, but the entire film’s image is grainy and washed out. The colors suffer from serious drabness. All of this adds nothing valuable to the film, and only succeeds in making it look like the cheap disaster it is. It is presented in an anamorphic widescreen 1.85:1 format, but all this basically means is you get black bars at the top and bottom of the poor VHS-quality image.
Audio
Only one audio track comes with the disc, and while certainly not as weak as the image, the standard Dolby Digital Stereo presentation succeeds only in volume. It, too, seems murky and faded. The sound clarity remains weak throughout the entire venture, though dialogue levels rumble in at slightly above average. Overall, it further demonstrates the film’s cheapness, and compliments the sheer lack of craftsmanship that came with putting it all together.
Special Features
This is easy… try nothing. And believe me, Facets is doing you a favor with this lack of bonus material.
Final Thoughts
Developing an affinity for this film simply means you haven’t discovered the ways in which similar stories have been told better. Sid and Nancy is one that comes to mind. I’ll give it some notoriety for trying to be a romantic comedy, which deviates from the standard formula, but the problem is that it fails to replace said formula with anything substantive. Watch at your own peril, but be forewarned… it’s around 100 minutes of your life you’ll be losing. Spend them wisely.
