Audiences constantly over hyping and redefining what a reaction from an audience can be certainly weighs against a film for better or worse, and unfortunately Sanguine got confused with Raw in terms of audience members passing out at screenings, and with the visual team behind The Substance – there is a lot of cool gore and effects. Ultimately Marion Le Coroller’s Sanguine delivers on some of the hype surrounding the movie, but there is not enough substance (pun not intended) in the gore and overall themes of the movie to gain it the notoriety that Coroller and co-writer Thomas Pujol presumably wanted the film to leave on audiences. While there is a lot of gross out, grotesque moments in Sanguine, the much more interesting aspect of the movie is the sub-text and the story it’s telling but doesn’t get talked about *enough* and focuses too heavily on the grossness and body horror.
Sanguine focuses on Margot (Mara Tequin) as she is a young intern at the most competitive ER in the country. She is struggling to make ends meet with her job, she’s falling behind mentally, physically, and emotionally – the job is simply too demanding and requires too much effort and drive for a human being to simply handle. It is reflective of the current job market and how it seems everyone is required to work 30 hours a day in a 24 hour cycle and without doing so we’re told we’re inadequate – it’s an alarming change in work culture that has yet to be broken. However, Margot tries her best to accommodate and do the best she can, but when she realizes there are multiple patients roughly her age that are being plagued by this dilemma and starts experiencing horrifying transformations herself – she beings to realize there is a pattern and needs to try and stop it – but speaking up and against the current abrasive and abusive work culture can prove detrimental to her professional wellbeing.
Overall, Sanguine says a lot about the work culture and pressure young are under across all professional atmospheres and it is a very interesting take and statement being made about the current culture. However, the movie says it, kind of beats around the bush on it, and then ends with a ‘solution’ that would never fly all in the name of creating some grotesque imagery. That being the movies hook line and sinker regarding the explosive nature of exploitation is interesting, it just truly needs to be fleshed out more to make it have more of an impact.
The saving grace of the movie that helps move the muddled message of the movie in exchange of gross out moments is Mara Taquin who is just brilliant as Margot. She manages to perfectly encapsulate the late teens early twenties persona who just wants to make *it* work against all odds and the cards stacked against her. She is determined and passionate, and that is what makes her shine. When she snaps back, when she’s determined to be the top of her colleagues, when she’s just determined to prove she belongs she shines, even through the horror she experiences she’s brilliant. Her performance outweighs the script tenfold though and she manages to do a lot more than what is written, maybe proving to the point of the film though that young people are just hungrier and more determined despite the detriment to their own health and well-being.
Sanguine focuses on being over the top, gross, grotesque, and forces us to sit there and watch this all unfold. However, the overall message and story of the film is expectations of younger generations is simply impossible, tasking us with meeting deadlines that are simply unobtainable – forcing the younger generation to push harder than ever before. It gets muddled in its messaging that is saved by Mara Taquin delivering a terrific performance. Overall, Sanguine is here to gross you out and make you think briefly about how the landscape of work has changed and more deeply if you’re part of the latter more so than the the problem.
