Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it sounded like an intriguing story and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. In fact, 50 years ago, before I was even born, my father went around the world with his brother for 3 years and, at some point, they did spend 6 months working in the Australian desert. If I recall it correctly, my dad was working in the kitchen washing dishes. So, as you can see, I had a personal connection with this story and I was wondering how they would tackle this material. Well, even though it was a decent effort, I’m afraid that the end-result still turned out to be slightly flat after all. The main issue I had was that none of the characters, neither the two backpackers nor the locals, were developed whatsoever. I won’t blame Julia Garner and Jessica Henwick, they were both fine but there was not much they could do with their characters. As a result, through the whole duration, one acted constantly scared sh*tless (probably understandably so) while the other was acting reckless on regular occasions but it seemed that she was making such poor decisions more to help out the plot than really because it made sense for her.  Unfortunately, it was probably the only things really defining them and it was just not enough. At several points, it was hinted that there might be some other reasons why they went backpacking at the other side of the world but nothing was done with that after all. Concerning the locals, well, it was even worse. Either they acted like some drunken sexual predators or they acted nice, always depending on what was needed for the plot at that specific point so they ended with no personality whatsoever. At the end of the day, the whole thing was pretty much reduced to the question ‘Will they get raped or not?’ which was so limiting for these two interesting girls and to the people living there. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look but, with this material, it could have been much better though. 

Since I’m a big fan of ‘Menace II Society’, I was always eager to see this directorial follow-up from the Hughes brothers and I’m rather surprised that it took me about 30 years to finally watch the damned thing. Unfortunately, I ended up watching it on YouTube without subtitles and I did struggle to follow the dialogues. Anyway, this sophomore directorial effort was definitely ambitious and I was quite surprised when it started at the end of the 60’s in the Bronx. Indeed, their directorial debut was a rather small (but still fascinating) contemporary Hood movie taking place in the Watts and Crenshaw neighborhoods of Los Angeles but they were making this time something much more epic about 5 years in the life of a young black man at the end of the 60’s. Well, even though it was certainly a decent attempt, I think it was slightly too much to handle for them at this stage in their career and they didn’t really nail it. I mean, the mood and the sense of the time period was definitely pretty good but it seems that they struggled to develop each chapter properly. That’s the issue when you went to go epic and tells a whole life time in just 2 hrs. How do you manage to highlight the right bits? The other issue was with Larenz Tate. To be fair, I can’t believe he was only 20 years old when he made this movie. However, even though he did have a pretty face and some charisma, I’m afraid he didn’t have the acting skills to properly show what his character went through internally. To be honest, the only thing that seemed to evolve through the years was the size of his sideburns and you are talking about a guy who did spend 3-4 years in the Vietnam war. Concerning the supporting characters, some of them were intriguing but they were even less developed and therefore even less interesting than Anthony Curtis. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still not bad at all though and it’s too bad the career of the Hughes brothers never took off afterwards after all. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since I kept hearing some interesting things about it, I thought I might as well check it out. Wow… It turned out to be such a wild movie after all. Basically, it’s not a movie that you really watch, it’s a movie that you have to experience. To be honest, I’m not sure that everything did work for me, it was so complex, but there is no denying that Owen and Mady were such fascinating characters thanks to some really solid performances by Justice Smith and Jack Haven. What was so weird for me while watching this movie was that, even though the material and the mood were quite dark, there was actually something soothing about it. Indeed, to see two characters from the opposite sex actually not gravitating towards each other on a romantic or sexual level but, even further than that, to see them not feeling the urge to have such a connection with anybody at all, I thought it was actually liberating. Indeed, in all movies or the vast majority of them at least, they constantly hammer the idea that, to be whole, you have to find your better half but, when you feel alienated like these two characters and when you don’t fit in this world, it’s actually super refreshing to see that you don’t necessarily HAVE to find someone, you are already an individual all by yourself and you don’t need another person to define you. Obviously, it didn’t work like that for these characters as their feeling of disconnection with the rest of the world, even their feeling of disconnection with themselves, gave them so much distress. That’s the saddest thing about our world. Indeed, with our complex brain, the possibilities are like infinite and, yet, everything original or deviant is always mercilessly crushed. I think it also explained their deep connection with this seemingly cheesy 90’s TV-show. Indeed, we do have the ability to make the most random but also creative connections with our brains, this way, it allows us to actually escape our reality and reshape it to make it more attractive, more entertaining or simply bearable to us. However, once again, for the two characters, the way they experienced this TV-show gave them also so much anguish as it seemed that it became another dark prison for them. To be honest, I probably didn’t understand half of this movie but it still touched me though and it is definitely worth a look. 

It’s another movie I had almost forever on my queue (almost 10 years…) so I guess it was finally time to see the damned thing. Well, to be honest, I wish I could say it was worth the wait but it turned out to be pretty lame after all. I have to admit that I actually didn’t know it was based on a true story, in fact, G.J. Echternkamp based the whole thing on his own life. It went even further as Echternkamp already made a documentary about his parents and it seems to be much more interesting than this new ‘fictional’ version. I guess the main reason why I wanted to watch this movie in the first place was because I have a weak spot for Rene Russo and Oliver Platt and I don’t think that they were bad, it’s just that I never thought that their characters were either interesting or entertaining. In fact, in my opinion, the couple played by Johnny Simmons and Jane Levy was much more interesting. Indeed, I liked how they connected first without hooking up right away and it was one of the rare couples I have seen in a movie for which I understood why they were actually gravitating towards each other. Obviously, this couple was completely fictional (it was also rather weird how Echternkamp portrayed himself as some kind of irresistible stud) and they were not the point at all here, it was all about Frank and Cindy and their supposedly fascinating dysfunctional couple. I have to admit that the fact that my parents always argued non-stop for as long as I can remember made it pretty much impossible to me to find such a toxic relationship ‘funny’ or ‘endearing’. At some point, Echternkamp’s biological father argued that, since they had been together for 20 years, they must have been doing something right but I seriously disagree. If you argue all the time, you should definitely not be together, period, even if you think you can’t be on your own. Anyway, to conclude, I didn’t care much about the damned thing and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. To be honest, I wonder how this movie did end up in my queue. Well, anyway, the damned thing turned out to be pretty lame after all. The most interesting thing about this movie was the fact that, just when the movie was getting finished, they fired its director, Dylan Brown, due to inappropriate conduct and the movie was eventually released without a credited director which is actually pretty rare. Concerning the movie itself, for starters, the name was rather confusing. Indeed, even though it was called ‘Wonder Park’, this name was never uttered through the whole duration since the park was called ‘Wonderland’ so why didn’t they call the park ‘Wonder Park’ or the movie ‘Wonderland’ in this case? Anyway, making an animated feature about an amusement park was actually a pretty cool idea. Indeed, when I was a kid, I used to be obsessed with amusement parks so there was definitely some potential. Unfortunately, the approach they took here was so tedious though. On one hand, it was indeed about some park but it was also about a girl basically building stuff in her home but what she was doing didn’t have much to do with an actual amusement park after all and they clearly struggled to combine these two things together. Basically, the end-result was some kind of combination of ‘Narnia’ with ‘Up’ involving an imaginary amusement park and this mix never really worked. About the ‘Up’ connection, they didn’t even go all the way as it turned out that the mother was only ill and not terminally ill after all. It also bothered me that most of the rides were actually not physically possible without mentioning the fact that all the mascots looked so lame and pathetic. Finally, it was one of these typical animated features apparently suffering from ADHD with some action scenes so busy with so many stuff going on and it was sometimes rather tiresome to behold. Anyway, to conclude, even if I have to admit that it was rather harmless, it was still pretty weak though and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was directed by Steven Soderbergh, I thought I might as well check it out. I have to admit that I haven’t seen a monologue from Spalding Gray but I did hear about them and they look actually pretty neat. The one thing that I really enjoyed with this documentary was that Soderbergh didn’t comment or interview anyone else to talk about Gray. Indeed, with such documentaries, it is rather usual to ask colleagues and family members to tell their opinions or some anecdote about the main subject but it is usually hardly interesting after all (for example, even though ‘Sly Lives!’ was a decent flick, it was rather weird that you barely get to see Sly Stone telling his own story). Here, it’s the opposite as you only get to see Gray talking endlessly mostly about himself which effectively turned this documentary into one of his monologues after all. The interesting thing is that I’m usually not really interested in stand-up comedians (I can’t remember the last time I saw one of those) but I actually really liked Gray’s style. Indeed, he has such a command of the English language and uses some elaborate language, and I could really identify with his neurotic manic way of thinking. There was also a dark edge to his work but there was no self-pity and always some kind of wonder about himself and life in general. Eventually, even though he didn’t say so, I think the guy was amazed that he managed to become so successful with his monologues which were just about him on a stage with a table and a chair simply telling his stories. Now, I definitely have one to watch one of these soon. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing really groundbreaking, it was a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Spalding Gray’s work.