Reviews by johanlefourbe

Of course, I wasn’t expecting much from the damned thing but I have to admit that I was still curious to see the end-result. To be honest, it is rather difficult to judge this movie. I mean, sure, it was pretty much a disaster but, in fact, it wasn’t even supposed to be released. Indeed, the production on this movie was a huge mess and they had to stop shooting several times because of some financial problems. At some point, David O. Russell completely walked away and since then has completely disavowed the damned thing. And, yet, after so many years in production hell, against all expectations, the producers still managed to release the damned thing but the end-result was certainly rather bewildering. Basically, it was some kind of mix of a political satire with a romantic comedy but this mix never worked. It’s not that the jokes were not really funny, it was above all the fact that they were, well, pretty weird and not in a positive way. For example, at some point, Howard Birdwell runs away, something he often does when he gets cornered (which might be one of the few things that were genuinely funny), somehow, he went to some random workshop involving a fire and some shaman and, to make the whole thing even more strange, you got to see James Marsden’s character helping out with whatever he was supposed to do during this ritual/workshop. If you think that what I just wrote was borderline incomprehensible, well, it figures because this scene didn’t make much sense. Concerning David O. Russell, he was quite struggling at the time but he did manage to finally make his come-back in 2010 with ’The Fighter’. Anyway, to conclude, you might wonder if it was really worth releasing the damned thing after all but it is certainly not worth a look, that's for sure.

For some reason, I honestly don’t really remember why, it was a movie I wanted to watch for quite some time. Well, it turned out to be a charming little romantic comedy, no more but no less than that either. To be honest, you might wonder how and why a US actress like Piper Perabo did end up in such a British production but, still, she had such a nice chemistry with Lena Headey and this chemistry was what mostly made this movie worked. Headey was probably more convincing than Perabo but there is no denying that they were both quite lovely to look at. I also did appreciate the fact that Rachel’s husband was actually a really nice guy which made the whole thing slightly more complex and therefore more interesting than your average rom-com. Concerning the jokes, to honest, it was rather hit-and-miss but even though it was always fairly entertaining, it was never really hilarious but I guess it was never what the makers were aiming for. Eventually, even though there was nothing really wrong with the damned thing, I’m afraid it was still too light for my taste. I mean, Rachel did end up in a terrible situation, without mentioning the fact that, for the first time in her life, she was falling in love with a woman which must be, at the very least, very confusing so the material was actually pretty dark. Of course, you could blame Piper Perabo for not having the right acting chops for playing something so complex but I don’t think that it was what was expected from her since the tone always remained feather-light. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing really ground-breaking, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Since I really loved ‘Moonlight’, I was really eager to watch Barry Jenkins’s directing follow-up, especially since it also had received some stellar reviews. Well, maybe my expectations were too high but, even though I really did appreciate the whole thing, to be honest, I never really impressed me though. I mean, I have to admit that it was a beautiful pure and innocent love story and, after already triggering my interest in ‘The Old Guard’, KiKi Layne might turn out to be one of the most interesting actresses of her generation. This movie also displayed how the black people have been deprived of their dignity for centuries in the USA. Basically, even if they play by the rules, they will still get a shitty education, they will still get a job with the lowest wage possible, they will still struggle to find some decent accommodation and, after all this, hanging above them, there is also the constant fear that they could be arrested at any moment for some crime they didn’t commit just because they might fit the ‘profile’. The scene around the big argument with Fonny’s family was also some metaphor on how the Black community is unfortunately often tearing itself apart under such cruel circumstances when they should be supporting each other but it’s always easy to judge when you are watching such complex issues comfortably from your sofa with your fat*ss flatscreen. So, the whole thing was really well made and the cast was strong but, even though the material was not bad at all, I didn’t have the feeling that they were covering some new ground, which was for example the case with ‘Moonlight’. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t really blow me away, it was still a really solid romantic drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I had no idea what to expect from this flick but since it was starring Shia LaBeouf, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though the damned thing was certainly intriguing, to be honest, it never really convinced me. First of all, I had a hard time to wrap my head around the whole door-to-door sales business. I mean, is it still something in the USA in our modern age when you can order pretty much anything online? Furthermore, even though the main character and probably most of the people involved in this crew came from some terrible social and economic backgrounds, it hardly seemed to be such a great upgrade to spend hours in a bus and then spend some hours going door to door to sell some damned magazines. They kept giving some scenes during which they were all cramped up in this bus with some ‘hip’ music, all singing out loud, but I never really saw what could have attracted them to this lifestyle. It didn’t help that, even though the movie was almost 3 hours long, they didn’t spend too much time on how it was actually working. I mean, it’s great that they mentioned how awesome Jake was as a salesman but it have would been interesting to seeing him actually closing a sale. Of course, you could argue that the whole door-to-door sales business didn’t really matter, what really mattered was this group of outcasts and especially the main character. Indeed, they all had an interesting personality but you could feel that they had been hurt, even maybe traumatized, by life in general. Concerning Sasha Lane, she was just so charismatic, I can’t wait to see her again in the future and Shia LaBeouf, well, the guy has been pretty much born to play such tormented souls. Anyway, to conclude, even though this movie didn’t completely work, there was still something quite spellbinding about the damned thing and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

P.S.: By the way, each time I now hear 'We Found Love' by Rihana, I always get some massive flashbacks from this movie which might have been more powerful than I thought.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Christian Bale and since it seemed to have a decent reputation, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, I was really surprised by how lame the damned thing actually turned out be and I’m still bewildered by the fact that this movie has such high ratings on this website and on IMDb (around 7.5). However, the fact that it had a much lower Metascore (only 46%) should have been a major red flag though. Anyway, eventually, pretty much nothing worked in this movie. Seriously, even though the historical background was interesting and had some potential, the story was just a boring mess. As usual with such Chinese productions, you had some obvious propaganda with a random Chinese soldier killing single-handedly around 50 Japanese soldiers who were all displayed as some bloodthirsty rapist monsters. However, this was just a completely superfluous subplot, the main story was actually about a large group of convent girl students AND a large group of prostitutes looking for shelter in a church during the invasion of Nanking by the Japanese army. However, except maybe for one prostitute called Yu Mo, none of these girls were developed whatsoever as they spent most of the movie running around and screaming at the horrors committed by the Japanese army. To make the whole thing even more convoluted, they also gave us another completely random American character, obviously, so they could sell more easily this movie in Western countries but I'm afraid Christian Bale gave here one of his weakest performance playing really unconvincingly your typical ‘White saviour’. Anyway, to conclude, the whole thing was just so weak and you should probably avoid it, even if you are interested in Zhang Yimou’s work.

Like every boy growing up in Europe, I was fascinated by football/soccer at some point and since Pelé was the best the football player ever, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, after hearing so many great things about the guy, I was actually really neat to see so much footage showing his mighty skills. It was also quite impressive that he managed to go to 4 World Cups in a row, winning 3 of them, even if he got injured during 2 of these World Cups. Beyond football, Pelé turned out to be a major icon, worldwide but above all in Brazil but that’s a topic the movie rather struggled to deal with. Indeed, while Pelé did rule the football fields for most of the 60’s, Brazil was actually ruled by a brutal dictatorship up until the 80’s. And what Pelé did back then regarding the political turmoil in his beloved home country? Well, nothing actually and this movie never really managed to properly address this topic. I mean, of course, you could blame Pelé for not taking a stand but eventually, even if he was so much beloved, he was eventually an average guy, an adult who played with a ball for a living, not a revolutionary or a political leader. It’s actually such an interest concept, the fact that even though we always idolize such athletes (in this movie, Pelé was compared to ‘Superman’ and was considered as a ‘King’ by many), they don’t have actually some superpowers, they are all made of flesh and blood like the rest of us. Unfortunately, this movie was not really interested in this and they focused instead on hammering the fact that Pelé was amazing, which might have been true but it was not really the most fascinating aspect about this legend after all. Anyway, to conclude, even if the damned thing was rather generic, I still think it was a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in football. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have always been a huge fan of Meryl Streep, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, it could have been an interesting cautionary tale showing that, even if you are passionate and talented (which seemed to be the case with Ricki), there is no guaranty that you will be successful in the music business, in the contrary, the probability is pretty high that you will eventually struggle your whole life. Unfortunately, even though the whole thing had indeed some potential, to be honest, the story turned to be actually really generic and even borderline lame. It’s too bad because the characters were not bad at all, even if they were all rather poorly developed. Indeed, they all kept hammering the fact that Ricki had left them but the reasons why remained rather foggy. Basically, since Ricki was not an alcoholic, a drug or sex addict, the whole conflict between these characters seemed rather bogus as she could have been both, a mother and a rock-star. I mean, being a musician and being eccentric do not make you automatically a bad parent. However, this movie was never interested in getting deeper into these characters and what happened to them and, instead, spent most of the duration trying to convince the viewers unconvincingly that Ricki had been such a bad person. Fortunately, there is no denying that Meryl Streep was again just amazing in this flick though. Indeed, she was just so convincing, as usual, she completely disappeared in her character and, in fact, she even definitely displayed some skills as a musician and as a singer. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch though and I think it is worth a look but only to see Meryl Streep giving in another badass performance.