Reviews by johanlefourbe

Since Ruth Bader Ginsburg seemed to be a fascinating woman and since this movie was available on Netflix, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, I wonder what a better director than Mimi Leder could have done with such strong material. I mean, it’s not that she delivered a terrible movie but, to be honest, it was only decent and not much more than that. Indeed, the first part was especially rather clunky. Sure, it made sense to start the story at the prestigious Harvard Law School but, then, after a few minutes, they actually already moved on with something else. Same thing with her husband’s battle against cancer, one moment, it seemed to be a death sentence, and a moment later, he was actually already cured. I understand that they tried to be comprehensive regarding her life but, as a result, they compressed too much information in such a short time period. Eventually, you might wonder if a mini-series wouldn’t have been more effective to properly develop all these important moments of her life. Seriously, they didn’t even touch the period during which she became judge and was eventually appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Fortunately, the whole thing finally became more focused from the moment she started to work on the Charles Moritz case. Concerning the cast, Felicity Jones was also a fine choice and she delivered another strong performance here. She also had a decent chemistry with Armie Hammer who made the most of a character who could have been rather thankless. Eventually, even though they hammered the fact that Ginsburg’s work had a huge impact (it still did actually), eventually, even though gender discrimination is not lawful anymore, it is still everywhere in our everyday life, in the US but also everywhere else in the world. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you want to learn more about one of the most inspiring women ever. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick since it was suggested by a fellow Listal member and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, eventually, it turned out to be some kind of mix of ‘Akira’ with Bong Joon Ho’s work and I have to admit that this mix did sound really appealing. Unfortunately, even if the damned thing definitely had some potential, there were just too much stuff that didn’t really work for me. First of all, even though the dynamic between the main character and his daughter was not bad, these characters were barely developed at all. The other characters were even worse though except for the evil Hong Sang-moo who was quite fun to behold. However, a bigger issue was a whole sub-plot involving the daughter having some major conflict with a huge construction company. Not only this real estate battle was seriously generic and rather tedious, in my opinion, the way it was handled was rather weird. Indeed, in this genre, you usually have some real estate tycoon offering the owners some amount of money and then forcing them to take this deal even if they didn’t want it. However, in this case, there was never any mention about money, instead, right from the start, you had some very violent thugs trying to brutally get rid off of these small shop owners. Seriously, is it really how such conflicts are handled in South Korea? I mean, even in the most backward Western, there is some amount of civilized negotiation. In my opinion, the way they handled such a generic plot was unnecessarily confusing. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I have to admit that it was still an original super-hero flick which had tons of potential and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Rachel Weisz, I thought I might as well check it out. I have to admit that I had no idea what the damned thing was about before watching this movie but it turned out to be some fascinating material. Indeed, we live in such a polarized world, hell, Donald Trump was a master denier and, nowadays, denial doesn’t concern only the holocaust but all kind of subjects such as global warming or the Corona pandemic. In fact, I had never seen before a movie focusing on holocaust denial and, even though the concept might seem preposterous, the way it was tackled in this movie was really interesting. Indeed, most of our knowledge is based on the fact that we trust all kinds of scientists and historians who are supposed to be way smarter and more knowledgeable than us but, in fact, we will never know for sure if everything they claim is actually true. In fact, many things that have been claimed 200 years or 300 years ago turned out to be false after all. So, how do you handle this? It’s really a tricky question and, fortunately, when you are dealing with the holocaust, there is still plenty of evidence to counter all these demented deniers. Another interesting thing about this movie was that it gave a clear view on how the British judicial system works and I was actually unaware that it was so much more different than how it works in the US. To be honest, they did struggle with the main character though. Indeed, even if Deborah Lipstadt seemed to be an interesting woman and even if Rachel Weisz did deliver another solid performance, her main job was basically to shut up and let her legal team do all the heavy lifting. Another minor issue was that, even though they tried to make it all quite suspenseful, in my opinion, the conclusion of this trial had actually a foregone conclusion. Indeed, can you imagine if they had concluded that this holocaust denier was actually right? It would have had some seismic impact not only in the UK but also in the rest of the world. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was maybe not flawless, it was still a really strong drama with a solid cast and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Gemma Arterton, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though the movies dealing with the UK during WWII are usually intriguing because the British people had such a different experience of this war than the other people living in Europe, I still had a hard time to care about the damned thing though. At least, I have to admit that the film-within-the-film was actually really well done and I completely understood that the British audience would feel a deep connection with this flick but I’m afraid it was pretty much the only thing that really worked though. Indeed, even if Gemma Arterton was, as usual, really lovely, to be honest, she delivered another rather uninspired performance and Sam Claflin wasn’t much better, I’m afraid. Obviously, their characters were both supposed to be smart and witty but I thought they were such a bland couple after all. On top of that, Arterton’s was not stuck in 1 half-baked romance but actually in 2 half-baked romances resulting in some rather useless love triangle. Seriously, if Jack Huston’s character would have been removed, I'm not sure if it would have had much impact on the whole story. Finally, the way her relationship with Buckley did end was also completely random and a really cheap way to give the whole thing an extra dramatic edge that it really didn’t need. At least, Bill Nighy was, as usual, quite fun but it is the kind of role that he could pretty much play in his sleep. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I have to admit that the damned thing was still rather harmless and I guess it might be worth a look if you really like genre. 

I wasn’t exactly dying to see yet another adaptation of this classic Shakespeare play but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I was actually seriously bored by the damned thing and, even if it might not be the worst adaptation, it was probably the most pointless one I have seen. I mean, visually, it was not bad and it seemed to be rather faithful (However, it turns out that very little of the original Shakespeare’s text actually remained). Of course, if you are not familiar with the original text like me, you won’t really notice this but if the writers thought they could write in Shakespeare’s style and replace his work, it was already presumptuous and obviously a rather misguided approach. However, what bothered me the most was the fact that they didn’t add anything interesting to this old tale. At least, Hailee Steinfeld was the right age to play this character which was rather refreshing but even this had already been done in Franco Zeffirelli’s version more than 50 years ago. On the other hand, Douglas Booth might be good-looking but he was also 6 years older than Steinfeld and this age gap made it really difficult to make them believable as a couple. The fact that they didn’t have enough chemistry also probably didn't help. At least, Damian Lewis and Paul Giamatti did deliver some solid performances but since they both played some rather minor role, it wasn’t really enough, I’m afraid. Anyway, to conclude, I didn't care much for the damned thing, I should actually lower my rating but I guess it might be worth a look if you really like the genre. 

Since I kept hearing some pretty good things about this flick and since it was suggested by a fellow Listal member, I was quite eager to check it out. First of all, you can’t deny that this movie was quite prescient as it was released more than a year before George Floyd was killed by a white police officer and the Black Live Matters became afterwards a worldwide phenomenon. However, you might argue that such tragic events are unfortunately rather common for the black folks living in the US. On top of that, the cast was also really strong, especially Amandla Stenberg who was pretty much pitch-perfect through the whole thing and she will definitely be someone to follow in the future. And, yet, something was still missing to make this movie really amazing though. I guess it might have to do with a lack of complexity in the characters. Indeed, one of the most intriguing aspect displayed in this movie was the duality of the main character, the fact that she had to adapt herself and constantly switch between 2 vastly different worlds, but this duality basically went out of the window from the moment Khalil was killed. However, this lack of character complexity above all applied to the other characters though. It’s not that they were not interesting or not convincing, in the contrary, it’s more that they were given a label right from the start and then never did deviate from this label. Basically, you had the beautiful loving and inspiring parents, the rather clueless but still sweet boyfriend, the clueless but not so sweet (girl)friend, the ruthless drug dealer,… Once again, it’s not that these characters were lame, it’s more that they never really evolved or did anything really unexpected. Anyway, to conclude, all in all, it was still a really good drama though, completely timely and topical, and it is definitely worth a look. 

Even if this movie doesn’t really have a stellar reputation, since it was written by Guillermo del Toro, I thought I might still check it out. Well, even though del Toro has a solid track-record as a director, even as a producer, this movie is easily the weakest thing he has delivered so far. To start with, the title was not bad but it had actually nothing to do with the story but it wasn’t a big deal. A bigger issue was that the story was just so generic and, to be honest, quite boring. I mean, the house and these weird creatures did look nice but, by now, I have seen my share of haunted houses features and this movie definitely didn’t add anything really interesting or entertaining to the genre. Another issue was that Bailee Madison was actually pretty weak but I have to admit that she wasn’t helped by the fact that none of the characters were properly developed whatsoever. I was also bothered by some major non-sense displayed in this movie. For example, how did these creatures end up in this basement? What was Harris’s agenda in all this? Did it really make sense to sell this house after discovering that there were some weird creatures festering in the basement? Anyway, eventually, considering all the seemingly talented people involved in this project, I felt mostly bad for Katie Holmes. Indeed, ever since her career had been derailed by her failed marriage with Tom Cruise, her career never really recovered and this weak horror flick was probably one of the highest profile gigs she managed to get during the last 15 years and I think it is rather sad as she always seemed to have some potential. Anyway, to conclude, even if the damned thing was not a complete waste of time, it wasn’t far from it though and I don’t think it is really worth a look.