Reviews by johanlefourbe

Following ‘The Witch’ which had been critically successful, Robert Eggers came up with another directing follow-up which became even more popular so I was definitely eager to check it out. Concerning ‘The Witch’, I thought it was a decent watch but, to be honest, not much more than that. However, it was really neat to see how much progress Eggers made with this second directorial effort. And, yet, to be honest, it was still not completely sold though. Indeed, from the moment you see these two men showing up on this shore, you actually pretty know how it will all end. To make things worse, nothing much really happened afterwards, except seeing the two characters switching between being more or less friendly with each other and vastly antagonizing one another. Still, there is no denying that this movie was quite impressive to behold. First of all, there was the visual aspect. Indeed, the damned thing did look quite amazing and even though black-and-white movies are not so rare nowadays, here, it was a great approach and it perfectly fit the story and the tone chosen by Eggers. Then, the whole thing was seriously minimalistic, there were basically only two characters but the two actors involved both delivered some very strong performances, in fact some of the best performances of their respective careers. For Willem Dafoe, it is quite amazing that, after a career going over more than 4 decades and more than 100 movies, the guy still can come up with such powerful stuff and a couple of the speeches/soliloquies he made were just simply amazing and unforgettable (during one of these, he was actually getting buried alive, seriously, what an actor!). Concerning Pattinson, he had to face a Dafoe at the top of his game and he actually managed to be pretty much just as convincing as his colleague was. For the people still making fun of him because, 10 years ago, he did show up in the ‘Twilight’ franchise, well, if the guy keeps impressing like this, he might actually become one of the most interesting actors of his generation. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its limitations, it was still a rather spellbinding movie to behold and it is definitely worth a look and I can’t wait to see what Robert Eggers will do next. 

Since the ratings were rather low for this movie, I didn’t have some really high expectations but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out anyway. Well, to be honest, it has been a while since I have seen something so weak starring either Rachel Weisz or Michael Shannon. That the damned thing was directed by the same guy who delivered the impressive ‘Maria Full of Grace’ was even more surprising. At first, you might be wondering what the hell was going on with these really random scenes starring Weisz but the damned thing turned out to be some kind of half-baked version of ‘Catch Me If You Can’, except that they went for an approach which was much more pretentious and much less entertaining, I’m afraid. Seriously, the whole concept was never convincing. I mean, this woman had apparently 9 different jobs in 15 years which means that she spent less than 2 years performing any of these jobs but it was rather ridiculous. In ‘Catch Me If You Can’, Frank Abagnale Jr. was maybe a master con artist but he always ‘pretended’ to perform all these jobs. In this case, she managed to be an actual doctor and later on a biologist when this kind of jobs requires years of studies and experience. To make things worse, her agenda was just so opaque. Why did she look up her old boyfriend after all these years? Because she felt lonely? His reaction was also rather underwhelming. I mean, Shannon is a fine actor but his constant wooden look was the wrong fit for this character. On top of that, after it took him forever to finally confront her, he then somehow became fascinated with her whole ‘way of life’ which was rather bewildering. Anyway, to conclude, even though there were a couple of interesting ideas, most of it didn’t work at all and the damned thing is not really worth a look, I’m afraid. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but 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, I always had a weak spot for minimalist features but, even though this one was not bad at all, I thought it was actually more empty than really minimalist after all. Indeed, even if the damned thing was super creepy, it turned out to be rather eventless after all. Seriously, I think nothing much happened during ¾ of the duration. Then, there was also a lack of background information. I mean, you had just 3 characters who went through some heavy stuff but, since you never get to know them, it was rather hard to care about what they were going through. And, then, there was the fact that there was no explanation provided at the end whatsoever. Well, on this aspect, I did end up with some mixed feelings. Indeed, on one hand, most horror features have some half-baked endings trying to explain or solve everything that happened before but it very often does not work at all mostly because they try to rationalize some completely preposterous events with some lame ass explanation. In this case, by not explaining anything, they kept a shroud of mystery which definitely had its merit but, to be honest, it also did feel like a cop-out from the makers and an artificial way to keep the whole thing ambiguous. Apparently, it was supposed to be some kind of allegory about dementia but it was never really convincing to me. Still, there is no denying that the damned thing was very well made and the trio of actresses involved all gave some strong performances. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t really win me over, it was still a solid horror flick and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Since this movie had been a massive critical success (among other things, it recently won the Academy Award for the Best Picture and also the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival), I was really eager to check it out. First of all, What a year for Chloé Zhao! She was supposed to release her first huge blockbuster with 'Eternals'. However, because of the Coronavirus pandemic, it was postponed until 2021 but, in the meantime, she managed to make and release this much smaller indie feature which turned out to be one of the most talked about movies during the awards season. On top of that, I have always been fascinated by such alternative lifestyles so I definitely had some rather high expectations. Well, even though I thought it was indeed a beautiful movie with another pitch-perfect performance from Frances McDormand who’s apparently challenging Meryl Streep for the title of best actress alive, to be honest, it didn’t really blow me away though. Of course, you could argue that nothing much really happened through the whole thing but it didn’t really bother me. It might have to do with the fact that, even though McDormand was brilliant through the whole thing, even though her character went through some life changing events, she didn’t seem to really evolve after all. Eventually, the biggest issue was maybe the fact that every single person on the road was just so freaking nice. I mean, I have to admit that this lack of conflict was refreshing but, to be honest, it seems rather unlikely that none of them had a bad bone whatsoever. Eventually, even if it was unintentional, it did turn the whole thing into some kind of commercial for the nomadic lifestyle. Still, even if I wasn’t completely sold, it was quite fascinating to see these people taking some distance from our rather decadent capitalistic way of life and seeming pretty happy in the process. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it seemed to be intriguing, I thought I might as well check it out. In fact, it was not the first movie I saw completely shot in first-person perspective (I saw at least two of them called ‘Zusje’ and ‘Thomas est amoureux’) but the damned thing was still seriously original even if I have to admit that this experiment was not completely successful. Indeed, the whole thing was pretty much constantly disorienting, often nauseating and sometimes borderline unwatchable but I still enjoyed most of it though. Indeed, the makers went actually beyond the whole first-person gimmick and it was probably the first movie I saw during which the action was pretty much non-stop. As a result, it was quite unpredictable and it had such a wild energy. Seriously, it felt sometimes like watching some kind of weird Punk nightmare and it is actually a compliment. Concerning the plot, between the first-person view and the non-stop action scenes, there was not much room for it which was an obvious choice from the makers but this approach didn’t really bother me. Still, what was left from the plot was sometimes pretty weak. Indeed, it was so obvious that Hayley Bennett was not who she was from the start and Akan was such a pathetic bad guy with some really lame and actually completely unnecessary kinetic powers. Concerning Shartlo Copley, I was also not so sure, to be honest. I mean, the South African actor was the perfect choice to play the sidekick of the main character and he was entertaining through the whole duration but was the whole cloning thing really necessary? Basically, it was an excuse to have Copley play a whole bunch of various characters but it would have been more effective if he kept playing the same character. Anyway, to conclude, I guess the damned thing is probably an acquired taste but I thought it was seriously wild and entertaining and it is definitely worth a look.