Reviews by johanlefourbe

In contrary to Charles Chaplin or Buster Keaton, I haven’t watched so many movies with Harold Lloyd so I thought I might as well check this one out. Well, the first interesting thing with this movie was how much it clearly stood out from the comedies they made at the time, by Harold Lloyd himself but also by all his other colleague comedians. Indeed, there was in fact no visual gags, no slapstick, no elaborate seemingly hazardous stunts involved and, instead, they went for something dialogue-heavy. Fortunately, I thought that Lloyd did pull it off rather nicely. On the other hand, it was rather cringe-inducing to keep hearing Jake Mayo mentioning these ‘Chinks’ but, since the character was supposed to be a corrupt ignorant moron, I guess it was acceptable. Una Merkel was also pretty good as she had some of the best lines, even though I thought it was rather unlikely that Pet Pratt would decide to get married with Ezekiel Cobb. Eventually, even though I do believe that Harold Lloyd made the most of this material, the concept was still pretty thin and I wish it would have been slightly shorter. Concerning this satire of the politics in a small town in the US, sure, it was exaggerated but, on the other hand, I always thought that there was something bothering me about this country where you can vote only for 2 parties and 2 parties which are vastly similar after all on top of that. Obviously, it is not the same as the corruption displayed in this movie but the lack of choices between candidates did feel similar and hardly democratic. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing really groundbreaking, I thought it was a decent watch though and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Harold Lloyd’s work. 

Since I’m a huge fan of ‘Borat’, of course, I was quite eager to check this sequel. Eventually, it obviously didn’t turn out to be such a pop-culture phenomenon like its predecessor was but it was to be expected. It’s too bad because the context when this movie was made and released was really neat though. Indeed, it was released when Donald Trump was still President of the United States and it seems that it was shot right in the middle of the Covid pandemic so the potential was huge. In fact, shooting this movie was apparently much more dangerous than when they made the first one but I don’t think it is really surprising considering the fact that the US became even more polarized when Trump was in office. Unfortunately, Cohen didn’t do much with this after all and, instead, he got too much involved in pranking some average clerks in some shops but such clerks were/are a rather lame target. Sure, some of them might get into an argument with some weird/insensitive/inappropriate customers but most of them will just play along with whatever they are doing because that’s their job. Indeed, they are supposed to serve their customers and not judge or criticize them and to play against this concept was, as far as I’m concerned, not only disingenuous but, above all, not interesting whatsoever. Unfortunately, such tricks were basically half of the running time. Concerning the addition of Borat’s daughter in the mix, it was a pretty cool idea and I’m not surprised that Maria Bakalova got so much praise for her work in this movie. I also liked the idea that Borat had become so famous that he had to disguise himself in order to be able do his ‘work’. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I still think it was a decent watch though and it is worth a look, especially if you like this character. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was starring Kristen Stewart, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I’m afraid the damned thing didn’t really work after all. First of all, even though I do have a weak spot for Kristen Stewart, I think she was miscast here. I mean, Stewart is attractive but she has a more edgy look whereas Jean Seberg was really a classic beauty and I think someone like Emma Watson would have been more suitable. A bigger issue was that, sure, Seberg was quite gorgeous but I don’t think she was such a fascinating woman. The fact that, beside ‘À bout de souffle’, her career didn't turn out to be really impressive probably didn’t help. Sure, it’s terrible how the FBI spend so much time and resources to undermine her career and her whole life in general but, to be honest, I don’t think she was the biggest victim at the time. Indeed, for all the black folks, especially the ones active in the Civil Rights movement, the situation was much more difficult and dramatic. Furthermore, obviously, she should have been able to have a romantic relationship with a black man, however, they were both married at the time so her whole act of acting like a victim was actually misguided and rather annoying. However, a subplot involving a FBI agent played Jack O'Connell who had a crisis of conscience was even more even more pathetic though. I mean, this character was obviously made up but, above all, who cares about what this guy might have felt and thought at the time? To make things worse, they also added his wife and some very generic and really half-baked domestic conflict involving this couple. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I might have been to generous with my rating here but still think it was a decent watch though and it is worth a look, at least, if you like the genre.

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought it might as well check it out. Well, even if it didn’t seem to be much, it turned out to be even worse than I expected though. In fact, there was actually some potential as it could have been cool to follow Jeffrey Dean Morgan delivering some mysterious package from one place to another. Unfortunately, for some reason, they went for something so completely convoluted and boring which had nothing to do with his job after all. The most surprising thing was that it was directed by Hany Abu-Assad. I figured this out only afterwards when the movie was over and I looked it up on IMDb. Eventually, I wonder how a director could go from ‘Paradise Now’ to such a cheap and above all weak direct-to-VOD action flick like this one. It seems that, after the critical success of ‘Paradise Now’, Abu-Assad went to live in the US to further develop his career but it seems that he struggled and this movie was the only thing he managed to do after 7 long years. Fortunately, it seems that his career afterwards didn’t suffer that much from this blow. Anyway, coming back on the movie itself, well, it was definitely a rather unwatchable mess, I’m afraid. Another weird thing was to see Lili Taylor and Miguel Ferrer, usually some solid actors, showing up to play some random killers but even they couldn’t do much with this rather abysmal material. Concerning Mickey Rourke, who was probably the main reason why I wanted to check this movie, he was rather weak here as it was obviously another paycheck gig for him. Seriously, it was rather pathetic to have him play a supposedly mysterious character shot from the back when his voice is actually so recognizable. Anyway, to conclude, the whole thing was a big waste of time and you should pretty much avoid it. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick (the title did sound terribly generic) but since it was directed by Anne Fontaine and was starring [Link removed - login to see], I thought I might as well check it out. The first 30 mins turned out to be something similar to ‘Rashomon’ during which we saw a seemingly typical working day from the perspective of 3 street police agents. Sure, it was nothing really original but it was efficient enough. Above all, I was again impressed by Virginie Efira who is so charismatic but still completely convincing in everything she does and this movie was no exception. Concerning Omar Sy, I have nothing against him but, as far as I’m concerned, he pretty much plays the same character in all his movies. Anyway, when the trio of police agents was introduced in some rather grim way, the movie then started to focus on a transport of some political refugee being extradited to his home country and I thought it was quite interesting to behold. Indeed, I was born in France, lived there for 20 years and then lived for another 20 years in the Netherlands and in both countries, immigrants and refugees have always been a hot topic (in fact, it was the main topic of the last general election in the Netherlands). As displayed in this movie, what should we do with these people? On one hand, nobody (in France or in the Netherlands or anywhere else in Europe) wants to shelter them but they will keep coming anyway and, when they come, they are welcomed in such dreadful centers where the living conditions might be even worse than in a jail. So, what’s the alternative? Dropping them in a middle of a huge city like Paris or in the middle of nowhere like Virginie tried in this movie? It didn’t seem to be a much better solution for a poor guy who didn’t speak French or even English and it was fortunately well handled in this movie. To be honest, this mix of the two parts (the everyday life of these cops and the extradition) didn’t really work together and, eventually, it seemed that Virginie and Aristide will then just move on with their lives without thinking much again about this poor refugee or the 1000’s of other refugees facing a similar fate in France or anywhere else. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch though and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

By now, I have seen all the full-length features directed by Charles Chaplin but it had been a while since I saw one of his shorts. According to the IMDb ratings, it must be one of his very best so I thought I might as well check this one out. Well, to be honest, the damned thing didn’t really impress after all. Basically, the main idea was to have the Tramp becoming a police agent which was quite a huge contrast with what the guy was usually doing in Chaplin's movies. At least, I have to admit that the approach was rather original but I think they clearly struggled to get the character involved in an interesting story. I mean, if I understand correctly, he was assigned to work on Easy Street which was supposed to be a rough neighborhood. However, it turned out to be really only a single street, not even a whole block of houses. Even more problematic was the way they decided to show how rough it was by having a bunch of locals endlessly fighting with each other for no clear reason whatsoever. The end-result was, at least as far as I was concerned, more bewildering than really entertaining and I wish they did find some other way to show how difficult and hazardous it was to work in these parts. Fortunately, as usual, Charles Chaplin was really entertaining playing this great character and the damned thing is still definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by Todd Haynes and since there was such a strong cast involved, I was quite eager to check it out. The fact that it had received some very good reviews made the damned thing even more attractive to me. To be honest, I have to admit that I had no idea what it was actually about before watching this movie and it took me a while to figure out what the hell was going on but it made the whole thing even more rewarding. Eventually, I was actually floored by the damned thing. I have noticed that it was described as a camp comedy by some reviewers but, even though I understand what they meant, that’s not how I experienced it, at least, not most of it. In fact, it did impact me on a very personal level, much more than I expected. Indeed, I’m currently in the middle of an ugly divorce, I was married for 20 years and it was apparently a very abusive relationship. When we met, she was 34 years old, married with 2 children, I was 23 years old and I recognized so many things in Gracie’s behavior and Joe’s behavior, it was actually quite heartbreaking. I can’t imagine going through this if I would have been 10 years younger. As a result, even though, like everyone else, I was impressed by Julianne Moore’s and Natalie Portman’s performances, I was also really impressed by Charles Melton. Indeed, with barely any dialogues, he played such a stunted man, he was quite pitch-perfect. I think it’s the first time that I really understood the extent of the damages, for a teenaged boy, to have a sexual relationship with a much older woman. In this case, it was even worse since he was only 12 years old. After all this, I have to admit that I had some trouble to focus on Natalie Portman’s fine work because, sure, this couple or whole family was pretty messed up, but this actress definitely had some major issues as well. As a result, this movie was probably the worst advertisement I have ever seen regarding the acting profession. Of course, you might argue that Elizabeth was a bad example but, as displayed by the such great actors like Daniel Day-Lewis or Joaquin Phoenix, it can’t be really healthy to dive into such traumatized and messed up characters time and time again. Anyway, to conclude, it was just a fascinating drama and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Since I kept hearing some really good things about this flick, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, during the first hour, I was actually slightly worried. Indeed, after watching so many movies and TV-shows, usually in the super-hero genre, dealing with some multiverses, I wasn’t exactly thrilled by this indie feature tackling a similar concept. Sure, compared to the Marvel productions, the Daniels had to work with a seemingly microscopic budget and the movie was full of cute and/or weird little ideas. However, eventually, it still seemed to be yet another movie about some evil guy coming from some other multiverse threatening all living things which was pretty much exactly the same thing I already saw time and time again in other recent super-hero features. Fortunately, during the second half, it finally became obvious that it was actually something entirely different after all. Indeed, at some point, it became obvious that playing with multiverses was not actually the endgame after all, it was just a cool messy playground but, what this movie had and all the other multiverse-related productions missed (except for the Spider-Man animated features), was a really strong emotional core. Even though the bad guy was called Jobu Tupaki, it was actually Joy all along, the main’s character daughter, something everyone else in the movie seemed to forget, except Evelyn herself. As a result, it went beyond the usual fight between Good and Evil but it turned out to be actually a deep and profound reflection on how messy, chaotic and unpredictable life can be and about all the relationships we have along the way. Eventually, we make a 1000 of decisions on a daily basis and all these decisions seem and are meaningless on some level and, yet, each decision shapes who we are on the long term. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing really deserves its stellar reputation and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.