Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, it was apparently a conscious choice made by Rashida Jones to write about a couple breaking up instead of falling in love and it was definitely a interesting approach towards the romantic-comedy genre. On top of that, Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg had some great chemistry together. That was also the tricky thing with this movie, especially at the beginning. Indeed, if Celeste and Jesse still got along so well, why didn’t stay together then? Still, it was quite refreshing to see a couple which did break up but still was friendly with each other, even if their friends thought that it was really weird. Eventually, the movie displayed very well that, even if you have the best intentions, even if it might seem the most sensible choice, to break up with someone you deeply loved for so long will always remain such a messy process. It’s too bad that, for some reasons, Jesse completely disappeared at some point and the movie only focused on Celeste. Even more problematic was the fact that, from the moment that Jesse finally started a relationship with someone else and as a result pretty much vanished from Celeste’s life, the rest of movie was basically about Celeste drowning herself into self-pity. I mean, sure, her feelings were understandable but she was stuck for too long in this mode, seriously, it took about half of the duration, and, as a result, it was rather hard to care about what she was going through and root for her. Anyway, to conclude, even if it wasn’t a complete home-run, it was still a decent watch 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 there was a decent cast involved and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, making a movie with only 1 location and only 2 characters basically arguing non-stop with each other for almost 2 hours might be challenging but, on the other hand, it might be the only kind of movies you can shoot during a worldwide pandemic. In fact, I do have a weak spot for such minimalistic features and, when they are well made, they can be quite spellbinding. Unfortunately, to be honest, this one never really impressed me though. I mean, the black-and-white cinematography was quite beautiful but it gave also an artsy-fartsy feeling and I couldn’t help thinking that the makers went for this option just to make the whole thing looking more sophisticated than it actually was. Concerning the actors involved (John David Washington and Zendaya), obviously, they had to carry the whole thing on their shoulders and, not only they were both quite charismatic, they both provided some really solid performances. However, the biggest issue with this movie was that, in spite of the two actors, I never really cared about their characters. I mean, I did like the fact that they reached some balance between these two characters arguing, never taking sides. Still, the structure of their conversations was also slightly weird. Indeed, in fact, they never really had an actual conversation, instead, they took turns monologuing about their discontent regarding their partner and their relationship. Basically, you had two attractive characters who were not completely stupid but their constant bickering was hardly as interesting as the makers were hoping it to be. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t really work, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you really like the genre. 

To be honest, I kinda of lost faith in Clint Eastwood a couple of years ago, however, since this movie had been rather well received, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, once again, Eastwood chose to tell the true story of an American hero and, while the end-result was at least miles better than the abysmal ‘The 15:17 to Paris’, to be honest, I still struggled to care about the damned thing. I mean, the whole thing was well made and there was definitely a solid cast involved (Paul Walter Hauser, Sam Rockwell, Olivia Wilde, Jon Hamm, Kathy Bates) but the story was just too pathetic for my taste. Of course, you might argue that it is how it all went down back then but, even so, this tale might have been strong on paper but I thought it was hardly fascinating. Basically, Richard Jewell was maybe a loser but it was just obvious that the guy was completely harmless and the fact that it took the FBI months to figure this out is just staggering and shows the lack of competence of everybody involved in this investigation. At least, they didn’t plant some evidence to completely frame the poor fellow. The worst character was probably the one played by Olivia Wilde though. Indeed, in my opinion, the way this character was developed was terrible and actually rather misogynist. Sure, that this journalist was some kind of vulture looking for any juicy story was not really shocking but the way she would sleep with anyone to get some intel was just pushing it too far (and, apparently, it was completely made up for this movie). Basically, you spend 2 hours with some rather pathetic characters getting stuck into a pathetic story so it didn’t feel really rewarding, even with a strong cast and a solid director like Eastwoord behind the wheel. Anyway, to conclude, even if I thought it was slightly disappointing, I have to admit that it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Since I have always been interested in Ken Loach’s work and since I really loved ‘I, Daniel Blake’, his previous movie, I was quite eager to check this follow-up. Well, it turned out to be another really strong directing effort from the British master. Of course, you could argue that Loach has basically spent most of his career making similar movies focusing on the grim and barren British social and economical environment. However, I was more shocked by the fact that the situation of Loach’s characters had actually become even worse since I started to watch his movies around 25 years ago. Indeed, back in the 80’s, during the Tchatcherism, the unemployment was maybe huge and, nowadays, it might seem fairly easy to get a job in the UK but the job conditions in the meantime have deteriorated so much, as dramatically displayed in this movie. Indeed, this time around, Loach had decided to focus on the parcel delivery business, which is obviously booming all around the Western world but it is notoriously shady so I was hardly surprised by what was displayed in this movie. However, it was still some powerful and heart-breaking material and Ken Loach made the most of it. The only thing that didn’t really work for me was the older son, Seb. I mean, his behaviour was rather erratic which was understandable but, in my opinion, he had such an erratic behaviour not because it made sense for the character but because it was a trick from the makers to avoid that the movie would be only composed of random scenes displaying Ricky and Abbie struggling at their work. Eventually, the whole family was in this together and everybody was trying their best while Seb was making a mess regardless of the consequences and it could have worked but only if they had spent more time on the poor kid. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a really solid movie and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like Ken Loach’s work.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by Eli Roth and since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though the idea of having Eli Roth directing a family feature was intriguing, to be honest, I was surprised by how underwhelming the damned thing turned out to be after all. Sure, the title did sound promising and the house looked pretty neat. On top of that, Jack Black and Cate Blanchett are always fun to watch but everything else just seriously bored me. No offense to Owen Vaccaro but he was basically a mix of many roles played by Jacob Tremblay with Young Sheldon and I wish they chose a more original approach for this character. But the poor kid was not the biggest issue though. Indeed, even if I have never been a huge fan of the Harry Potter franchise, I have to admit that these movies at least displayed a sense of wonder. Here, it was terribly missing though. Eventually, it was rather disappointing that Roth, a director famous for his horror flicks, didn’t try to make a really creepy horror flick for children and went instead for something terribly generic, predictable and to be honest rather sleep inducing. Anyway, to conclude, even though Eli Roth doesn’t really have a stellar track-record, this movie might still be his most disappointing and most boring movie so far and I don’t think it is really worth a look, except maybe if you are a die-hard fan of the genre. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but the title was promising and since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I was rather surprised by how underwhelming the damned thing actually turned out to be after all. Indeed, it is pretty obvious that they wanted to go for something edgy but the end-result was basically a rather misguided mix of fairly dark realism, goofy comedic satire and even some romantic-comedy but this mix never really worked, in fact, it was actually rather hard to swallow. It didn’t help that the cast was rather weak but I guess they were not helped by the fact that it was all rather poorly written. Indeed, for example, Tina Fey was a perfect choice on paper but, eventually, she was never really convincing. I mean, she got to Afghanistan and, obviously, she was completely overwhelmed by everything she experienced but, within 10 mins, she became some kind of veteran war correspondent even able to speak the local dialect. Concerning Margot Robbie, she was quite gorgeous as usual and like Tina Fey, a perfect choice for her character, but it was difficult to take her character seriously as her very first conversation was about having casual sex with Kim Baker’s bodyguard. Concerning the war in Afghanistan, even though you might expect a grim experience, all these journalists seemed to have a rather jolly good time and there were just too many scenes involving them taking part in some massive orgies with plenty of booze, drugs and sex. Coming back on the romantic-comedy angle, that’s something that showed up very late and involved basically Tina Fey pretending to be a war correspondent and Martin Freeman pretending to be Scottish and it was rather pathetic to see these characters falling in love with each other. Anyway, to conclude, even though I really liked the concept, I didn’t really enjoy this movie at all, my rating was probably too generous but I guess it might still be worth a look. 

Since I kept hearing some really good things about this flick, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, even though I did appreciate the original approach chosen by Taika Waititi, I’m afraid it was still too whimsical for my taste though. Still, there is no denying that Waititi was quite hilarious playing some kind of stupid childlike version of Adolf Hitler. However, I think it was a mistake to show all the Nazi characters as being some harmless morons. I mean, some of them were actually really smart and unfortunately not harmless at all. In general, it was probably the biggest issue with this movie, not the fact that it was a comedy (Roberto Begnini has displayed years ago with ‘La vita è bella’ that you can make a great comedy about the holocaust), but the fact it actually trivialized how dreadfully tragic this war was for pretty much everybody involved, even the Germans. In a similar fashion, it seemed fairly easy for a 10-year-old boy to keep a Jewish girl hidden in his house. Indeed, if you’re familiar with Anne Frank’s story, it was actually hard to swallow the fact that they kept running around in the house and scream at each other when people in this predicament actually had to remain completely silent for months. Of course, you could argue that this story was told from the point of view of a very young boy and while this approach definitely had some merit, it still didn’t completely work though. Indeed, the idea of showing the war from the point of view of a kid who basically had been completely brainwashed by the Nazi propaganda was actually quite fascinating but I wish they displayed him really struggling with conflicting ideas and feelings. Unfortunately, this process was greatly undermined by the fact that he started to change his mind way too fast and way too easily after only a few conversations with Elsa. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch though and, because of its original approach, it does get a free extra points from me. 

Since I kept hearing some really good things about this flick, I was really eager to check it out. The tricky thing is that it is in fact a really predictable story and, yet, it was still quite fascinating to behold and easily one of the best love stories I have seen in a very long time. To be honest, eventually, we don’t learn much about these two young women after all but, from the very first moment they met each other, there was such a massive chemistry between them. Obviously, Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel should be praised as they both delivered such strong performances, especially since their characters usually didn’t say what they thought but used mostly only their eyes. The fact that I have always been fascinated by Art, especially painting, made me enjoy this movie even more, even if the portrait was basically only an excuse for these 2 girls to spend as much time together as possible. The interesting thing about this doomed love story was that, even though it might seem tragic, somehow, because it did last only a few days, the memory of these few passionate days will always remain perfect, pretty much like the story of Orpheus and Eurydice which was read by the characters during this movie. Finally, it was also a tale about freedom, or at least, the yearning for freedom. Indeed, from the moment Héloïse’s mother left them, for the very first and maybe also the last time in their lives, they could enjoy the freedom of being themselves without any social boundaries, even Sophie the servant. I also wonder what to make of the fact that all the male characters have been removed or erased and maybe it was also linked to this feminist idea of freedom as men are mostly responsible for most of the literal and figurative shackles in every women’s lives. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing was just quite fascinating 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 there was a decent cast involved and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though the story had some potential, to be honest, I didn’t care much about the damned thing. At least, Basil Brown was an intriguing character and Ralph Fiennes delivered another solid performance though. Unfortunately, even though it was visually appealing enough, the makers never managed to make me feel how amazing it must be to dig up such ancient artifacts. Indeed, even though we were supposed to marvel at Basil Brown’s mighty skills, it didn’t seem to be so much work. Basically, Edith Pretty showed him some hillock, the guy started to dig and, a few days later, he found some super old ship. Eventually, I wish they delved in deeper into the technicality of such an archaeological digging but the only thing you learn is that digging a big hole can be dangerous and that small women are more suited for this job because they don’t weigh so much. Even more problematic was how Basil Brown was actually pushed aside at some point and, suddenly, they started to focus instead on the Piggotts’s marital issues. Seriously, not only this subplot was completely generic and predictable, above all, it really had nothing to with the main plot so I still wonder why it was added in the first place. It wasn’t even historically accurate as Stuart Piggott and Peggy Piggott did get a divorce but after almost 20 years of marriage. Seriously, it has been a while since I have seen such a half-baked and above all pointless sub-plot. 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 the genre.