Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have always been a huge fan of Marlon Brando, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, the first thing that I noticed while watching the damned thing was the fact that I still have to watch more than half of the movies starring this amazing actor. Anyway, eventually, it turned out to be a fairly generic documentary with however a major twist. Indeed, basically, you follow Brando through the major events during his career and also his private life which was interesting but nothing ground-breaking. However, as I mentioned before, there was a major twist which was that Brando himself was actually narrating the whole thing. Sure, it might have seemed like a gimmick like it was with ‘Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes’ which actually featured very little of Bundy himself. However, here, it was actually the real deal, you get to hear Brando from the beginning until the very end talking about his career and his life and the end-result was sometimes poetic and usually quite spellbinding. Eventually, this movie pretty much confirmed that Brando had such a huge charisma and personality in his work and in his life and, even though he might have been at the top of his game only for a short while, his impact will probably last forever on this Art. Anyway, to conclude, even if I don’t think I really learned anything new about this actor, it was still an original documentary and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Marlon Brando. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Elle Fanning and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, eventually, it turned out to be a decent drama about 2 messed-up teenagers who fall in love with each other and not really much more than that. Still, I was quite impressed by Justice Smith. I had seen him in a couple of movies before but it was the first time that I had actually a glimpse of his potential. Indeed, the guy displayed here such charisma and I also appreciated the fact that his character was really three-dimensional. Unfortunately, I couldn’t say the same thing about Elle Fanning’s character though. I mean, I won’t blame Fanning as she delivered a solid performance but her character was just not really interesting, I’m afraid. Sure, it was understandable that she was so sad, even depressed, but this character was unfortunately only defined by this trauma while Finch had some much more going on than only his mood swings. On top of that, at some point, they switched their roles in the sense that Violet was first the one in mental distress and Finch was supporting her and then, it was the other way around, Finch was distressed and Violet was trying to help him out but this switch was rather jarring. Furthermore, I thought it was rather unfair that Finch would be able to provide some efficient support while there was apparently nothing that Violet could do to help him out. Still, there are not so many movies dealing with mental disorder and the topic was fairly well handled in this flick. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.  

In spite of or because of its notorious reputation, I have to admit that I was actually rather intrigued by this movie and I knew I had to watch it at some point. Well, eventually, even if it was expected, it still turned out to be a cheap and nasty piece of work. First of all, nowadays, you can shoot something really decent with a digital camera or even with an iPhone but, back then, if you didn’t go for the good old celluloid, the only other option was to shoot with some analog VHS camcorder and the end-result was always terribly ugly, as it was displayed in this movie. Concerning the story, the beginning scenes were pretty messy and awkward and, from the moment the main characters met each other in the most random way possible, the whole thing became some kind of (very) dark version of ‘Thelma & Louise’. At least, even if Karen Bach and Raffaëla Anderson both gave some poor performances, they actually had some charisma and a nice chemistry together and, with some slightly stronger material and some better directing, they could have delivered something interesting. Concerning the explicit sex scenes, well, they were the reason why this movie made some waves when it was released but, to be honest, they didn’t have much value narratively speaking and it seems that they had been added just to create some controversy and to make sure that this movie got more attention that it actually deserved. Eventually, even if I still think that the concept of displaying some explicit sex scenes in a mainstream production has some potential, this movie however probably displayed the worst way to promote this idea. What makes this movie even more gloomy and nihilistic is the fact that Karen Bach actually took her own life 5 years after starring in this movie. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of a couple of interesting ideas, the damned thing was pretty weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Jennifer Garner and since it was available on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, unfortunately, it turned out to be another rather lame whimsical Disney production, I’m afraid. In fact, the tone was probably not even the biggest issue I had with this flick though. Indeed, I don’t know what was worse between the story and the characters as they were both terribly half-baked. I mean, I didn’t mind that it was never explained how exactly Timothy ended up there in their garden, that’s just inherent to the genre and that was fine. On top of that, any kind of explanation would probably have been preposterous and would have made the whole thing even more underwhelming. No, what bothered me more with this tale was the fact that, when this couple finally gets a kid, instead of focusing on the overwhelming experience of having to take care of him, they focused on the fact that this boy had some leaves on his legs and on some other even more trivial things. Concerning the characters, the fact they were never properly developed didn’t help but, above all, I never had the feeling that they were going through some life shattering event. Anyway, to conclude, even if I have to admit that the whole thing was rather harmless, I thought it was just pretty weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look, except maybe if you really like the genre. 

Even though this movie turned out to be a major critical flop, since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out anyway. Well, following the impressive ‘Mudbound’, still probably one of the best movies ever released on Netflix, the expectations were pretty high regarding this follow-up from Dee Rees but, unfortunately, the damned thing turned out to be indeed so disappointing. Seriously, it has been a while since I have seen such a huge pretentious mess. Basically, it started out as a typical political thriller about the US intervention in the various conflicts taking place in Central America during the 80’s but, even if it was nothing really original, it did have some potential. But, then, the main character got involved with some kind of shady weapons deal originated by her own father, which was just such a misguided idea, and, from this point, the whole thing just completely spiralled out of control. Indeed, the damned thing became murkier by the minute and, to be honest, it was rather difficult to make sense of what the hell was going on. To make things worse, Anne Hathaway provided one of her weakest performances in years. Of course, you could blame the material but Willem Dafoe still managed to be interesting. On the other hand, this guy would remain spellbinding no matter what they gave him to do. Concerning Ben Affleck, he wasn’t really convincing either but he had the luck that he was playing only a supporting character. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing was quite a misfire and you should probably avoid it.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Jake Gyllenhaal, I was quite eager to check it out. To be honest, I have to admit that I didn’t even know before watching the damned thing that it was dealing with the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. It didn’t matter though, in the contrary, this way, I was more able to focus more on the characters going casually with their life before the tragedy. Anyway, this story was basically doomed to become your typical inspiring biopic but David Gordon Green chose a more gloomy and gritty approach which was much more than welcome. Indeed, not only Jeff Bauman had to struggle with the fact that he had lost his legs but also with the fact that he had become overnight some kind of hero which was a status he didn’t feel he deserved at all. Another strong aspect was also the fact that, of course, Jake Gyllenhaal, who is decidedly one of the best actors of his generation, gave here another really strong performance. Tatiana Maslany was fine as well and the relationship involving their characters was probably one of the best things in this movie. However, even if it was quite realistic and believable, the 2^nd act was not so compelling though. Indeed, of course, I can understand the struggle the main character had to face but, compared to the intensity of the 1^st part, to be honest, it felt rather flat. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing really ground-breaking, it was still a solid drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Jason Reitman, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, following the rather disappointing ‘Labor Day’, at least, Reitman didn’t waste much time to come up with a new directing effort but, unfortunately, it didn’t turn out to be much better than his previous movie, I’m afraid. The first issue was that the various scenes involving the Voyager space probe with the lovely voice of Emma Thompson were just so pretentious and didn’t add anything really interesting. Then, showing all these social media screens and windows might have seemed to be clever. However, the whole concept (even though we can virtually connect with anyone on Earth within seconds, we don’t seem to be able to have a normal conversation with the people physically right next to us) has been done before and this movie didn’t do anything really interesting with it. Eventually, the biggest problem was, in my opinion, the fact that there were just too many characters and sub-plots involved. It’s too bad because, in fact, most of these stories were actually not bad at all (I enjoyed above all the romance involving Ansel Elgort and Kaitlyn Dever) but none of them had enough space and time to be properly developed and, as a result, they all turned out to be rather half-baked. At least, it was refreshing to see Adam Sandler in a movie which wasn’t completely lame. Anyway, to conclude, even if I’m not sure if it was Jason Reitman’s weakest movie so far and it wasn’t far from it, in spite of its flaws, I still think it is worth a look though.