Reviews by johanlefourbe

Usually, when I watch a movie, I try to know as little as possible about it but, in this case, I actually knew beforehand what it would be about and it was actually the main reason why I wanted to check it out. Well, even if it was to be expected, the damned thing still turned out to be seriously dark and I guess what made this movie hard to swallow was the fact that its protagonist was also its antagonist played wonderfully by Trine Dyrholm. I mean, at first, she seemed to be some rather basic middle-aged woman slightly arrogant and self-righteous but it was nothing really shocking and it was to be expected from someone like her. At some point, it seemed that she was going through some middle-life crisis which was again fairly believable. However, her behavior became more and more erratic but I think the movie failed to really explained where it actually all came from. I mean, was she really so bored with her fancy house, her impressive job, her successful loving husband, her cute kids? Or was it something else than boredom? Eventually, it did feel that her actions were actually more plot-driven than anything else. Anyway, when her unsettling gamble seemed to finally explode into her face, the whole thing became even uglier than it already was. Indeed, instead of taking her responsibilities for her revolting behavior, she basically threw her step-son under the bus and the way she basically bullied her (coward) husband was really something. Indeed, it really felt so calculated, so calibrated, it was really powerful and one of the strongest scenes I have seen lately. Eventually, the impact on the poor boy was just so heartbreaking and you could see that his step-mom was not completely unmoved by his tragic demise but she still kept covering up her misdeeds anyway which was obviously rather nauseating to behold. Anyway, to conclude, even if it wasn’t flawless, it was still a strong drama though and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Unfortunately, it turned out that the whole thing was actually based on a rather lame concept which was never really entertaining. The fact that the jokes were all pretty lame of course didn’t help either. Eventually, the only thing that worked was the relationship between Shirley MacLaine’s and Jessica Lange’s characters. Indeed, they had some really nice chemistry together, I really believed that these two women could have been best friends for decades and the movie almost worked as long as it was focusing only on them. Unfortunately, pretty much everything else was either boring or uninteresting or far-fetched or a combination of all three. The ending was also really pathetic as they made Eva (played by Shirley MacLaine) getting in a relationship with the insurance guy who was chasing her. I mean, seriously? It was even more ridiculous than the fact that her daughter would tag along with him to chase her mother all the way to the Canary Islands. I have to admit that I always had a weak spot for Demi Moore but I’m afraid she delivered here another half-baked performance and, to be honest, I can’t remember the last time she actually impressed me in anything. And what was the deal with Billy Connolly’s character? Was he really dement or was it just part of his scheme? They didn’t even take the time to clear that out at the end. Anyway, to conclude, even if I have to admit that the damned thing was rather harmless, the end-result was still rather pathetic and I would advise to avoid it, except maybe if you really like the genre. 

To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by D.W. Griffith and since it is included in the ‘They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They?’ list, I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, after watching so many vintage features on YouTube of dubious qualities which were barely watchable, it was pretty neat to see a movie which was made more than 100 years ago and, yet, it was still in pristine quality. The soundtrack was also pretty good. Unfortunately, it’s too bad I didn’t care much for the movie itself though. Indeed, the tagline for this movie was ‘The Story of a Plain Girl’ and, even if it was indeed a fair description, I’m afraid it didn’t make this movie sound really exciting. Even though D.W. Griffith became famous at the time with his ambitious epic features in the 1910’s, this movie turned out to be a much more minimalistic affair focusing on a love affair involving Susie, who wasn’t the brightest of the bunch (it was even confirmed by this tagline) and William who was wasn’t much smarter either, I’m afraid. Concerning Lillian Gish, she made many movies with Griffith and was one of the most famous actresses at the time but,  even though she did look lovely, she didn’t really impress me here. At least, Robert Harron was slightly better as he was pretty convincing playing the same character when he was a teenager and when he was a young adult. Still, it was rather difficult to care about these characters and what they were going through since they were both hardly interesting. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn't really work for me, I still think it is worth a look, at least, if you really like the genre or if you are interested in D.W. Griffith’s work.

I wasn’t expecting much from this movie but, since there was decent cast involved and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out anyway. Seriously, even before I actually started to watch the damned thing, the story did sound so derivative and hardly entertaining. To be honest, you might wonder how they managed to get such a solid cast involved (Toni Collette, Anna Faris, David Duchovny, Rosemarie DeWitt, Kathleen Turner, Ron Livingston). I do think that they all tried to make it work and I have to admit that there were some moments when they almost pulled it off. But, unfortunately, only ‘almost’…. Indeed, even though their whole plan was rather mean and obviously unethical, I don’t think the characters were really unlikable, with the exception of David Duchovny’s character though. Sure, Kathleen Turner played your typical grumpy old lady, and she did it with gusto, but her character was just one-note and she had no personality whatsoever. In fact, it’s just weird that, even though she was dying, even though she was high on morphine for most of the time, she seemed to be sharp enough to see what the hell was going on but yet she said nothing about it. Anyway, even if I didn’t hate these characters, it doesn’t mean that they were really interesting or entertaining at all though. Concerning the ending, at least, it was nice that Aunt Hilda’s final words were ‘You are all bastards’ or something like that but everything else happening afterwards (including the two twists) was just predictable, it was borderline pathetic. Eventually, when it is so difficult nowadays to get the greenlight for a mid-budget feature, you might wonder why something so hopeless from the start like this managed to get made at all. Anyway, to conclude, it turned out to be pretty weak and, even if I have seen worse, you should probably avoid it. 

To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since it did win the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, since it had a strong reputation, I was actually expecting more from the damned thing which turned out to be 2 movies into 1. Indeed, on one hand, they focused on Nan Goldin’s life and career and, on the other hand, her recent battle with the Sackler family who was behind the opioid crisis in the US but, to be honest, I’m not sure if this mix really worked after all. First of all, I have to admit that I had never heard of Nan Goldin before and it was neat to discover this really interesting artist. Indeed, her life and work were quite fascinating and I think I would have been perfectly content if they would have focused only on that. I mean, her fight against the Sacklers was also interesting but I had a hard time to see how it did fit with her life in general. There was also the fact that it was obvious that Goldin had been using (and abusing) recreational drugs for pretty much her whole adult life and, to be honest, I think there was something disingenuous about her complaining about the fact that she got hooked on some legal drug pushed by her doctor(s) and the pharmaceutical industry. I mean, there is nothing more hard-breaking then hearing all these stories about young kids who never touched any drugs and suddenly became addicts after getting this legal drug prescribed but I do think that it was a completely different story for Goldin. Finally, there was the fact that she was supposedly instrumental for the ‘downfall' of the Sackler family but, at the end of the day, sure, they paid a lot of money but it turned out to be only a fraction of their huge fortune and, to be honest, who cares if their name was removed from some fancy museums? I’m pretty sure that it didn’t bother the Sacklers that much and I’m definitely sure that the drug addicts overdosing on this stuff certainly didn’t care at all but I can imagine that it did give Golding a better feeling about herself. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t really blow me away, it was still a decent watch though and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in this subject matter. 

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from the damned thing but, since there were a few interesting actors involved, I thought I might as well check it out anyway. Well, unfortunately, as expected, it did turn out to be one of these dreadful wedding comedies. I mean, for a half of the duration, one of the characters was displaying a Hitler moustache and haircut, and the other big running joke was dealing with some ram which was just so idiotic but it will give you an idea of the humor displayed here. In fact, the concept of having an English guy marrying with an Australian girl after they spent only 10 days together was maybe not really original but I think it actually had some potential. Unfortunately, they seriously did nothing interesting at all with this concept and, instead, they focused on some really half-baked characters and kept delivering some rather pathetic jokes or visual gags every 2 mins. Eventually, the only person who seemed to have some fun was Olivia Newton-John and I have to admit that she was actually fairly entertaining but all the other characters were just so boring. It was interesting that the most famous actors of the bunch ([Link removed - login to see] and [Link removed - login to see]) turned out to be barely used after all but, on the other hand, back then, both of them were practically unknown, especially Debicki since it was her very first movie. At least, Laura Brent was really lovely and I thought I saw here somewhere before but it seems that her career went pretty much nowhere after this debacle. Anyway, to conclude, I guess the damned thing was rather harmless but it was also terribly lame and you should probably avoid it, even if you really loved ‘The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert’, an actually really good movie also directed by Stephan Elliott. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was directed by Yasujirô Ozu and since it was on YouTube, I thought I might as well check it out. It’s only afterwards that I discovered that it was his oldest movie available. Indeed, the few movies he made before were apparently lost. Well, one of the interesting things about this movie was how modern it actually felt. Indeed, even though it is now almost 100 years old, it almost felt like watching a contemporary US feature dealing with college students. The other thing that I really enjoyed was the really neat body language used by the actors involved. Since it was a silent feature, there was obviously no dialogues involved (there wasn’t even some soundtrack so I ended up putting my own music). However, they didn’t rely too much on inter-titles and, instead, sometimes by just slightly moving their hands or their head, the actors would tell what they wanted to say which was really cool. Unfortunately, the narrative turned out to be rather clunky, I’m afraid. I mean, I really loved the first scene, how this young guy lured this young woman in his apartement but, what was exactly supposed to be his endgame? With the other student, basically his competitor, it was even worse, I really had no idea how he got acquainted with this young woman. Finally, they both ended up living in the same apartement but it seemed to be so random and even though it would make more sense if they actually knew each other before, I really have no idea if it was really the case though. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Yasujirô Ozu’s work. 

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. Well, even if it was rather harmless, to be honest, I had a rather hard time to care about the damned thing though. Indeed, even if it was to be expected, the story turned out to be so fluffy and hardly entertaining. I mean, what was supposed to be fun about a bunch of young women chasing some guys just because they are rich? I’m sorry but it didn’t sound really inspiring to me and there is no way they would make a movie nowadays with such a storyline. If they would have gone for something darker and cynical, it could have been interesting but there was no way their approach would really work for me, I’m afraid. At least, there is no doubt that the three main actresses were quite charismatic and entertaining. Concerning Marilyn Monroe, it was the 8^th movie I saw with her but, even though I have to admit that she was indeed quite gorgeous, I still don’t think she was such a great actress, even if she was quite fun here. Concerning Betty Grable, she was apparently really famous at the time but it was actually the first movie I saw with her so it was pretty cool to discover this actress. Concerning Lauren Bacall, she was probably the best of the bunch but the whole gimmick of having her character falling in love with a rich guy while thinking he was just a ‘gas pump jockey’ which was just so predictable and rather lame. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t really dazzle me, I have to admit that it was still a decent watch though and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.