Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I had no idea what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Chloë Grace Moretz, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though the damned thing definitely had some potential, unfortunately, there were a couple of things that prevented this movie to really work for me, I’m afraid. The first thing that bothered me was that they pushed too much the idea of the super ‘cool’ parents. Seriously, I thought they were actually slightly annoying but, above all, not really believable. Fortunately, they didn’t put too much focus on the parents but a bigger issue, something that actually pretty much ruined the whole thing for me, was the back-and-forth chronology. Seriously, it is such an overused gimmick which shows that a writer doesn't really trust their story and therefore feels compelled to use this trick to make it more complex than it actually is. Anyway, it felt really useless in this movie. It’s too bad because Chloë Grace Moretz gave another solid performance here. Above all, I thought she had some really nice chemistry with Jamie Blackley and, together, they made not only a really cute couple but, above all, a realistic one. Indeed, for once, it was understandable why they would fall for each other (they were both some talented musicians) and even their conflict made sense (because they were both completely dedicated to their music career, they might have to live on different coasts), especially if you would compare it to the usual phony conflicts you get in this kind of movies. Seriously, without the back-and-forth chronology, it could have been actually really good. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

It is another movie that I wanted to watch for so many years. Seriously, I wouldn’t be surprised if I had been looking for this movie for more or less 20 years. Well, I wish I could say it had been worth the wait. However, even though I did like the damned thing, to be honest, I can’t say I was really blown away though. I mean, sure, it was a solid drama showing the harsh lives of Swedish immigrants trying their luck in Denmark at the end of the 1850’s but there were a couple of things that didn’t really work for me. First of all, there was no real plot but a succession of little dramas involving the different people living in this farm. Of course, you might argue that it provided a more realistic slice of life but it did lack some dramatic punch. Another issue was that, in my opinion, there were also too many characters. As a result, except for Lasse Karlsson, none of them was really developed and, in fact, they were all reduced to a one note characteristic. For example, you had the ugly bastard son, the pretty young girl who gets pregnant, the mean foreman, the fornicating Kongstrup,… The only exception was, as mentioned before, Lasse Karlsson. Indeed, Max von Sydow, the Swedish master, gave here another strong performance. Above all, while this character might be considered weak or even pathetic, I thought he was incredibly human and believable and his flaws made him even more interesting to behold. Basically, he was not an improbable hero but an average and ordinary man who had to face  the harsh realities of his life and kept on moving forward anyway and this realistic approach was really appreciated. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t really impress me, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Even though this movie was really poorly received when it was released, since I have always been a fan of Jim Jarmusch, I was still eager to check it out. Well, eventually, even if it was maybe not Jarmusch’s worse movie, unfortunately, it was still his laziest effort so far. Basically, the main issue was probably that there was no pulse whatsoever. Of course, that’s something that you could argue about most of Jim Jarmusch’s movies. The issue in this case was that he tried to deliver a comedy which was barely funny after all. I mean, at some point, when Bill Murray asks Adam Driver how he knows that everything will end badly, Driver tells him he knows it because Jim gave him the full script. And that was one of the better jokes. Sure, it was cute to see RZA playing a deliver guy for ‘WU-PS’ but the whole thing didn’t fly really high, that’s for sure. Futhermore, if Jarmusch probably gathered his strongest cast so far (Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Chloë Sevigny, Tilda Swinton, Steve Buscemi, Selena Gomez, Tom Waits, Danny Glover, RZA, Iggy Pop), it actually backfired. Indeed, there were basically too many characters involved and, as a result, none of them was really developed. Even worse, none of them was really interesting or entertaining. Eventually, I don’t known which one was worse, Selena Gomez, who showed up for 2 scenes for some unknown reasons (maybe to provide some misguided eye-candy?) or Tilda Swinton who played some weird Scottish samurai sword fighting funeral parlour owner (or maybe she wasn’t Scottish after all?). It’s such a shame because, a couple of years ago, Jarmusch managed to do something really neat with the vampire genre with ‘Only Lovers Left Alive’. However, this time, he tried to tackle the current zombie craze but, unfortunately, he did absolutely nothing interesting with an already completely overdone genre. Anyway, to conclude, even if I have always supported Jim Jarmusch, I don’t think there is any reason why you should check this movie, even if you really like the genre. 

I already saw this movie but, the first time, it was on the BBC so I was quite eager to watch it again but with some subtitles this time around. Well, I’m really glad I did because I enjoyed it even more. I guess the first time I watched it, I focused too much on the story which is, to be honest, really far-fetched and even rather ridiculous. However, this time around, I focused more on its weird dark and nightmarish mood and I was actually really swept away by the damned thing. The most interesting thing with this movie is how John Frankenheimer managed to mix a realistic approach with a totally far-fetched story. Indeed, the hypnotism and brainwashing thing was quite preposterous and, on paper, there is no way this story should have worked. However, the fact that it was taking place in a realistic world created this constant mix of realism and surrealism. One of the most striking scenes was probably the ‘meet cute’ involving Frank Sinatra and Janet Leigh. Indeed, even though Bennett Marco was at his lowest and looked like a total wreck, Eugenie Rose Chaney still really flirted hard on him. To make this moment even more surreal, they had the weirdest conversation ever. Was Marco dreaming or hallucinating? Was Eugenie actually another spy? Those were really the best moments, when Marco seemed really vulnerable and when the viewers are not really sure what the hell is actually going on. To make the whole thing even more far-out, you had some anti-McCarthyism, the Communist Dr. Yen Lo who kept making jokes, Eleanor Shaw Iselin who might have had some incestuous feelings for her son and who happened to be a spy as well,… Anyway, to conclude, it turned out to be a really weird but still fascinating thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I wasn’t exactly a huge fan of ‘Altered Carbon’, it was a decent TV-show but not much more than that. However, after a watching the trailer for this anime, I thought I might as well check it out since it was available on Netflix. Well, the main reason I wanted to check the damned thing was because the animation seemed really neat and, indeed, the whole thing looked awesome. Above all, I thought it was a perfect fit for the futuristic world displayed in ‘Altered Carbon’. Still, while the numerous action scenes looked convincing, somehow, when the characters would just stand still or simply walk, it wasn’t really so smooth anymore though. Concerning the story itself, I think it was a cool idea to bring Takeshi Kovacs into the world of the Yakuzas delivering a nice mix of old traditions with futuristic SF. Unfortunately, if the story definitely had some potential, it was still missing something to really work though. The biggest issue, in my opinion, was that either the running time was too short or there were too many similar action scenes. As a result, there was a massive lack of character development which is too bad because there were some interesting characters involved (Takeshi Kovacs A.KA. Ken Kakura, Reileen Kawahara A.KA. Gena, Holly Togram A.KA. Margot). Basically, instead of developing them, they gave us some twist about their identities but the movie didn’t really do anything with this new piece of information or even with the characters themselves for that matter. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of a rather generic plot and some barely developed characters, I still think it is worth a look, at least, if you really like the genre. 

Following the current coronavirus crisis, my TV provider gave us some extra movie channels so I decided to give it a try and check this movie. Well, I always had a weak spot for movies dealing with submarines and this one definitely had some potential. First of all, you might think at first that there is something wrong with your TV-set but, don’t worry, that’s not the case. Apparently, Vinterberg thought it would be clever to shoot the scenes outside the submarine with a smaller resolution creating some kind of cramped claustrophobic feeling but it might have worked better the other way around. At least, as soon as we finally got into the sub, the damned thing finally started to get interesting and, following the explosions, the distress and even despair experienced by the crew was really well handled by Vinterberg. I have to admit that I didn’t know this real-life story before watching this movie but I think it allowed me to enjoy more this movie since I didn’t know what would happen next. Anyway, fairly quickly, I mean, for the viewers but probably not for the crew of the Kursk, it was discovered that there were some survivors and it seemed that they should be rescued after all. Unfortunately, the whole thing lost its edge from this point and, in my opinion, it became some rather shameless anti-Russia propaganda. Indeed, it is pretty obvious that, even though they managed to find the survivors, the Russian authorities would never manage to save these men themselves and, yet, they refused any help until it was too late. Well, it might have sounded intriguing for a news article but, for a movie, it was pretty tedious to go back and forth between the Evil Russian government, the Righteous Western authorities, the desperate survivors and their loved ones. The main issue was that there was no real depth in the characters and their motivations and, as a result, I had a hard time to really care about what they were going through. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, even if it is probably one of the weaker movies delivered by Thomas Vinterberg so far.             

Since I kept hearing some pretty good things about this flick and since it was available on Netflix, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, it turned out to be a really decent watch and the damned thing definitely deserves its cult-classic reputation. First of all, it was so refreshing to see an animated feature targeting the adult audience as the vast majority of the genre is mostly focusing on kids, even very young kids usually. Concerning the animation itself, it was an anthology involving several directors so the quality was varying. Still, I really liked the style(s) used which was again really different than what you get in your usual mainstream animated production. Concerning the stories, it did like the fact that they were all linked somehow to the Loc-Nar which prevented the whole thing to become completely random. So, it seems that they had all the main ingredients to deliver something truly amazing and, yet, even I enjoyed most of it, to be honest, it didn’t completely worked though. Indeed, even if it all felt pretty ground-breaking, it was also pretty obvious that it was also a first attempt and, after a strong segment called ‘Harry Canyon’, it became fairly patchy with above all some pacing issue. For example, one of the later segments called ‘Taarna’ was quite promising but they botched the intro and they were just too many scenes involving Taarna flying on her damned weird bird. Finally, this movie is also quite famous for his badass soundtrack but, even though these tunes were neat, they usually didn’t fit really well for the scenes they were apply to. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I think it is a really original animated feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you liked such adult-oriented comic-books when you were a teenager. 

Even though this movie had been a major critical failure when it had been finally released after months of delay, since I have a weak spot for Xavier Dolan’s work, I was still quite eager to check it out. Well, unfortunately, I’m afraid it really deserved its poor reputation. Indeed, even though ‘Juste la fin du monde’ had received some mixed reviews, I actually loved the damned thing. In my opinion, Dolan had delivered his best movie but this follow-up which was probably his most ambitious project so far was however a huge f*cking mess. First of all, it is not surprising that the guy had spent a year editing this flick. I mean, narratively speaking, it all made sense but it was never really smooth. On top of that, to be honest, I was rather annoyed by the fact that at least 80% of the shots were some massive close-ups. Concerning the story, well, there were in fact 3 of them, one of them dealing with Rupert Turner has a kid obsessing about his favourite actor, one of them dealing again with Rupert Turner has a young man still obsessing about his favourite actor and another one dealing with the fall of John F. Donovan, the actual actor. Maybe it would have worked better if they had focused on only one story thread (I doubt it though) but this mix was certainly misguided. For example, when you get to see Donovan’s bits, you are supposed to believe that, from time to time, he did write some letters to a 11 year old kid but it didn’t fit at all into this character and what he was going through. As usual with Dolan, there were some major mother-son conflicts, two of them in fact, resulting in some decent scenes and I also think that the cast was solid in spite of the material but the damned thing never really worked. Anyway, to conclude, even though he had a very strong track-record so far, Xavier Dolan falters for the first time, big time, but even if you should avoid this movie, you should definitely check his other movies which are all worth a look. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I really enjoyed ‘Short Term 12’, I was really eager to check Destin Daniel Cretton’s following directing effort which was also starring Brie Larson. Well, to be honest, I had a hard time to judge this movie. Indeed, I have always been intrigued by alternative lifestyles, probably due to the fact that my father had travelled for 3 years around the world when he was younger, but, unfortunately, pretty much like with ‘Captain Fantastic’, it turned out to be another movie constantly arguing that such alternative lifestyles are basically doomed to fail. On the other hand, what the alternative lifestyle consisted in this time was never clearly defined. I mean, it seemed that they were mostly in financial trouble because Rex Walls kept spending most of their money on booze. That was also another issue with this movie, how the father was displayed. Basically, they constantly switched between scenes during which the guy was displayed as sweet, funny, inspiring, whimsical and even quite brilliant with some other scenes during which he was drunk, violent, mean and even dangerous. Still, I had a hard time with this character. In my opinion, he was a father who would care for his kids only when it was convenient for him and who would constantly drop them to focus on his drinking. Eventually, it was rather hard to believe how much they would praise him towards the end of the movie. On the other hand, even though the promotional material focused on Brie Larson and even though she was fine, I was above all impressed by Woody Harrelson who, in my opinion, delivered here a very strong performance playing a really complex character. 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.  

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by John Landis, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I really had a hard time to care about the damned thing after all. First of all, the whole concept was at best rather generic. In fact, that was actually a rather generous assessment, in my opinion, it was actually really tedious. Sometimes, it did feel slightly similar to ‘Dr. Strangelove’ but that’s giving this movie way too much credit as nothing remotely smart or thoughtful happened through the whole duration. Concerning the jokes, sure, some of them were funny but most of them were just lame.  And what was the deal with all these cameos from famous directors? I mean, I did spot Sam Raimi and Terry Gilliam but there were many more (Michael Apted, Martin Brest, Joel Coen, Costa-Gavras, Frank Oz, …). Seriously, what was the point? At least, there were a couple of lovely ladies involved (Donna Dixon, Vanessa Angel, Heidi Sorenson) but that was probably the only positive thing I could find regarding this flick. Anyway, to conclude, I thought the damned thing was pretty weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look, except maybe if you really like the genre.