Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I had no idea what this movie was actually about and the main reasons why I wanted to check it out was because the poster looked really cool and the title sounded intriguing. Well, to be honest, I really had a hard time to care about the damned thing after all. I mean, the directing was decent enough, there was a solid cast but, unfortunately, the whole thing just completely rubbed me the wrong way. I guess the damned thing was supposed to be some kind satire about the fact that the way of life in Los Angeles might seem at first artistic, fun and glamourous, but is in fact rather shallow. So, as you result, you spend more than 2 years with some shallow people while some rather weird stuff is going on. I think that the first thing that bothered me was that, even though this mix of Alfred Hitchcock’s and David Lynch’s work might have sounded promising, I thought it was terribly pretentious after all. Then, I always had a weak spot for Andrew Garfield and he did what he could but, eventually, his character was a rather annoying loser, basically, some kind of boring version of Jeff Lebowski. Another thing that bothered me about the guy was that he was supposed to be broke and, yet, he had a very fancy apartment full of trendy cool stuff. However, towards the very end, you discover that he had actually been dealing with a break-up so, you could imagine that he used to have a nice steady job but he lost it following this break-up but it is something that was never confirmed though. On top of that, the whole break-up thing came up anyway just way too late to have a real impact on the story. Anyway, to conclude, even if this movie didn’t really work for me, it was still a decent watch though and if you really like the genre, you might end up enjoying it more than I did. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Peter Berg’s movies and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, from the 5 movies that Berg has made with Mark Wahlberg so far, even if I haven’t even seen yet ‘Patriots Day’ and ‘Mile 22’, I’m pretty confident that this flick will be the weakest of the bunch. I mean, the opening scene was decent enough, at least, until the characters involved started a brawl. Seriously, it has been a while since  I have seen such an uninspired fight scene and, unfortunately, I’m afraid it was pretty much representative of the quality of the whole movie. Indeed, even if he is definitely not the greatest actor out there, Mark Wahlberg has a decent comic timing and the guy can be entertaining but, with such a generic material, there was not much the guy could do, I’m afraid. Concerning Winston Duke, I won’t blame him either but their characters barely had any chemistry together. On top of that, to make the main character team up with his roommate - because, well, there was basically no one else available - was rather pathetic. At least, Post Malone was pretty convincing and it would have been neat if they could have managed to expand his part as he only had 2 scenes. He was probably the only interesting thing about this movie though. Anyway, to conclude, even if I have seen worse on Netflix, it was still a rather weak action flick and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

I have been member of a film club for more than 6 years and I never missed a single movie except for this one so I was quite eager to check it out. Well, first of all, it was pretty impressive to see Iranian director Asghar Farhadi directing a movie in Spain with such a convincing result as if the guy had spent all his life there. He already achieved the same thing with ‘Le passé’ which felt like such a genuine French movie. Furthermore, the cast was composed of famous Spanish actors (Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem) and some other actors unknown to me but they all delivered some solid performances. Unfortunately, I had a hard time with the story though. First of all, I thought it was rather unlikely that someone would manage to snatch a teenager in a house full of people during a wedding without anyone noticing. Maybe it would have been more convincing if they had displayed the actual kidnapping. Then, another thing that bothered me was how this family handled this situation. I mean, if you have the money, paying would seem to be indeed a safer option but, if you don’t, for me, it would be a no-brainer to go directly to the police. Finally, there was this big discussion about why on Earth should Paco pay the ransom? Well, again, it seemed to be a no-brainer because, in my opinion, it was actually the only decent thing to do since the only other alternative was to let this poor girl getting killed. Finally, most of the duration was basically about some gossiping they had about each other while it was so obvious that most of them had nothing to do with the kidnapping. On the other hand, it could be true that, during such crisis, people might turn against each other like they did in this movie. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t really work for me, it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Asghar Farhadi’s work. 

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.