Reviews by johanlefourbe

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Isabel Coixet’s work and since it was available on Netflix, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, even though it was a very interesting story, the damned thing still turned out to be rather half-baked, I’m afraid. The biggest issue was that Coixet never managed to make it more than a generic drama about some gay lovers facing our cruel world. It didn’t help that this story was sometimes pretty cheesy. I mean, for example, Marcela falls in love with the first person she meets in her school within the first 5 minutes so there was no room for this relationship to grow organically. On top of that, even though we spent the whole duration with these 2 women, we don’t get to know them at all because they were only defined by their romantic relationship which was seriously limiting. Finally, the 2 characters kept making some rather stupid mistakes which could have been fairly easily avoided. For example, why would they go live in a small village where all the inhabitants would pretty much know everything about everybody? Even more bewildering was the fact that they went back to this village after Elisa became ‘Mario’ and they got married. And, yet, there was still something quite fascinating about this story above all because you don’t get to see so many vintage gay love stories like this one. Furthermore, the black-and-white cinematography was maybe not really original but it was still quite gorgeous to behold. Anyway, to conclude, even though Coixet never really managed to make the most of this interesting story, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look. 

I didn't really know what to expect from this flick but since there was a really nice cast involved, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, I did end up with some mixed feelings. First of all, even though it was dealing with an interesting topical subject, I always find it rather annoying when they release such drama's when the topic developed is pretty much everywhere in the media. To really get my respect, they should have made it at least 20 years ago when nobody would dare touch this subject. Then, even though the movie should have focused more on Ray and on what he was going through which was already a lot to deal with, they focused too much on his mother and his grand-mother who also had a lot going on in their own lives. As a result, it turned the whole thing into some kind of All-star game between Elle Fanning, Naomi Watts and Susan Sarandon to find out who would get the more attention. Eventually, Fanning tried her best and she was not bad but she didn't stand a chance against Watts and Sarandon. Furthermore, the fact that she didn’t want to cut her hair to instead wear some awful wigs did show a lack of commitment from the young actress. Finally, with such a title, it was obvious that it would be dealing with these 3 characters but the makers were making the assumption that, when someone is going into transition, it must be just as hard for them as it is for their relatives but I seriously doubt it. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch though and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in this subject. 

Of course, I didn’t expect much from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Dwayne Johnson, I thought I might still check it out. Well, unfortunately, it did turn out to be indeed pretty lame. Obviously, they were inspired by ’21 Jump Street’ and they decided to deliver another irreverent R-rated comedy which wasn’t actually a bad idea. Indeed, the concept of the original  ‘Baywatch’ TV-show was even more preposterous that the concept of ’21 Jump Street’ so this approach did make sense. Unfortunately, it never worked because the jokes turned out to be so lame. Seriously, there was a huge number of dick jokes and the fact that the cast was constantly swearing for no reason whatsoever made the whole thing even more cringe-inducing to behold. At least, as expected, the female cast (Alexandra Daddario, Kelly Rohrbach, Ilfenesh Hadera, Priyanka Chopra) was quite gorgeous to look at but their characters were not developed at all which felt like a missed opportunity. At least, Chopra was a decent bad guy and it would be interesting to see her in something slightly less underwhelming. Finally, not only the plot was terribly tedious and generic, there was not a single reason why it required such an excessive long running time (around 2 hrs). Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing was pretty much a waste of time and it is not really worth a look whatsoever. 

Since I kept hearing some pretty good things about this flick, I was really eager to check it out. Well, as expected, I turned out to be one of the weirdest sport biopics I have ever seen. However, even though I was fully aware of this story back in the 90’s, I was surprised that the makers actually took Tonya Harding’s side. Indeed, the theory developed here was that she wasn’t involved at all with the assault against Nancy Kerrigan which makes it retrospectively rather cruel that she was completely banned afterwards from ice skating.  Eventually, Harding was a pretty good skater, maybe not the best ever, but, above all, she had the bad luck that she had been surrounded her whole life with some either viciously mean and/or incredibly stupid people. And, yet, beyond this messed up drama, it was also quite funny and this mix of drama and dark humour reminded me of ‘Fargo’ except that it was, in this case, based on a real story which made the whole thing even more surreal. Concerning Margot Robbie, to be honest, even though she was barely recognizable, she didn’t look anything like Tonya Harding in my opinion. However, she was still rightfully praised as she completely disappeared in her character and she gave here her best performance so far. Anyway, to conclude, did this story deserve such coverage at the time and, 25 years later, a feature film like this one? Probably not, but it was still a pretty good movie though and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you want to see Margot Robbie delivering her breakthrough performance. 

Since this movie was Lars von Trier’s directing debut, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, as usual with this director, it wasn’t really an easy watch but, at least, there was some kind of a plot. Still, the plot was obviously hardly the biggest concern of von Trier who delivered one of the most surrealist thrillers I have ever seen. Back then, the Danish master had a very specific visual style consisting of combining black with one single colour (in this case, yellow) which increased the already surreal aspect of this movie. Still, to be be honest, some scenes were slightly too dark for me and I did struggle sometimes to see what the hell was going on. However, in my opinion, the weakest thing from Lars von Trier’s work has always been his lack of ability to provide some really compelling characters though. Of course, you could argue that, at this point in his career, he couldn’t get the best actors available but I don’t think this cast of unknown actors (at least, unknown to me) was bad at all. Eventually, it will be actually one of the most difficult thing to swallow about von Trier’s through his whole career, the disdain he always displays towards his characters. Anyway, to conclude, even if I wasn’t completely blown away by the damned thing, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Lars von Trier’s work. 

Since I kept hearing some pretty good things about this flick, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, eventually, it turned out to be a decent college comedy but, even if Richard Linklater probably managed to deliver one of the best movies I have seen in this genre, he didn’t bring anything new to the formula. Indeed, even if I was definitely entertained through the whole thing, it didn’t really go much beyond that, I’m afraid. Another issue was that, even though the characters were realistic and believable (except maybe for Jay who was seriously over-the-top), they were not really fascinating but, in fact, it actually made sense to me. Indeed, even though the American people has always displayed some kind of obsession regarding the time they spent in college, the people going to college are in fact hardly fascinating after all. In fact, they are pretty much still the same uninteresting people they were in high-school except, now, they can do pretty much whatever they want so they get shit-faced all the time. Furthermore, as pointed out in ‘Neighbors 2’, these movies are very often terribly misogynistic and this movie was not an exception. Seriously, the mud fight scene was just cringe-inducing to behold. Still, it was another solid directing effort from Linklater who managed to provide a realistic view on this ‘lifestyle’ and I have to admit that the damned thing was quite fun. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.