Reviews by johanlefourbe

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but the title was pretty catchy and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check out the damned thing. First of all, one thing I liked about this flick was how it depicted the life on a college campus. Indeed, you always get to hear in American movies that to go to college is just so damned amazing but I had always my doubts (personally, I went to college was myself in Europe and even though I didn’t hate it, it didn’t turn out to be anything really mindblowing). Well, this movie finally displayed that college is actually not much better than high-school after all which was a pretty good start. It was also dealing with an interesting subject, on how a supposedly educated environment as an Ivy league university is dealing with the complexity of the race issues nowadays in the USA.  Still, even though the whole thing was pretty good, in fact, it could have been much better in my opinion.  The main issue was that, even though the characters were interesting enough, because they were in my opinion just too many of them, there was not enough time to develop them and, as a result, they were all rather stereotypical after all. Sure, the black rebel was having sex with a white boy and the popular successful black guy was smoking weed and wanted to be a comedian but that was not enough to break these stereotypes. Still, even if it wasn’t a complete homerun, it was a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Since this movie was very well received, I was quite eager to check it out. Eventually, even though it was still slightly too sweet and upbeat for my taste, it was still a really solid historical drama. The first thing that I enjoyed was that these amazing black women didn’t need some white folks to succeed which was something that seriously bothered with such movies like ‘The Help’ or ‘The Blind Side’ which might have been really successful at the box-office but these movies were actually seriously overrated and I actually preferred this movie. It was also interesting to see how segregation actually got in the way for the USA in their quest to remain a super-power, in the race for space but also in general and, because of this backward way of thinking, they were actually wasting some of their greatest minds. Still, this movie gave me the feeling, obviously not on purpose, that it was acceptable to treat these women like equals only because they were exceptional. Of course, you might argue that you have to start somewhere but I thought it was seriously unfair to the average black folks who also deserved to be treated fairly. Anyway, to conclude, even though I don’t think it was anything really groundbreaking, it was still quite inspiring and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Since I kept hearing some really good things about this movie, I was really eager to check it out. At first, I thought it would be a heartbreaking portrayal of a violent and pathetic man, the kind of movies you watch half fascinated by the work done by the leader actor and half disgusted by the antics of the main character. Eventually, it turned out to be slightly more subtle than I expected as the guy constantly switched between being seriously destructive and being actually almost kind and sweet. To be honest, I have to admit that I was not so sure if I really cared about the mood swings which were, in my opinion, slightly too convenient for the plot. Still, there is not denying that Peter Mullan, easily one of the most underrated actors that ever lived, gave another really strong performance and the guy was just spellbinding to behold. Concerning the woman the main character met, to be honest,  I wasn’t really convinced either. I mean, Olivia Colman gave also a solid performance but the way the characters met each other was just too random for my taste and, above all, I didn’t really buy how they bonded either. Anyway, to conclude, even though it didn’t completely blow me away, it was still a really solid drama with a great performance from Mullan and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.