Reviews by johanlefourbe

Since I kept hearing some pretty good things about this movie, I was quite eager to check it out. To be honest, I have to admit it that, before watching the damned thing, I had actually completely forgotten what it was actually about and, for some reason, I thought I heard somewhere that it would be dealing with some vampires. Anyway, I really loved the directing and editing which created a mysterious and mesmerizing mood and the cast was pretty strong as well (Mia Wasikowska, Nicole Kidman, Matthew Goode). Unfortunately, the whole thing lost me towards the end. Eventually, it had obviously nothing to do with vampires but this conclusion, when they finally explained what was going with the mysterious Uncle Charlie, turned out to be rather disappointing. I mean, imagine if David Lynch would end up ‘Mulholland Dr.’ or ‘Eraresehead’ with a very concrete explanation, do you think it would be an improvement? It could have also to do with the fact that they removed 30 minutes of footage from the final cut but, eventually, they either said too much or too little in my opinion. I was also rather disappointed that Nicole Kidman’s character was so damned passive. Anyway, to conclude, even though it didn’t completely work for me, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Since the rating were pretty high for this movie and since it was recently added to the book ‘1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die’, I was really eager to check it out. To be honest, I’m pretty sure that it will be one of these movies they add every year but which end up being removed directly the year after or at least very soon. Still, I’m glad I saw the damned thing and it was really good, even one of the best movies I have seen released so far in 2016. Of course, I knew already a lot of what they told but they went so much in depth in the subject and they chose some really interesting, well-spoken and knowledgeable speakers. It was really interesting that the problematic came all the way back from the end of the slavery but I was mostly shocked by the privatisation of the prison sector in the USA. I already saw something similar in ‘Sicko’, another very strong documentary delivered by Michael Moore, in which they displayed the damage done by the privatisation of the health sector. As a result, you get to see that there is so much money involved  in the process, it can never be good that someone would open a prison and take care of prisoners in order to make some profit. Anyway, to conclude, it was a really strong documentary and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in  this subject.

To be honest, I have no idea why I actually ended up watching this flick. Indeed, the director was rather obscure, there was no really interesting actors involved and the whole thing seemed to be rather lame. Still, somehow, the damned thing was on my ‘to-watch’ list somehow so I thought I might as well check it out. Anyway, eventually, this movie actually had some potential. Indeed, there was something neat and romantic about this perfect guy meeting the perfect girl resulting in a perfect couple. Unfortunately, pretty much everything else was rather lame and boring. Above all, the whole conflict with the father was just so bogus and annoying.  I mean, if your daughter would meet a decent boy and deeply fall in love after years of mourning her dead brother, wouldn’t you be thrilled as her father? I was also annoyed by the mother who didn’t do much to stop him and I’m pretty sure if I would act like this, it wouldn’t take long before my wife would ask for a divorce. And, yet, somehow, I have to admit that the whole thing grew on me. Anyway, to conclude, even though my rating was probably too generous for this movie, I thought it was watchable and I guess it might be worth a look, at least, if you like the genre. 

Since I really enjoyed ‘Pusher’, I was quite eager to check this follow-up. Apparently, after his 2 next directing efforts turned out to be some failures, especially ‘Fear X’ which made his film company go bankrupt, Winding Refn did pretty much the same thing Sam Raimi did with 'Evil Dead II' and came back to his directing debut in order to relaunch his career.  Well, to be honest, even though I had some high expectations and even expected this movie to be an improvement on its predecessor,  I thought it turned out to be actually a slight step down. I mean, the directing was again solid and I really liked the same dark and gloomy mood. However, if I thought that the story in ‘Pusher' was too generic and predictable, here, it was the other way around. Indeed, there was no real plot and the whole thing felt pretty random.  Above all, the biggest issue I had was that while Frank, the main character in ‘Pusher’, was pretty much a loser, Tonny was actually even more pathetic. Seriously, even if Mads Mikkelsen  gave another really good performance, I had a hard time to root for the guy who was hardly charismatic and had no skills whatsoever. Anyway, to conclude, even though the damned thing was slightly disappointing, it was still pretty good and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

The first thing I enjoyed about this movie was how much van Warmerdam had improved as a director. Indeed, the whole thing looked so much better than ‘Abel’ and, even if it was still nothing amazing visually speaking, it was really well made. The other thing I really enjoyed was the location chosen by van Warmerdam. Indeed, it was staking place in some kind of failed housing development and even though it was built only a few years before, it already looked like a ghost town which was just so surreal. Still, even though the beginning was therefore really promising, I have to admit that, after a while, I had a rather hard time to really connect with the damned thing. I mean, I wasn’t really bothered by the randomness of the whole thing, by now, I’m used to it with this director. Eventually, what bothered more was that, even though it was once again quite hilarious, I thought it was sometimes rather sad and even mean, especially regarding Thomas. Indeed, Thomas was a teenager whose new mysterious girlfriend gets shot by accident, whose mother refuses to eat and becomes some kind of saint and whose father started with a rather healthy libido but then cheats on his wife and finally becomes a rapist. Seriously, I do like black humor but that was a lot to handle. Still, even if it didn’t completely work me, it was still a solid absurd comedy and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Since there was an interesting cast involved, I was quite eager to check this movie. First of all, it was pretty sad to see this movie just a year after Anton Yelchin passed away, especially since he was so good in this movie.  Felicity Jones was fine as well and, together, they made one of the cutest and most convincing couples I have seen for a while. Concerning the story itself, it was nothing really original but it was still fairly interesting. Eventually, the main issue I had is that both characters were, in my opinion, rather selfish after all, especially Jacob. Indeed, it felt as if, from the moment they both had a decent career, they couldn’t make up their mind about their relationship anymore. The fact that they both hooked up with some other people didn’t help either. At least, Anna was stuck in England and there wasn’t much she could do but if Jacob was really so ‘crazy’ in love with her, I didn't get why he wouldn’t drop everything in Los Angeles to go live with her in England. Basically, even though they gave us a really cute and genuine couple, it seemed that these characters were stuck in a rather bogus situation. Still, I did like how the movie finished with a rather ambiguous ending as you couldn't know for sure if they would make it or not after all. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent romantic drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Nicolas Winding Refn is easily one of the most interesting directors at work nowadays so I was really eager to check his directing debut, especially since it has a really a solid reputation. Well, I wasn’t disappointed, that’s for sure. Eventually, the scenes I enjoyed the most was when you get to see  Frank simply hanging around with Tonny and his other acquaintances. At some point, even though Frank owns a huge sum of money to Milo and even if Radovan might have to kill him at some point,  they still had some casial chat which was just so surreal and fascinating. This movie also reminded me of the time when I was a teenager spending most of my free time getting wasted on hashish and alcohol and, even if it might seem like a big waste, I actually had a great time. However, there was also a dark side and when one of my best buddies started to become a small  time dealer and got some big debts, it even became really nasty. Seriously, his own dealer came to my appartment at some point and told me that I should pay my friend’s debt, otherwise, he would come with some guy and take all my stuff. Since it was one of my best friends, I paid his debt but my friend never paid me back and, from that point, our relationship became really sour. So, I could really identify myself with what happened in this movie. Still, from the moment Frank got involved with this drug deal, I pretty much knew everything what would happen afterwards and since it all became really predictable and rather generic, the whole thing was always watchable but it never became really amazing. Anyway, even if it was maybe not a masterpiece, it was still a really solid gritty crime thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Nicolas Winding Refn’s work.