Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I wonder how I actually ended up watching this movie. Indeed, I constantly add movies to my queue. Right now, I’m focusing on older movies released during or before the 40’s and I think I came across this one more or less by accident on YouTube. Anyway, basically, it turned out to be a decent film noir. The funny thing (depending on your sense of humor, I guess) is that I have just been recently separated from my wife and I certainly could identify with what happened to Philip Marshall. Indeed, getting stuck in a really toxic relationship within which the only option is to avoid any confrontation at all costs was terribly familiar. What’s even more eerie is that I also met a wonderful young woman and we are both seriously in love so the similarities with this story were just really striking. However, I was already separated from my wife when I met her so, fortunately, there was no need to murder anyone. But, that’s the interesting approach with this movie, the fact that even though Philip Marshall was really a murderer, he was also a really nice and decent guy who killed his wife not because he really wanted to get rid off her but because he wanted to protect an innocent young woman. On top of that, it was really neat to see Charles Laughton playing the lead for once and, even though I haven’t seen many movies starring this guy, I’m already pretty much sure he was one of the best actors that ever lived. Concerning the story itself, well, even if it was fairly entertaining, it was not really great though and, eventually, it felt like a rather average Hitchcockian thriller. The fact that Charles Laughton and Ella Raines didn’t have much chemistry probably didn’t help either. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, thanks to Laughton at the top of his game, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it seemed to have a decent reputation, I thought I might as well check it out. I have to admit that I didn’t know it before watching this movie but it was actually a  sequel to ‘Going My Way’ which I haven’t seen. Apparently, this sequel was a big box-office success when it was released. Anyway, I really had a hard time to care about the damned thing, to be honest. Of course, the fact that I’m not a religious man probably didn’t help but I actually find religious movies in fact often quite interesting, at least, when they turn out to be slightly challenging but it was definitely not the case here. I won’t blame Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman though. Indeed, Bergman was so lovely and delivered here another solid performance. Concerning Bing Crosby, it was actually the first movie I have ever seen with this guy, I have to admit that he was quite charismatic and I’m not surprised that he was quite popular back then. So, the lead actors were fine but, well, pretty much everything else felt rather flat, I’m afraid. Sure, it was all rather cute and harmless but it was also really episodic without an actual plot. The tone also kept bothering me. Indeed, it is usually considered as a comedy but I’m not sure if this genre really fit this movie. On the other hand, nothing seriously dramatic really happened through the whole duration. Eventually, it was basically a really bland feel-good movie but not much more than that, I’m afraid. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t really work for me, I have to admit that it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, at least, if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though it was definitely dealing with a super interesting story, the movie itself was not really great, I’m afraid. First of all, I thought this movie would be about the conflict between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla and, in fact, I have to admit that I had never heard of George Westinghouse before. It’s weird because I saw ‘Tesla’ starring Ethan Hawke less than 2 years ago and I couldn’t remember that he did work for both men. Anyway, in spite of his legendary status, Tesla was never really successful after all but that’s not what this movie was about. However, even though you might expect the whole thing to be a duel between these 2 great men, you still had Tesla who kept popping up with his own narrative and, as a result, this movie always felt rather unbalanced. Another thing that bothered me was the way they tried to conjure some kind of excitement through some slightly annoying score. I mean, the story itself should have been fascinating enough without resorting to such artifice. Another mistake they made was to try to focus as well on the wives of Edison and Westinghouse which was not necessarily a bad idea. Unfortunately, both women had simply not enough impact on the career of their respective husbands so it all felt like a rather useless distraction. At least, the cast was really neat (Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Shannon, Nicholas Hoult, Tom Holland, Matthew Macfadyen, Katherine Waterston), except maybe Tom Holland who was rather unconvincing and probably miscast here. 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. 

A couple of days ago, I saw ‘Rhythmus 23’ but I didn’t know it was actually a follow-up to this movie so I thought I might as well check it out as well. I have to admit that I had never heard of Hans Richter before but, apparently, he was a major German artist who was one of the first who dabbed into abstract film making. Even though this movie might not seem to be much (you have to keep in mind that it was made already more than 100 years ago), it is actually considered as one of the very first abstract film and had therefore a huge impact. With ‘Rhythmus 23’, the guy who uploaded the video on YouTube did also add his own music but, while it was a decent effort, to be honest, it wasn’t really a great combination. In this case, I watched it without sound as it was intended and, even though I usually don’t care much about movies which are completely silent, it actually worked fine here. Eventually, even though the whole thing looked rather rudimentary, it was still pretty neat and I wonder how it was done. Anyway, to conclude, I thought it was an intriguing watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in experimental movies.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick and, to be honest, I actually wonder how I actually ended up watching the damned thing. On top of that, I have to admit that I had never heard of Hans Richter before but, apparently, he was a major German artist who was one of the first who dabbed into abstract film making. Apparently, this movie was a follow-up to ‘Rhythmus 21’ which is considered as one of the very first abstract film and had therefore a huge impact. For some reason, I saw this one first but I will probably check ‘Rhythmus 21’ also at some point. Anyway, how was the movie itself? Well, even though it looked rather rudimentary (you have to keep in mind that it was made already 100 years ago though), it was still pretty neat and I wonder how it was done. The guy who uploaded the video on YouTube did also add his own music apparently but, while it was a decent effort, to be honest, it wasn’t really great though. Anyway, to conclude, I thought it was an intriguing watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in more experimental movies. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, the beginning was not bad at all. Sure, it was nothing original but it was gritty enough and Matt Dillon and Willem Dafoe were convincing. Especially Dafoe, arguably one of the best character actors that ever lived, never disappoints and it was impressive how much he managed to achieve once again with such material. Unfortunately, from the moment Jesse Weiland started to work with the police, the whole thing completely went off the rails. It’s not that it didn’t make sense anymore, the issue was that it became completely uncompelling, seriously generic and not much better than your average direct-to-VOD action flick from that point on. In fact, as soon as I saw that Tom Berenger was involved, I guess I should have been worried. Concerning the lovely Amy Smart, it had been a while since I saw her but, unfortunately, even if she was displayed prominently on all the promotional material, she was actually giving nothing interesting to do at all. While I was watching this movie and was bored out of my wits by the damned thing, I was wondering how a cute and seemingly nice girl like her could end up with such a thug covered with some Nazi tattoos. That would have been a really interesting and complex story but, of course, this movie didn’t care at all about pushing the envelop one way or another and focused instead on delivering the most generic undercover informant thriller that you could possible imagine. Anyway, to conclude, even if it might have had some potential, the damned thing turned out to be rather weak after all and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it seems to have a decent reputation, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, eventually, I was really impressed by the damned thing. Of course, the first thing you might think is that it was a gimmick to tell a documentary as an animated feature but I think it worked so well to handle this sensitive material. It was something that they already did with ‘Vals Im Bashir’ which was also a really haunting movie. In both movies, the advantage with this approach is that it does create a surreal vibe which does fit with the traumas experienced by the main ‘character’. In this case, it also allowed to keep their identity strictly anonymous. In general, this approach provided a lot of flexibility for the makers and you might wonder why it’s not used more often. Indeed, it’s always a drag when a character has to be played by at least 3 different actors because there is no way that they will look a like. Furthermore, some scenes were so distressing, nightmarish would be actually a better word, you might wonder if it would be doable with some very young actors or if you should inflict this on such young actors. Eventually, this movie is not really an easy watch, it was in fact super intense and I think it will take me a while to let go of the whole thing. I wonder if people who are so against immigration would be able to watch this movie, listen to this dramatic tale and still decide afterwards to look the other way. The bottom line is that, no matter the drastic measures you might take, people will keep making such extremely hazardous journey because they basically have no hope. Most of them probably don’t realize how poorly they will be eventually received which is so heartbreaking and shameful for me. That this guy was also a homosexual on top of everything he already had to face was almost too much to handle. Anyway, to conclude, it turned out to be a really strong movie and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you want to see something really different. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it seems to have a decent reputation, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though I had never heard of this movie before, it is actually considered as one of the best movies delivered by Fritz Lang, no less than that, but I would have to agree with this assessment. Indeed, it must be the most intriguing film noir I have seen. What stroke me the most was the fact that all these characters were rather pathetic. Indeed, I don’t think this movie displayed much love towards its characters since it was basically about a couple of losers trying to con another loser, not really much more than that. To make the whole thing even darker, you had not one but two maybe even three really toxic ‘romantic’ relationships. It was also interesting to see Edward G. Robinson to play something else than his usual tough guys, in fact, he was actually playing exactly the opposite which was really unexpected but definitely neat. Concerning the rest of the cast, Joan Bennett was also pitch-perfect playing the most vapid and delusional femme fatale I have seen as she was desperately in love with her pimp who seemed to be really worthless. After all these, I have to admit that the whole thing might not sound really appealing and, indeed, it was all rather bleak, filled with some fairly unlikable characters and, yet, that’s probably why I liked the damned thing so much. A nice touch which was unexpected was when, towards the end, Christopher Cross’s boss fired him after he stole some money but didn’t press charges because, somehow, the guy understood that we are all capable of doing crazy things when we are in love. Anyway, to conclude, it was a really strong film noir and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.