Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it did win the César of the Best movie of the year, I thought I might as well check it out. I remember it very well, when I was growing up in France in the 90’s, ‘Bernie’, Albert Dupontel’s directorial debut, became at the time a huge cult-classic among my peers in my home country.  Well, almost 30 years later, I still haven’t watched the damned thing but it was pretty neat to see this other directorial effort. Anyway, the damned thing turned out to be quite intriguing, even if I strongly wonder if it was the best movie released at the time. I mean, the title was awesome (literally, it actually means ‘Farewell cunts’) and the tone was definitely original. Indeed, Dupontel is apparently famous for his black humor and there was plenty of it here, that’s for sure. However, not everything did work though. For example, even if I could completely identify with the way Adrien was completely unable to express his love to the girl he had a crush on, the way he was stalking her was however just so f*cking creepy though. However, what really won me over was once again Virginie Efira. I discovered her only quite recently but, with each new movie, she keeps impressing me (it does help that I did watch only her recent movies because the rom-coms she made at the beginning of her career do seem to be rather lame). This movie was no exception. Sure, Efira was as usual quite charismatic but it went really beyond that. Indeed, the balance she managed to find for her character, between the tragic and the comic, was just really neat and no one else in the cast did nail it so perfectly as she did. And I shouldn’t forget to mention the ‘Thelma & Louise’ ending which was rather surprising but also quite powerful, and quite frankly, even unforgettable. 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.  

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it did win the Best Picture Academy award, I thought I might as well check it out. It’s usually considered as the most obscure Best Picture winner ever but, in fact, it was actually a big box-office success when it was released. Indeed, it was apparently adapted from a very popular Noël Coward’s play which was so intricate, so technically complex, that it was pretty much impossible to show it around the world so the audience at the time were apparently thrilled with this adaptation. Well, I have to admit that the concept was intriguing. Indeed, you get to see 30 years of British history through the eyes of this family which was pretty cool. It was especially interesting how much wars these folks had to face and, by the time this movie was released, only 6 years later, they would have to face yet another war, probably the biggest world conflict ever. I think we tend to forget, in Western Europe, how lucky we are that we never had to face the hardships of war for already 80 years. So, there was definitely some potential but, to be honest, I still struggled to really care about the damned thing though. I think the main issue was the fact that all the characters involved were rather underwhelming. On top of that, at the ending, I thought it was rather bewildering that the Marryots seemed to be rather content on how their lives turned out to be when, in fact, both their children died before them in some really tragic circumstances. I mean, eventually, they did end up with no children, no grand-children either and most people who ever did start a family would be seriously crushed by this. 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. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since I have a weak spot for Kaya Scodelario, I thought I might as well check it out. I actually already saw the vintage version of this classic story with Laurence Olivier playing Heathcliff but, to be honest, I have to admit that I didn’t remember much about it. Well, it must be the gloomiest love story ever written and I do believe it is an acquired taste. At least, Andrea Arnold really went for it, it was visually neat and the mood was pretty much pitch-perfect. In fact, even though you might think that it was a passion project for Arnold, it was hardly the case as many directors were actually attached to this movie before she finally got involved. Eventually, what made her adaptation probably most unique was her choice to cast black actors to play Heathcliff which was an intriguing approach but, to be honest, I’m not so sure if adding a racial angle to this love story was such a great idea. However, something that bothered me even more was the fact that the actors playing the younger versions of Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw and the actors playing the older versions of these characters didn’t look alike at all. For example, Kaya Scodelario is famous for her deep blue eyes while Shannon Beer had clearly some dark brown eyes. I mean, none of the actors involved were bad at all but it felt almost like I was watching 2 unrelated movies. The weird thing was that Shannon Beer was/is only 5 years younger than Scodelario so you might wonder if one actress couldn’t have played the character at both ages  after all. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch though and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I had no idea what to expect from this flick, in fact, I wanted to check it out because I really liked the title and because Daisy Edgar-Jones seemed to be an intriguing new actress. It’s only afterwards that I discovered that it was actually adapted from a bestseller but I did expect it. Anyway, to be honest, I did end up with some mixed feelings which was apparently the case also for most of the critics. I mean, there is always something intriguing about people who manages to live in the wilderness like this and Daisy Edgar-Jones definitely delivered a solid performance. However, even though the little Kya looked dirty which was understandable considering how she lived and seemed to be starving most of the time, the older Kya looked way too clean and her whole situation looked just too idyllic. To make things worse, from the moment she met Tate as a grown-up, the whole thing did start to feel like a Nicholas Sparks’s novel which was, I hope, not the intended effect. Concerning the twist ending, it was actually fairly easy to figure out. Indeed, with such courtroom thrillers, from the point that the main character is going to walk away fairly easily after all, then, you can be pretty sure that they have actually done it. However, in this case, it gave the whole thing a rather shady morality. Since Chase was a violent douchebag, was she then allowed to kill him without retribution? Was it supposed to be the solution for her mother? To kill her father and dump his body somewhere in the marsh? By the way, you might wonder, since she had apparently whole masterplan, how on Earth living the body lying around was the only option she could choose from? Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I have to admit that it was still a decent watch though and Edgar-Jones will definitely be an actress to follow in the future. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it sounded intriguing, I thought I might as well check it out. I wonder if I did read ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ at some point but, in my opinion, this movie was pretty much the ultimate adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's work I have ever seen so far. It’s funny because, in fact, Luis Buñuel was Assistant Director on this movie and did quit after arguing with Epstein over his decision to basically ignore the story written by Poe. Well, as far as I was concerned, it didn’t really matter since the end-result was just mad, so dark and ominous. The only minor critic I might have was that the miniature they used to show the actual house from a far was rather pathetic and unconvincing but everything else did look so spooky and strange. I have to admit that the damned thing was rather relentless though and I don’t think that there was a single scene which did seem to be ‘normal’. And, yet, I still worked so well and I was quite fascinated from the very first seconds until the end. To be honest, I’m not sure if this movie made much sense and the fact that I was tired when I watched it probably didn’t help. Still, I was really impressed and I wonder why this movie has not been more praised through the years. Sure, it is very old but some other older horror flicks did manage to become some major classics in the mean time. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing turned out to be quite mesmerizing to behold and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre or if you are interested in Edgar Allan Poe's work. 

Ever since I saw ‘Paris Texas’ almost 30 years ago, I became instantly a huge fan of Wim Wenders but, to be honest, it had been a while since I saw one of his movies so it was really cool to see his last directorial effort with my film club. Well, it turned out to be at the same time such a simple but also such a complex movie after all. Indeed, at the end of the day, most of the running time is about some average guy cleaning some toilets in Tokyo (by the way, the public toilets there are actually quite impressive), listening to some vintage cassettes and reading some cheap books and that’s pretty much it. You don’t get to know him that much. How did he end up living like this? Who was he actually? Above all, the question I kept repeating myself was, was he actually happy? Indeed, he had created his own bubble and I have to admit that he seems to be quite content but setting such strict constraints to yourself and cutting all bridges with any people who knew you, is it really the answer? But then, and that’s probably the genius of this movie, are we much happier in our more conventional way of life, full of consumerism, meaningless chats and technological noise? I probably had a hard time to accept his choice because a part of myself is really inclined to follow a similar path but I wouldn’t last for long because another part of myself forces me to stay in touch with other people. Eventually, I strongly believed that the main character was the happiest not when he managed to strictly follow his Zen lifestyle but when some outsider did manage to actually disrupt it. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing was definitely pretty good though and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested to see Win Wenders making a nice come-back. 

Since this movie had a very weak reputation, I wasn’t expecting much but, since I have a weak spot for Elizabeth Banks, I thought I might as well check it out anyway. To be honest, I don’t think the damned thing was as original as it might seem. Indeed, Peter Jackson already did deliver with ‘Meet the Feebles’ a messed-up puppet feature oriented to the adult audience almost 30 years before this movie was made. Anyway, I still think that the concept had potential though but, unfortunately, pretty much nothing did worked in this movie after all. First of all, even though the story was not bad, it didn’t help that it felt like a terrible rip-off of ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’. Indeed, it was featuring a puppet and a human character (one of them was a private detective like Eddie Valiant was) investigating someone murdering some puppets and the puppet was involved with a femme fatale puppet called Sandra White. Sounds familiar, right? Another issue was that the 2 main characters were just terribly underwhelming. Phil Philips was voiced by Bill Barretta who apparently had a prolific careers voicing various muppets but, with all respect, his performance was rather flat here and someone with a more distinctive voice like Mickey Rourke for example would have been more suitable. Concerning Melissa McCarthy, it was even worse though. Indeed, she has spent pretty much a whole career playing such characters and this schtick has grown old a very long time ago. Finally, even though I didn’t mind the R rated tone, in the contrary, most of the jokes were more pathetic than really funny and/or entertaining. Anyway, to conclude, even though I don’t think it was such a misguided idea, it turned out to be really half-baked, I’m afraid it does it deserves its lame reputation and it is not really worth a look.    

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it seemed to have a decent reputation (it is included in the ‘The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made’ list selected by the New York Times, among other things), I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I thought the damned thing was rather messy. In my opinion, it seemed rather foolish to try to cover 5 of his 6 marriages in just 90 minutes of running time. The fact that I saw this movie without subtitles probably didn’t help though. It’s weird because I actually saw every single episodes of ‘The Tudors’ so I was actually quite familiar with the material. It’s too bad because there has always been something quite fascinating about Henry VIII’s convoluted love life. Indeed, it did lead to England breaking from the Roman Catholic Church and the establishment of the Church of England and it’s complete separation from this Church which was something huge at the time. However, it didn’t care much for the approach they chose for this movie. Fortunately, Charles Laughton was so awesome though. I have to admit that I discovered Laughton only recently but the guy keeps impressing me each time I see him. Seriously, he has become one of my favorite actors, no less than that. In this case, he actually really looked like Henry VIII which was definitely not the case when Jonathan Rhys Meyers was playing the same character in ‘The Tudors’. But, above all, he once again completely disappeared in this character and he even won an Academy Award for this performance at the time. Even though none of the wives were really developed, Henry did go through a whole range of feelings, Laughton was definitely up to the task and the guy was quite spellbinding to behold. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, if only for Charles Laughton’s fine work.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a stellar cast involved, I was quite eager to check it out. To be honest, even though I have obviously heard of Fox News, I have actually never watched it, I’m not even sure if I have access to his channel. Anyway, the reputation of Fox News in Europe might be even worse than it is in the US. On top of that, even though I had heard of some of the names involved before, I have to admit I didn’t know most of them at all and, as a result, I did struggle to get a good grip on the whole thing. Still, it was a really interesting story and, while watching this movie, I was rather surprised that they never mentioned the #MeToo campaign but it was because Roger Ailes got fired following the sexual harassment cases about a year before the Weinstein scandal actually started. Jay Roach also managed to get such a strong cast (Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie, John Lithgow, Kate McKinnon and many more) and they all gave some really solid performances. Still, I found out later on that the character played by Margot Robbie was actually fictional and it was, in my opinion, a rather bewildering artistical choice. I mean, most of the people involved were real and it felt weird and rather awkward that the only victim being actively harassed by Ailes at the time was actually fake. Anyway, even if I can understand the appeal to work in the television business, it was such a vile and toxic environment where the objectification of women was basically a business-model though. The fact that I don’t share the values of this network at all probably made it even harder for me to understand why all these women would choose to undergo so much abuse. To conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a strong story with solid performances though and I think it is worth a look.

Since this movie didn’t turn out to be a huge box-office success, I did lower my expectations but I still ended up watching this sequel in the movie theater after all. Unfortunately for DC, right now, everybody (myself included) are kind of fed up with the super-hero genre and it was probably not a great idea to release this sequel 5 years after its predecessor. To be honest, I have to admit that I  didn’t remember much ‘Aquaman’ but, apparently, it did like the damned thing at the time. Unfortunately, the only fun thing in this movie was the banter between Arthur Curry AKA Aquaman and his half-brother Orm AKA Ocean Master, everything else was just barely entertaining. Of course, there was the awkward fact that they clearly didn’t know what to do this time with Amber Heard. Sure, she wasn’t kicked out from the franchise like her ex- Johnny Depp was with ‘Fantastic Beasts’ but it seems as if they gave her so little as possible and, as a result, her character was seriously half-baked this time around. Visually speaking, it was probably one of the most interesting aspects with ‘Aquaman’, at the time, but, afterwards, we did get ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ which was from such a different level regarding under water footage. Anyway, this sequel was maybe not really ugly but, to be honest, almost. Concerning the story itself, well, it was again about some random villain with a plan to destroy the whole world which was just so generic. Seriously, they really need to do something else with the genre, that’s for sure, but since many super-hero movies failed at the box office in 2024, even from Marvel, I think it’s inevitable, at least, I hope so. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and I think it is actually worth a look but probably only if you really like the genre though.