Reviews by johanlefourbe

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, first of all, I have to admit that I had never heard of Louis Wain before and it is usually pretty neat to discover a new artist this way. However, in this case, to be honest, even if his cats were cute, I’m not sure if Wain really deserved such a biopic though. At least, there is no denying that the whole thing was visually pretty neat. On top of that, Benedict Cumberbatch and Claire Foy had a solid chemistry together. I think it was also clever how they displayed within only a few scenes why they were meant to be together. It’s too bad that Foy’s character disappeared fairly quickly but, unfortunately, Wain was only married for a few years with his wife until she passed away. Eventually, instead of focusing on this lovely romantic relationship, they decided to focus instead on his erratic behavior which made sense as it was probably just as remarkable as his famous work on cats was. Still, eventually, what the hell was going on with Mr. Wain after all? That was probably the main issue with this movie. Indeed, they gave us pretty much anything going from borderline personality, ADHD, autism, schizophrenia,… but, instead of going deeper into the man, they kept showing how quirky he was which was supposed to be, I guess, entertaining but, as far as I was concerned, this approach didn’t really make me care about the man and what he went through. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing really ground-breaking, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Louis Wain’s work. 

To be honest, I really had no idea what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by Kevin Reynolds, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I think that the concept of focusing on a Roman officer during the few days after the crucifixion was actually really interesting. Indeed, this character was basically a rational man who tried to analyze this peculiar situation objectively and, as a result, it turned the whole thing into some kind of vintage thriller investigation which was actually pretty neat. Unfortunately, the whole thing fell apart from the moment the main character finally met Jesus. Indeed, from this point on, it became the usual Christian propaganda which was maybe not really surprising but this approach was still rather disappointing. I mean, I’m not a religious person but I think that religion is a really intriguing subject and the message of love preached by Jesus was certainly inspiring. However, according to the Christian dogma, everyone should believe Jesus’s message not because of its content but because of all kind of supposedly ‘miraculous’ events that occurred during his life and even after his tragic death which makes Christianity such a failed concept, at least as far as I’m concerned. Concerning this movie, this approach really derailed the whole narrative, I’m afraid. Indeed, instead of keeping the main character as a neutral objective bystander, he became basically another ‘groupie’ which was just so tedious. I’m not saying that they should have denied everything told in the Bible but, at least, they could have kept it more ambiguous, instead of turning the whole thing into some kind of religious paranormal show. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it still turned out to be a decent watch though and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in this subject. 

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from the damned thing but since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even if it wasn’t really awful, the damned thing was not really good either, that’s for sure. I mean, sure, I have to admit that it looked nice enough, especially this Yeti creature, but by now, the technology involved in CGI animation has become so advanced, I wouldn’t expect less, especially from DreamWorks. Eventually, I’m not sure what bothered me the most, the fact that the whole thing was some kind of shameless commercial for some famous Chinese touristic spots or the fact that the writing was just so lazy. I mean, to make a movie about the Yeti, sure, why not? But why on Earth did this creature also needed some magical powers? As a result, it meant that each time they had to face any kind of obstacles, he would then use his powers which was just too easy and this misguided approach drastically lowered the stakes. Another thing that bothered me was the fact their journey was supposed to go over 1000’s of kilometers, it was supposed to be a thrilling adventure but it seemed that it took them only a couple of days which was also rather disappointing. Only a year before this movie came out, they also released ‘Smallfoot’ also focusing on this mythical creature and, while it was also pretty weak, this movie managed somehow to be even more underwhelming though. Anyway, to conclude, even if I have to admit that the damned thing was rather harmless, it was still lame and boring so I don’t think it is worth a look, even if you have some young children to entertain, there are so many more interesting animated features out there to show them.  

Even though this movie apparently didn’t get much love when it was released, since it was directed by [Link removed - login to see][Link removed - login to see], I was still quite eager to check it out. Well, first of all, visually speaking, it was hands down one of the most impressive movies I have seen released in 2022. Garland also delivered a nice haunting mood, at least, during the first hour. Furthermore, I have discovered Jessie Buckley only 2 years ago in ‘I'm Thinking of Ending Things’, I think that there is something so charismatic about her and she was really good here once again. Of course, I shouldn’t forget to mention Rory Kinnear. I have to admit that, even though I knew his name and saw him in a few movies, Kinnear never seemed to be an interesting actor but, here, the guy did manage to play about 10 different characters in this movie which was quite impressive. Concerning the rest of the movie, well, it was a decent mindf*ck, some kind of feverish nightmare but, to be honest, it did feel rather empty after all. It’s strange that this movie was described as ‘misogynic’ because, in my opinion, it was in fact exactly the other way around. Indeed, the main character was basically traumatized after what happened with her ex-husband and, from then on, in her eyes, all men were the same and they were all a threat but it wasn’t as deep or clever as the makers obviously were hoping for. Eventually, this movie wasn’t empty because of the lack of characters, Buckley and Kinnear were indeed fine, it felt empty because the ideas and concepts (or lack of it) didn’t really impress me and, as a whole, it felt rather shallow and even pretentious. Anyway, to conclude, even though I have to admit that my rating might be too high for this movie, I still think it is worth a look though, especially if you like the genre or if you are interested in Alex Garland’s work. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it seems 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, even though I really loved the title, to be honest, I really had a hard time to care about this movie. First of all, for some reason, I thought it would be a Western but, obviously, it turned out to be something completely different after all. At least, it was neat to see a vintage Hollywood movie dealing with the Spanish Civil War but it was rather unfortunate that, even though there was only one American character, everyone was speaking English and not Spanish. Even more hard to swallow was the idea of casting Ingrid Bergman, possibly the most famous Swedish actress that ever lived, to play a Spanish woman. And, yet, I have to admit that Bergman, who was so gorgeous and so charismatic back then, was probably the only thing I really enjoyed in this movie. On the other hand, even though Gary Cooper was praised for his performance and even though I have to admit that he was quite charismatic as well, in my opinion, his character was actually terribly bland and even rather boring. Eventually, the most interesting characters were Pilar and, above all, Pablo. Still, the movie was often pretty cheesy and, above all, so damned long. Seriously, maybe half of the duration was about this group of guerrilla fighters having some really tedious discussions and the other half was about Robert Jordan and Maria constantly declaring their love for each other which was hardly more exciting. Anyway, to conclude, even if the damned thing turned out to be rather disappointing, I have to admit that it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, at least, if you really like the genre. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I’m a huge fan of Darren Aronofsky, I was really eager to check it out. Well, it turned out to be another fascinating emotional rollercoaster coming from this director, that’s for sure. Obviously, this movie will be mostly remembered for Brendan Fraser’s performance and, even though I always thought that Fraser was one of the most underwhelming actors ever, I have to admit that he was actually quite amazing here. Of course, you might argue that they could have cast an actually obese man for this part but it would have never worked since the character was in such a life-threatening situation through the whole duration. As a result, an actor in a fat suit was the only option. The fact that the character himself and his background was so fascinating also tremendously helped. Sure, Aronofsky with ‘The Wrestler’ already delivered a movie about a man on a self-destructive path who tries to reconnect with his daughter but these similarities didn't bother me. This movie also reminded me of ‘Leaving Las Vegas’ with Nicolas Cage delivering another Academy Award winning performance for portraying an alcoholic drinking himself to death. Eventually, the only thing that didn’t really work was the fact that, for a man completely isolating himself from the world, there were just too many people orbiting around him. On top of that, the characters themselves didn’t really work, at least, not all of them. Seriously, did we really need Thomas? It was above all his convoluted backstory that bothered me. It was the same issue with Liz. Sure, Hong Chau gave a really solid performance and it was a good idea to have a nurse taking care of Charlie. However, it was just too much that she also took her of his lover who tried to starve himself to death and that the guy turned out to be also her brother. I think it would have worked better if she would have been simply his nurse without all this extra far-fetched baggage. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a strong drama with an unforgettable performance from Brendan Fraser who finally managed to redeem himself to me after years of delivering some garbage. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it seems 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. First of all, I have to admit that I have never been a huge fan of screwball comedies and the fact that this one had a rather bewildering concept probably didn’t help. Indeed, while WWII was raging all over the world, especially in Europe, the biggest concern for the folks in Washington was apparently to find some housing. Sure, I can understand that the American audience needed something light during these dark times but what was displayed in this movie was just so remote from what was going on in the rest of the world that I found it rather hard to digest. If you would put aside the historical context, the movie itself was basically about the fact that it was (and still is?) considered indecent for a single woman to live with a single man if they are not in a romantic relationship, even preferably married. So, yeah, the concept was just so paper-thin and, yet, I have to admit that the damned thing still worked somehow and I think that the main reason was that Jean Arthur was just so charming and charismatic. The romantic relationship of her character with Charles J. Pendergast was rather pathetic and unconvincing but, fortunately, she had some solid chemistry with Joel McCrea. Sure, the seduction scene on the stairs came out of nowhere but it was actually quite daring and fascinating to behold and both actors really nailed it. Concerning Charles Coburn’s character, he was rather silly and probably the least likely matchmaker I have ever seen but I have to admit that he was actually quite fun. Anyway, to conclude, even if it might be one of the most forgettable screwball comedies I have seen, I still think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.