Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this movie. Anyway, this movie was and still is the stuff of legends. Indeed, what was supposed to be a rather small TV feature became a surprising success, one of the most heralded directing debuts and the start one of the most impressive careers in motion picture history. Honestly, in my opinion, the plot was in fact rather thin and you can't say that the characters were very well developed either but the directing was just really impressive. It is even more impressive when you think that it was Spielberg's very directing effort. Back then, he didn't have such a huge budget as nowadays but I think  it gave this feature some kind of purity, a simplicity which was sometimes lacking in the movies he made later on in his career. Later on, he would make ‘The Sugarland Express’ which was rather weak but it is with his 3rd movie, a little movie called ‘Jaws’, that Spielberg would break all kind of records, something he would keep on doing throughout the 80’s and the 90’s. To conclude, even though this movie was maybe nothing really groundbreaking after all, it is a very solid thriller and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Steven Spielberg's work. 

To be honest, 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. Well, I was actually caught out of guard by this movie as it turned out to be such an intense and intriguing drama. Indeed, for most of the duration, I didn’t really know what they were getting at with this story but, while it could have been frustrating, I thought it was actually quite fascinating. I’m not surprised that it was adapted from a play since most of the action took place in the Delaney’s house with only a handful of characters involved but I was just so impressed by the dialogues and the depth they brought to Lola and Doc Delaney. Back then, there were some critics that Burt Lancaster was actually too young to play that part and I have to admit that it was probably the case. Eventually, you have to get used to the idea that this man was actually married with this woman who seemed to be much older than he is. And, yet, Lancaster gave here a strong performance but, even though he was displayed on all the promotional material, I was above all so impressed by Shirley Booth who received an Academy Award for her work here. I wonder who she was but it made sense since it was actually her acting debut and she was above all a theater actress. Anyway, she was just brilliant, playing the most ordinary woman that you could possibly imagine and, yet, there were so many layers in her performance, it was just mind-blowing. I think it also gave a ghastly but realistic look on what alcoholism can do to an individual and their relatives. In my opinion, it shows how ridiculous it is that it is socially acceptable to drink when you can’t even smoke a cigarette in peace when drinking obviously can actually have such a devastating impact. Anyway, to conclude, for some reason, this movie touched me really deeply and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

The main reason why I ended up watching this movie was that I was quite eager to check what Miranda Jully delivered 15 years after her heralded debut 'Me and You and Everyone We Know’ (I have to admit that I completely skipped ‘The Future’ but I guess I will watch it as well at some point). Well, even though the damned thing turned out to be intriguing, to be honest, I thought it was actually mostly unpleasant to watch though. On the other hand, I always had a weak spot for heist movies and, even if I had a hard time to swallow it at first, eventually, I have to admit that it was probably not a bad thing to show that all con-artists are not as slick and charismatic as Frank Abagnale Jr. or Danny Ocean are. It’s just that it was not really fun to behold and, combined with the fact that this couple pretty much traumatized their only child, the whole thing was actually rather sad and depressing. Another thing that bothered me was the fact that the character played by Gina Rodriguez didn’t make much sense. I mean, I don’t blame Rodriguez, she delivered a solid performance and I understand that they wanted to add someone to this trio to mess up the whole dynamic in this group. However, I simply don’t believe that an average girl like her would decide to tag along with this group of losers, in fact, I don’t see why anybody would decide to join them. Still, there is no denying that Evan Rachel Wood gave such a strong performance here, probably the best performance of her career so far, no less than that. Indeed, she completely disappeared into this character who was just so complex with so many layers and, even if the material did not always work, she was always quite fascinating to behold. Anyway, to conclude, even if I had a hard time to really care about the damned thing, I have to admit that it was still a decent watch and I think it is 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 back in those days, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, while this movie started, I suddenly remembered that I actually read this book maybe 30 years ago when I was a kid and I remembered how much I actually loved the damned thing at the time. Well, this movie is usually considered the best adaptation of this classic book and, indeed, they definitely got the tone right. Seriously, I was actually quite in awe during the flamenco scene and I thought the damned thing could turn out to be a seriously awesome adventure flick with so many exotic locations accurately depicted. Unfortunately, the very next scene with Passepartout involved with some bullfighting (Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t in the book) was already much less interesting, at least, I didn’t care much for it. Eventually, it was then hit-and-miss and another thing that did bother me with this movie was the fact that it was quite long. To be honest, it became rather exhausting at some point. Eventually, they really tried to make it look and feel authentic, which was especially tricky since so many countries and locations were involved, and they mostly succeeded but a glaring exception was Shirley MacLaine who was clearly miscast here (even MacLaine herself thought she was miscast). Indeed, it could have been the opportunity to hire a famous Bollywood actress. This movie is also famous for the countless cameos involved but even though these cameos were harmless, they were also all rather pointless. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was definitely not a masterpiece, it was still quite entertaining and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a really strong cast involved, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, even if it definitely had some potential, to be honest, it didn’t really impress me after all. The first really bewildering thing about this movie was the fact that Francis Lee decided to take a historical figure like Mary Anning, apparently a famous paleontologist, and give her a lesbian affair with a married woman when there is actually no evidence whatsoever that she was actually lesbian at all. Eventually, even if I don’t think it was really shocking, it was still a rather weird artistic choice. The fact that their affair didn’t really sparkle probably didn’t help either. Basically, Francis Lee tried once again to depict here a sad and nostalgic gay romance but, while it worked fine with his intriguing directorial debut ‘God's Own Country’, to be honest, it all felt more dreary than really passionate this time around. I mean, when this two women met, you felt no connection whatsoever and they eventually ended up living in the same house in the most completely random way. Then, after Charlotte Murchison felt better, she started to act completely differently than at the beginning of the movie and this change of behavior was just too abrupt and never properly explained. Concerning Mary Anning, well, her behavior was more consistent through the whole duration but you might wonder why she actually fell in love with Charlotte Murchison. At least, the damned thing did look fine and I won’t blame Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan, they both delivered some solid performances even if the material provided to them was not exactly stellar. Finally, the fact that the similar but far superior 'Portrait de la jeune fille en feu' was released only the year before probably made the flaws in this movie even more obvious. Anyway, to conclude, even though it turned out to be rather disappointing, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

Since this short was available on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out. I thought I already saw the damned thing but it was apparently not the case. Anyway, even if Disney had already released other cartoons before, this one really stood out because it introduced Mickey Mouse, their most iconic character. Of course, after all these years, you could argue that the animation might seem crude and rudimentary but you have to keep in mind that it was made almost 100 years ago. In fact, the way the characters moved, all their motions, was already quite impressive and not so far from what more modern animated features would eventually display. Concerning the story, well, it was pretty obvious that it was one of their early efforts since this short barely had a plot and was seriously random. While watching the damned thing, I was also wondering if it was not borderline some animal abuse with Mickey using all of them as some kind of musical instruments but I have to admit that it was still fairly entertaining. Indeed, what was even more groundbreaking then the animation was the fact it used some synchronized sound for the first time ever and I think that Disney understood early on that sound and music would be some essential ingredients for their future animation features. Anyway, back then, it was a huge success  when it was released but still, who could have imagined that, from a cute cartoon lasting less than 10 mins, Disney would become this huge entertainment empire almost 100 years later?