Reviews by johanlefourbe

Back then, there was a lot of hype surrounding the Dogme and this was the second movie featuring those rules. I was personally completely blown away by 'Festen' directed by Thomas Vinterberg which was the first movie featuring the Dogme rules so I was really eager to watch this second movie. Eventually, to be honest, I ended up with some mixed feelings. Indeed, the main issue here is that the whole thing seemed actually rather pointless to me. I mean, why do they in fact choose this way of life? Basically, you have a bunch of elitists who decided to act as mentally retarded people, that's it and the only reason I could come up with is that thanks to them Lars Von Trier could make this movie, that's all. Sure, I understand it worked as a critic towards our modern society but I still think it was far-fetched to believe that a group of people would choose to live like this. But even though it was flawed, I thought this flick was still really interesting. Indeed, as usual, this director manipulates the viewer and he manages to make this flick still rather fascinating. Eventually, even though it was not as amazing as 'Festen', it is still a pretty good flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Lars von Trier's work.

Since I kept hearing interesting about this movie, I was really eager to check it out. On top of that, I thought 'Fucking Åmål' was a very solid directing debut so I was really curious to see what Lukas Moodysson would do next. In fact, it took me many years to see something else from this guy but it was definitely worth it. Indeed, I thought this follow up (his 3rd directing effort, as a matter of fact) was really impressive but, to be honest, I thought it was also a really heartbreaking story. I mean, the whole thing was completely relentless and there was absolutely no redemption in this movie. When watching this flick, I was actually wondering what does a guy feel when he goes to see such an underage prostitute. Seriously, how could they possibly enjoy themselves?!? I have seen some tough movies but this one was just really hardcore and despicable and you should definitely be aware of this before watching this flick as there is a good chance you will feel terrible afterwards (I sure did). Anyway, I still have to add that the directing and acting were just awesome and if you don't mind getting really depressed while watching a movie, it is actually definitely worth a look.

To be honest, if there was ever a useless franchise, it must be this one. I mean, sure, there are some worse franchises out there but I’m just amazed, with such abysmal material,  that they managed to come up with no less than a whole trilogy and, to make things worse, they all turned out to be fairly successful at the box-office. What bothers me the most with these movies is how moronic the concept actually is. Indeed, I do believe that a museum is actually a fascinating place and I just simply despise the idea that you actually need to make everything move to make it interesting or more entertaining. It is rather amazing that they managed to get such an impressive cast (Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Owen Wilson, Hank Azaria, Robin Williams, Christopher Guest, Alain Chabat, Steve Coogan, Ricky Gervais, Bill Hader, Jon Bernthal, Rami Malek, Jay Baruchel, Mindy Kaling, Eugene Levy, Ed Helms, Jonah Hill) but, still, I can't say I enjoyed this flick. At least, I have to admit that it was not worse than the first movie but it wasn’t better either. To conclude, I barely could stand the damned thing and I don’t think it is worth a look at all. 

I remember it quite well when this movie was released. Indeed, back then, I must have been 12 or 13 years old when it was released, and there was quite some buzz about this movie, at least in France. I remember also very well this big bull on the poster. Sure, it seemed rather weird and obviously really inappropriate for someone of my age but, somehow, I thought it looked really intriguing. Eventually, it took me about 20 years to finally see the damned thing. The first interesting about this flick is that it was the first movie starring Penélope Cruz and, if I'm not wrong, she was just about 18 years old at the time. It was also one of the first movies starring Javier Bardem but they would eventually get romantically involved only 15 years later. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, it was basically a slightly erotic drama with some rather messed up characters but the story was mostly quite spellbinding to watch. To conclude, even though it might not be a masterpiece, I thought it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Spanish movies.