Reviews by johanlefourbe

Following the massive box-office success of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, it was hardly surprising that they would right away develop another high-profile musical biopic. To be honest, I have to admit that I don’t know much about Elton John’s career so, only therefore, it was already an interesting watch and I was actually surprised to discover that the guy was and still is some kind of musical genius. Still, even if the damned thing was better made than ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was, it was still too damned straightforward. To compensate this, they did try to add some musical and/or fantasy scenes but theses scenes were neither really interesting or entertaining. Of course, you could blame Dexter Fletcher for his rather uninspired/uninspiring directing style but, at the end of the day, if Elton John definitely had a very successful career, he didn’t really have a fascinating life, at least, that’s my opinion. Basically, you get the usual struggle with his identity resulting in the usual substance abuse but it didn’t have much impact, especially since his career went mostly smoothly right from the start. At least, Taron Egerton was a perfect choice to play the main  character and he definitely delivered a really solid performance. 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 are interested in Elton John’s life and work. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Nanni Moretti’s work, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it was some kind of satire about the nomination of a new pope but even if it did have some potential, it still turned out to be a rare misfire for the Italian director, I’m afraid. Basically, the idea was that, behind the whole theatrical protocol, there is actually a human being with feelings, thoughts, fears and frustrations and the concept was intriguing. However, the first major mistake they made was that, even though Michel Piccoli was not bad, his character was pretty much reduced to a confused scared old man and it didn’t help that his background was not developed at all. A bigger issue was the fact that, after the poor guy escaped from the Vatican, the damned thing became increasingly random. As far as I’m concerned, it gave me the feeling that Moretti liked his original idea but actually had no idea what to do with it after all so it just filled half of the running time with some random and only slightly entertaining scenes. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it still think it is was decent watch but there is no doubt that it could have been much better. 

Of course, like many other movie buffs, I had been anxiously waiting for this movie. Indeed, after almost 25 years, Martin Scorsese was working again with Robert De Niro on a massive gangster epic involving an impressive cast including the likes of Al Pacino. I mean, this combo Scorsese-De Niro-Pacino sounded already like movie heaven and when the critics turned out to be wild enthusiast, my expectations went sky high. Well, eventually, I find it rather difficult to judge this movie after all and, to be honest, I wasn’t really blown like I was expecting to be. First of all, even though the CGI deaging of the main cast had pretty much doubled the costs of the production, I didn’t feel it was really convincing. Seriously, I was constantly wondering what age their characters were supposed to be and it was pretty obvious through the whole duration that all the actors (Robert de Niro (75), Al Pacino (78) and Joe Pesci (75)) were so much older than their respective characters. Even if ‘Gemini Man’ was a major flop and a rather average action flick, at least, the 20 year old version of Will Smith was just mindblowing to behold. Concerning the character themselves, I thought that Russell Bufalino was actually the most interesting one. Indeed, if Al Pacino delivered a solid performance, to be honest, Jimmy Hoffa felt rather clueless or at least really reckless considering the way he handled the threats from the mob. Concerning Frank Sheeran, De Niro was fine as well but I was missing some kind of drive behind his actions. Still, even if this story might seem to be pretty basic, it was not a simple movie, especially due to the fact that it was Scorsese’s longest movie so far and I think I would need to rewatch it at some point to make up my mind for good about the damned thing. Anyway, to conclude, even if I wasn’t completely sold, this gangster flick from Martin Scorsese was still miles better than most of the movies that came out this year and it is definitely worth a look. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Viggo Mortensen, I was quite eager to check it out. Personally, I have always been intrigued by such alternative lifestyles and, with the current worsening climate change, it has become more and more an interesting and valid option. Coming back to our main feature, I really loved the fact that these kids seemed to be really happy without all that stuff which seem intrinsicaly linked to our way of life (television, internet, smartphones, junk food, social media, shopping malls,… ). However, even if this movie had some compelling arguments, it was still too quirky though and you can see that Viggo Mortensen, who gave here another really strong performance, worked really hard to keep the damned thing as grounded as possible. For example, even if such kids might get a better education than if they would go to an average public school, it is highly doubtful that a 8 year old could provide such an analysis on the Bill of Rights. Even more important, should such a young child be able to do such a thing? At least, it was interesting that this father was displayed as being far from perfect and the best scene was probably the one during which his oldest son confronted him about the fact that, even though he was maybe super smart, he didn’t know anything about life after all. Anyway, to conclude, even if it wasn’t a complete home-run, it was still pretty good 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 there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, while watching this flick, I was wondering why there is nowadays no radical environmental groups blowing some sh*t up. Indeed, the current situation with the world climate is getting worse each day and people are getting pretty much vocal about their discontent so it is actually surprising that we don’t get such leftist groups like there were in the 70’s (like the Italian Red Brigades or the German RAF). I don't think we should, all forms of terrorism are pretty much awful, it’s just that it is surprising that we don’t have (yet) some extreme environmental terrorism. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, even if the material was really interesting, to be honest, I can’t say I was really impressed by the damned thing. Indeed, the intro felt rather awkward and it took at least 20 mins for the damned thing to finally look like and sound like an actual thriller. A bigger issue was probably the choice to focus only on Jesse Eisenberg’s character though. Eisenberg is a decent actor but he was stuck again playing his usual spineless weasel and, to make things worse, even though the movie only focused on him, we never learned anything really worthwhile about the guy after all. Eventually, I think it would have been more interesting to see also the story from the perspective from the other characters’s point of view. The fact remains that we don’t get to learn much about their background and their motivation after all so it was rather difficult to care about what they were going through. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I still think it is worth a look because it is one of the very few movies dealing with this subject but there is no doubt that it could have been much better.