Reviews by johanlefourbe

Less than 2 years ago, I saw ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’. Back then, I had never heard of Fred Rogers before but the guy turned out to be so interesting that I became quite eager to see this documentary, especially since it had been so well received when it was released. Well, even though there is no way that such a children TV program would appeal to me now or even when I was a kid, I was amazed by how Rogers managed to touch me. Eventually, it is usually slightly annoying when they keep praising someone in such documentaries but this movie is one of the very few exceptions as, in this case, it felt completely justified. Indeed, Rogers is probably one of the most inspiring guys I have ever seen and to hear him speaking is actually such a life-altering experience, at least, as far as I was concerned. Seriously, I was on the verge of tears by the end of this movie. One of the very few critics made towards him was the fact that he might have spoiled a whole generation of children with his gentle approach but it was hardly convincing. I mean, how can you ruin a child by telling he/she is a special at a very young age and by telling them that they deserve to be loved? What would be then a better alternative? Basically, it is all about the power of love and compassion, some concepts Fred Rogers managed to master very early on in his life. There was also some discussion about the fact he was actually a religious man but, even if I’m not religious myself, I still felt such a deep connection with him. Anyway, to conclude, the damned thing was just quite fascinating to behold and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Fred Rogers. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by Lee Daniels, I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, to be honest, I wasn’t really familiar with Billie Holiday’s life and career so it was already pretty neat to get more acquainted with this great artist. On top of that, even though I didn’t know much about Billie Holiday, I was still impressed by Andra Day who not only had a great voice but also delivered a strong performance. As a result, she was even nominated for an Academy Award for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, a nomination she definitely deserved. Unfortunately, even though it was an intriguing story, I’m afraid the rest of the movie was not really good. Indeed, even though the title might make you think that this movie was about the persecution of Billie Holiday by the FBI, it was also about her drug addiction, her toxic relationships with most men and how she apparently fell in love with a FBI agent tailing her. Eventually, even though there was nothing really wrong with any of these ideas (her love story with this FBI agent was still rather far-fetched though), the biggest issue was that Lee Daniels struggled to deliver something really cohesive. Garrett Hedlund was also rather weak and unconvincing but he wasn’t helped by the fact that it seemed rather dubious that Harry J. Anslinger, a FBI major figure, would get personally so involved. I mean, it didn’t seem unlikely that the FBI would persecute her but it was more likely that Anslinger would keep an eye on her from his office instead of showing up himself on a regular basis to check/harass Holiday. Eventually, sending some goons like Jimmy Fletcher would have been more than enough. Anyway, to conclude, even though it could have been much better, it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Billie Holiday.

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Julianne Moore, I thought I might as well check it out. Eventually, it’s only afterwards that I discovered that it was actually directed by Sebastián Lelio, the director of the very solid ‘Una mujer fantástica’, and this movie was in fact a remake of Lelio’s own movie called ‘Gloria’, a movie which I haven't seen yet. Well, once again, I really enjoyed Lelio’s realitisc approach. Indeed, the characters felt really authentic, with some real life, some real jobs and some real problems. However, if this approach was one of the biggest assets of this movie, it was also probably its downfall as well, I’m afraid. I mean, it’s rather funny that, on most of the websites, they say this movie is dealing with ‘a free-spirited woman’ but I thought she was actually just plain average which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, in the contrary. Anyway, the bottom line was that, even though I was intriguing by what Gloria was going through, I was never really fascinated though. At least, it was a good thing that she was played by such a charismatic actress like Julianne Moore. Indeed, Moore is really a fine actress and she was once again really good here. Concerning John Turturro, he is also a solid actor and he did what he could but it was pretty much impossible to root for this character after he randomly ditched Gloria not once but twice. Coming back on Gloria, I wish I knew more about what happened her during the 12 years between her divorce and the present days. Did she have a string of failed relationships? Was she single all this time? Anyway, to conclude, even if it never really grabbed me, it was still a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you want to see another fine performance by Julianne Moore.      

To be honest, I really had no idea what to expect from this flick but since the trailer was intriguing, I thought I might as well check it out. That’s the cool thing with Netflix, if you dig deep enough, you can actually watch some really wild obscure stuff. In this case, I have to admit that I had never heard of Eve before but, even though it is always pretty neat to discover some new artists, none of his songs really grabbed me though. I mean, I really liked his band, they were pretty good and played some really cool music but there wasn’t a single moment during which I thought that the guy had a great voice. Another issue was that, I obviously saw this movie with some subtitles, and, seriously, it seemed that all his texts were pretty much some gibberish and, combined with the endless flow of chaotic and unrelated visuals, well, the end-result was slightly headache inducing. Concerning the visual aspect which was the main reason why I wanted to check this movie, there was definitely some cool stuff. However, the editing was just relentless and chaotic. Indeed, each scene would last maybe only 2 or 3 seconds and, then, something completely unrelated would just pop up on the screen or they would just jump to something completely different. Eventually, I wish they did slow it down a bit, I would then have been much more able to appreciate what the hell was going on my screen. Coming back on Eve, I liked the fact that the guy never showed his face, it was a refreshing approach but it was undermined by the fact that they cut back to him way too often. I mean, what was the point of showing us this guy time and time again if there was actually nothing to see? Anyway, to conclude, even though I was definitely not the target audience, I thought it was still a decent watch though.

Since this movie had received some really weak reviews, I didn’t expect much from it but Nick, my stepson, was still eager to check it out so we still went to see the damned thing in the movie theatre. Well, to be honest, I don’t think it was so bad after all. I mean, it’s not that it was great or anything like that and I probably did appreciate this movie more than it actually deserved because I was expecting something so bad . The fact that I wasn’t familiar with this character also helped and I thought this modern vampire was pretty neat. On top of that, Jared Leto was a perfect choice to play this character and I think he nailed it. Finally, the action scenes were not bad and visually even rather well done. However, unfortunately, I have to admit that pretty much nothing else really worked in this flick though. Indeed, it is pretty obvious that, with such an ambiguous character, they could have simply focus only on him, making him at the same time the main character and the villain of this origin story, which would have been an original and pretty cool approach. Unfortunately, instead, they turned his best friend Milo into the bad guy which was not only really generic, predictable but, above all, not interesting whatsoever. There was also a big fuss about the end-credits scenes but they didn’t really bother me. I mean, why should we blame Sony for trying to take advantage of the Multiverse introduced in the MCU? Of course, it apparently all didn’t make much sense (I have to admit that it has been a while since I saw ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ though) but Sony has never been and probably will never been as savvy as Marvel regarding the creation of their super-hero universe. Anyway, to conclude, I was probably too generous with my rating here but I think it is actually worth a look, at least, if you really like the genre.