Reviews by johanlefourbe

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was directed by François Ozon and since it was available on Disney+, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, eventually, I really enjoyed the damned thing and it might even be my favorite movie directed by Ozon so far, no less than that (I actually gave ‘Sous le sable’ a higher rating but I saw it ages ago and I actually barely remember it). Indeed, it was such a pitch-perfect romance with two charismatic boys who had such great chemistry together. I just loved the fact that they were acting like regular guys, like I was around that age when I was living in France, and the fact that they loved each other didn’t matter at all. The two actors (Félix Lefebvre and Benjamin Voisin) were both also really strong. Eventually, the only thing that prevented this movie from being really great was the mixed chronology which was, as usual , such a misguided gimmick. Indeed, not only it really spoiled what happened to David way too early but it also created some completely unnecessary suspense regarding what might have happened to Alex. Basically, during the whole duration, you wonder what was all this fuss about but, in fact, you found out that it was no big deal whatsoever as he was caught by the police for some very minor charges. At some point, Kate made a very interesting remark, about the fact that Alex didn’t really love David for who he was but for what he actually represented to him. I don’t think it was necessarily true but it was an interesting idea and I wish they went deeper into this instead of all this useless judicial shenanigans. Anyway, to conclude, even if it wasn’t flawless, I really enjoyed the damned thing though and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in François Ozon’s work. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since I have weak spot for Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield, I was quite eager to check it out. To be honest, I have to admit that I had never heard of Tammy Faye Bakker and it was pretty neat to get to know this rather incredible woman. With her garish make-up and her deep religious feelings, I really didn’t expect her to be such a nice lady after all. Of course, this movie was told solely from her point of view and it was therefore only positive regarding her but you can’t argue that it was quite impressive and inspiring how this TV- evangelist stood out for gay people and AIDS victims. Furthermore, I’m not surprised that Jessica Chastain finally won her first Academy Award with this movie as she gave here easily one of the best performances. And, yet, even though the material was really interesting, the movie itself didn’t completely work though. I think the biggest issue was their refusal to spend too much time on Jim Bakker. Sure, Tammy Faye was obviously the main character here but they both had such a huge influence on each other’s lives (I guess that’s what happens when you are married for 30 years) and it was just weird and, above all, rather unsatisfying that we didn’t learn much about Jim Bakker after all. I guess he was some kind of narcissist but, once again, it was hard to tell since you spend so very little time with the guy after all. As a result, it’s never clear what Tammy Faye was going through at the time. Was she aware of what was going on? If not, it did make her look like a fool. If she was aware, then she was pretty much an accomplice. However, the makers never really made up their mind which way they should go. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I thought it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in the subject matter. 

Even though this movie was a flop when it was released, since it was directed by Doug Liman, I was still eager to check it out. Well, even though this movie didn’t get much love, I think the concept was actually cool and, in my opinion, it had so much potential. Indeed, I just loved the idea of this young man, illiterate, who grew up without women on this wild unknown planet suddenly meeting a girl who grew up on a spaceship and who was never been in contact with nature. I mean, they could have explored how this relationship evolved and the possibilities were rather endless. Unfortunately, they spent most of the duration focusing on some kind of ‘ET-phone-home’ mission which was just so underwhelming. Concerning the ‘Noise’, it was visually pretty neat and the concept was not bad but I’m afraid it was rather poorly developed after all. Indeed, most of the time, we just heard what the characters were going to say anyway which made the whole thing rather pointless. It was also not consistent enough in the sense that, too many times, the characters were all completely silent which was obviously not possible. Eventually, even though the ‘Noise’ must be, well, noisy and annoying, on the long term, I think it could be a blessing in the sense that you can’t hide anymore who you actually are which would be, in my opinion, a good thing. Sure, some people like the Mayor and the Preacher would be able to master the ‘Noise’ but it would then mean that they are definitely hiding something. Concerning Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley, I thought they were not bad and they had a solid chemistry together. Anyway, to conclude, I was probably too generous with my rating here but, even if the damned thing turned out to be really half-baked, I still liked the concept and I think it is worth a look, even if it could have been so much better. 

Even though I really enjoyed the original ‘Scream’ (I even saw it in the movie theater when it was released. Yes, I’m that old…), I didn’t care for any of the sequels. However, since this one turned out to be fairly successful when it was released and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I was hardly impressed by the end-result after all. Sure, there were a couple of nice ideas such as the fact that the victim at the beginning actually survived through the whole duration. I also liked the idea that the main character was the illegitimate child of Billy Loomis. However, the fact that Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega both headlined the next instalment slightly ruined these ideas because, well, it was previous that none of them would die and it was fairly certain that neither of them was one of the killers either. Anyway, what bothered me the most was that they tried too much to be clever with all this meta stuff. Still, the cast was really cool, I especially enjoyed Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega who were both so charismatic (especially Barrera, such a shame that she pretty much derailed her career with some political statements) and the legacy cast was really game as well. The other thing that bothered me was that the 3rd act was rather underwhelming mostly because the two killers were just too random. Above all, it was especially lame because Amber (played by Mikey Madison) was only 1.60 meters and there was no way such a small girl could be this tall freakishly strong Ghostface killer. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t really impress me, I have to admit that it was still a decent watch though, probably even the best sequel so far in this franchise and it is actually worth a look, especially if you really like the genre. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it seemed to have a decent reputation and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. I remember it so well, more than 20 years ago, I saw ‘Pâfekuto burû’, Satoshi Kon’s directorial debut, and back then, I was just so blown away by the damned thing. I never saw it again, and after all these years, well,I had a similar experience with Kon’s final directorial effort. I also heard that this movie was an inspiration for ‘Inception’ and it was indeed pretty obvious. Basically, this movie displayed what ‘Inception’ would have been if they would have removed all the action scenes and if they would have gone for a much weirder approach. Seriously, the opening scene was just fascinating and it really felt like a dream, or a nightmare would be more accurate,  and it was just spellbinding to behold. After this fascinating intro, well, you basically have no idea if what you are watching is real or not but it was obviously done on purpose. As a result, the story was sometimes a mess though and I’m not sure that everything did make sense after all. For example, how did Detective Toshimi Konakawa meet Paprika? In fact, you get the feeling that you get into the middle of the story without a proper introduction but isn’t it how dreams actually work though? Concerning the animation, it was decent but, to be honest, it didn’t grow old very well in my opinion but it wasn’t a big deal though. Now, I’m kind of pissed that I missed ‘Tôkyô goddofâzâzu’ when it was available on Netflix but, hopefully, I will manage to watch it at some point as well in the future. Anyway, to conclude, even though I believe it is an acquired taste, I really loved the damned thing and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I have noticed that this movie was a big critical and commercial flop when it was released but, since there was such a cool cast involved, I was still eager to check it out though. Well, I’m not surprised that it didn’t work out as the damned thing turned out to be so underwhelming. Apparently, Jessica Chastain came up with this concept of some female version of ‘Mission Impossible’ and pitched it to Simon Kinberg while they were working together on ‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix’ (by the way, the fact that this movie turned out be even worse than the weakest X-Men installment displayed that Kinberg should probably stop directing movies). The main issue was that they were all chasing such a lame and generic MacGuffin and, to make things worse, the whole plot built around it was so weak as well. Basically, they kept finding and losing this high-tech gizmo again and again which became just so tedious really quickly. Another really lame idea was to have Sebastian Stan playing some rogue agent. Seriously, it was so derivative and predictable, it basically had no entertaining value whatsoever. In a similar fashion, the whole idea of the psychologist/therapist/whatever played by Penélope Cruz tagging along for such a lethal mission was also ridiculous and even borderline idiotic. Concerning the action scenes, I guess they did work but I can’t say they really impress me either. It’s too bad because they had such neat cast involved (Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz, Diane Kruger, Lupita Nyong'o, Bingbing Fan, Sebastian Stan, Edgar Ramírez, Jason Flemyng) but there was not much they could do with such poor material. Anyway, to conclude, even though the concept did have some potential, Simon Kinberg delivered another pathetic directorial effort here and I don’t think the damned thing is really worth a look after all. 

I had no idea what to expect from this movie but, to be honest, it did hit me like a truck though. With my film club, we do watch some really heavy movies from time to time (I guess we like to torture ourselves like that…) but this movie was definitely one of the most hardcore we have seen so far. It’s interesting that some other film club members were rooting for the main character to successfully come out of this endless vicious circle of violence and despair but, as far as I was concerned, even if I did care for the poor boy, I pretty much knew from the start that he was doomed (it is so weird that he was actually played by an actor called Thibaud Dooms). I mean, how could you expect any really improvement if you take a traumatized boy out of a highly dysfunctional environment and put him in just another dysfunctional environment? I’m not blaming the educators working there, they were doing the best they could with some f*cked up situations and I really did appreciate the hyper-realistic approach they chose to depict this environment but, at the end of the day, it didn’t seem to be a very efficient system. Coming back on Thibaud Dooms, wow, this guy was just incredible, so raw and so spellbinding to behold, I almost wish his career would end here just to make sure that he doesn’t have to go through something like this ever again. Eventually, the only thing that really didn’t work in this movie for me was the fact that the ‘bad’ guy, the real psycho in these group of messed up kids turned out to be Moroccan. Seriously, since it was a work of fiction, there was absolutely no need to give this character such a specific ethnicity, especially since there is already such a vile rhetoric about this matter in France, in the Netherlands and also in Belgium. Anyway, to conclude, even if it wasn’t flawless, the damned thing was quite unforgettable and it is definitely worth a look but you have to be able to handle such heavy material. 

Since it did sound like an intriguing story and since it was starring Matthew McConaughey, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though there is no doubt that it was quite a fascinating story, this movie itself was not bad but not really much more than that, I’m afraid. The first mistake they made, in my opinion, was they failed to clearly established who was actually Richard Wershe Sr. from the very start. Seriously, it took me so much time to figure this out. Basically, he was a poor guy who sold some weapons but then, why on Earth did Rick Wershe Jr. go to sell these AK47’s to these notorious thugs when he was just 15 years old at the time? So, the introduction was not really strong and during the rest of the movie, I think Yann Demange never really figured out which direction he should take with this story. Indeed, was Ricky a poor victim of the nasty tactics used by the police forces? Or was he some kind of juvenile version of Tony Montana? So, there was this huge splits between these two concepts and, of course, you could say that he was both and a stronger director might have managed to juggle both ideas at the same time but it was definitely too much to handle for Demange. I also did appreciate that they took such an average and rather uncharismatic actor like Richie Merritt to play the main character, that was definitely a bold move. However, in spite of its incredible path, the character felt rather spineless but, on the other hand, it seems unfair to blame Merritt since he wasn’t helped by the lack of clear direction. Concerning Matthew McConaughey, he was fine and stole the show pretty much every time he was on the screen but his character was just not the main interest here. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch though and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.