Reviews by johanlefourbe

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. 

Since I kept hearing some really good things about this flick, I was really eager to check it out. Indeed, after a prolific career going over more than 40 years, Paul Schrader had finally another critical hit. Well, it turned out to be a challenging movie, that’s for sure, and I have to admit that I had a rather hard time to connect with it. Indeed, the damned thing was just so dark, and to be honest, quite depressing. Eventually, what was Paul Schrader getting at? Was it about a pastor struggling with his faith or maybe with life in general? What was the link with the current worldwide climate crisis? There were also a couple of really surreal scenes involving Ethan Hawke and Amanda Seyfried which made the whole thing even more difficult to grasp but it also made the movie even more intriguing at the same time. While I was watching the damned thing, it also reminded me of ‘Journal d'un curé de campagne’ which I saw not so long ago and I wasn’t surprised to found out afterwards that it did indeed inspire Schrader for this movie. In both movies, the actual writing of the diary, even if it might seem an easy trick to hear the thoughts and feelings of the main character, had a rather mesmerizing impact, probably even more in ‘First Reformed’. On top of that, there is no denying that Ethan Hawke delivered another really strong performance (it’s rather surprising that he wasn’t nominated for an Academy Award back then). Sometimes, you might wish that they went slightly deeper in this character but Hawke was fine and was always quite spellbinding to behold. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t really blow me away, it was a solid watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.      

To be honest, I had no idea what this movie was about but since I have a weak spot for Georgina Verbaan, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I’m pretty sure that my wife didn’t expect this movie to be so heavy when she picked it up yesterday evening. Indeed, as far as I’m concerned, with its title and poster, I was actually expecting another harmless average Dutch comedy. Well, it turned out to be something entirely different, that’s for sure. Indeed, it was in fact a really hardcore psychological drama after all and, for a while, I thought it would be some sort of Woody Allen kind of situation (which would have been already messed-up enough) but, eventually, this nightmarish situation turned out to be so much worse than I anticipated. Still, to be honest, the way the whole thing was constructed actually slightly bothered me. Indeed, this back-and-forth in time, probably the most overused and annoying gimmick nowadays, had very little artistic merit and was obviously used here to delay this huge revelation. As a result, Sonne, the adult version of Willemke, was a rather frustrating character not because of Abbey Hoes who did deliver a solid performance but because she refused to talk about what actually happened to her to anyone. Of course, you could argue that it made sense for this character because she was so heavily traumatized but I think the main reason she didn’t talk was because they wanted to keep this secret as long as possible. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I won’t deny that the whole thing really did hit me like a sledgehammer, it was a powerful, even heart-breaking, drama and it’s definitely worth a look, at least, if you can handle such heavy material. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since the topic did sound intriguing, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, unfortunately, even though the material definitely had some potential, I’m afraid it never really worked though. I think the main issue was that Lone Scherfig had just too much contempt regarding the guys involved in this club. Indeed, even though I understand why she would despise them, I think a more subtle approach would have been more interesting or, at least, more rewarding. As a result, you never really rule for any of them and I never had the feeling that their club was anything amazing. I mean, basically, they went to a restaurant and they got massively drunk which is something anybody could do without being part of such supposedly ‘elite’ club. In fact, Scherfig went further by emasculating these characters even more by bringing their sex exploits to zero as they didn’t go further then humiliating 2 girls. By the way, they spent way too much time on the romantic relationship involving Miles Richards and Lauren. Indeed, it was just too generic and, if they really wanted one of them to have a girlfriend, sure, why not? But then he should have had this girlfriend right from the start. There was also the ending scene which displayed that the shenanigans happening within the club didn’t actually matter. Indeed, what really mattered was that these f*ckers would then eventually look out for each other and, in fact, would rule over Great Britain, no less than that. Eventually, this turn of event turned out to be more intriguing than watching a bunch of spoiled brats getting endlessly drunk and made the whole thing even more pointless. Anyway, to conclude, even if the damned thing never really worked, it was still an interesting watch though and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.