Reviews by johanlefourbe

I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I’m not surprised that it turned out to be a box-office flop since it might have been the most useless adaptation of this classic story I have seen so far. Of course, the merit of delivering a new version every decade is already seriously dubious but, in this case, the end-result was probably even weaker than usual. First of all, they gave us an aesthetic which was some kind of mix of Medieval and modern stuff. I mean, it was not awful but it was still rather distracting to see one of the main characters suddenly showing up with a modern coat. Of course, the makers wanted the damned thing to look edgy but they should have focused on the story instead. Indeed, the biggest challenge when they come up with yet another version of a story which has been told so many times before is that they have to come up with a new fresh approach as well. Well, in this case, they went for an origin story which was not a bad idea, except that it was already what Ridley Scott did with the previous version so it felt rather redundant. Furthermore, they turned Nottingham into some kind of mine city exploited by the Sheriff of Nottingham which was at least something new but, unfortunately, this approach was never entertaining or interesting whatsoever. For some reason, King Richard never showed up which was even more bewildering because, towards the end, they actually had proofs showing that the Sheriff of Nottingham and Cardinal Franklin were betrayers. Seriously, why didn't they bring the money and the paper work they found to King Richard instead of hiding in the woods, only because it is what Robin Hood must apparently always do at some point? Anyway, to conclude, even if I have seen worse, the damned thing was still pretty weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

Since it was the first movie directed by Jane Campion in more than a decade, I had some rather high expectations and I was really eager to check it out. Well, even though this movie did receive some stellar reviews (it was even hailed as the best movie released in 2021 by Indiewire), to be honest, I really struggled to connect with the damned thing. I mean, sure, it was very well made and some of the scenes were just gorgeous to look at. Furthermore, there was no doubt that the cast also delivered some really strong performances (Benedict Cumberbatch, Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Kirsten Dunst). And, yet, somehow, it never grabbed me. Basically, in this movie, nobody really tells what they really think or what they really feel but it didn't bother me. What bothered more was the fact that the 4 main characters were all rather pathetic. Let's start with Phil Burbank. Basically, the guy turned out to be a closeted gay man who was pissed off with everyone around him but probably even more with himself. He is pretty much what would have happened to Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar if they would have never met each other. Concerning Peter Gordon, he was probably the most misleading of the bunch. Indeed, at first, he might seem to be a rather fragile soft-spoken (probably autistic) young man but he actually turned out to be a rather nifty cold-blooded killer after all. Concerning George Burbank, he was probably the most enigmatic of the bunch, not because he was so fascinating but because he suddenly disappeared and only showed up sporadically during the 2^nd act. I think he was the only one who actually figured out what was going on with his brother. However, he just didn't care much about it, just like he didn't care much that his wife became a miserable hopeless drunk. And since we're talking about his wife, Rose Gordon did get more screentime than her husband (in the film and in real life) but it's too bad that, most of the time, she was just drinking herself to death which got old fairly quickly. I thought it was also hard to believe that she would get so messed up by the behaviour of her nefarious brother-in-law but, on the other hand, even though I did face such bullying in the workplace, I have to admit that I never have to face it in my own family. Anyway, after reading all this, you might think that they were all fascinating. Well, good for you but, as far as I'm concerned, they were all rather sad, mediocre and, above all, never really interesting to behold. Still, to conclude, even this movie never really worked for me, I have to admit that it was a decent watch and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested Jane Campion's work. 

When I heard that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were finally working together (acting and writing) on a new project more than 20 years after ‘Dogma’ and ‘Good Will Hunting’, I got really intrigued and the fact that the damned thing would be directed by Ridley Scott pretty much turned this movie into a must-see for me. Eventually, it turned out to be a flop but I think it’s a shame, not because it was really a masterpiece but because it was at least something else than another Fast & Furious, Star Wars, Marvel instalment or any other big blockbuster franchise. Eventually, you might wonder if they will continue making such movies if they keep losing money each time around. Anyway, at least, you can trust Good Old Ridley Scott to deliver a lavish and gritty Medieval epic as the whole thing was visually really neat and convincing. Furthermore, I really enjoyed the ‘Rashomon’ approach. Still, I thought there was a huge plot hole in their story though. Indeed, even though they gave us basically 3 times the same story, in none of these versions, did they give us an explanation on how Jacques Le Gris managed to pay his ‘visit’ to Marguerite de Carrouges exactly at the right moment when everybody had left her castle. Seriously, I thought there was a huge gap here. I think it was also pretty obvious that Ben Affleck was originally supposed to play Le Gris so he could face his BFF which would have been pretty awesome but, unfortunately, because of some schedule conflict, he had to settle down for a smaller part. Still, he definitely had some fun playing Pierre d'Alençon (by the way, I did actually live in Alençon for a couple of years) and the whole cast was actually really good here (Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer). Coming back to the ‘Rashomon’ structure, it was neat that basically pretty much all the male characters turned out to be some douchebags after all but I’m not sure if it was really so interesting to display the woman involved in this conflict as some kind of immaculate innocent victim. Basically, it did turn the whole thing into some kind of medieval feminist #metoo pamphlet. On the other hand, it was a good reminder that women were pretty much treated like garbage back in those days. 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 like the genre. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I kept hearing some really good things about it and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, this movie won't be popular among religious viewers as it displayed that, if you are in a really vulnerable mental predicament, religion can really f*ck you up. It actually reminded me of my best friend who was drifting for a while and came back as a fairly hardcore Muslim after a trip to Africa. After that, it became more and more difficult to have a healthy relationship with him and I completely lost contact at some point. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, it was definitely a really solid directorial debut by Rose Glass. Indeed, the mood and pacing were really neat. On top of that, Morfydd Clark (Am I the only who thinks that it seems to be a name that came right out a Harry Potter novel?) and Jennifer Ehle both delivered some really strong performances. I also did appreciate the fact that it was basically a horror movie but, even so, they did put the focus on the mental and psychological turmoil experienced by the main character and not so much on the fantastical elements, which is actually a rather rare approach in this genre. Still, one of the last scenes which seemed to come right out of ‘The Exorcist’ really caught me off guard. And, yet it’s still worked brilliantly because it was so swift and abrupt. If they would have lingered longer on this, like they actually did in ‘The Exorcist’, it would have been so much less powerful. Still, I’m afraid the whole thing was slightly too dry and too thin for me. In fact, I think the makers had a similar feeling. It would then explain why they ended up adding Joy who was not necessarily a bad character but she showed up completely randomly, not once but twice, just to make sure that we did get a different perspective than only the one provided by a fairly delusional main character. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t completely blow me away, it was still a solid watch and it is definitely worth a look. 

To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since I was rather intrigued by the fandom around ‘Showgirls’, I was quite eager to check this documentary. In fact, the day before, I did rewatch ‘Showgirls’, especially since I saw it only once and it was such a long time ago. However, to be honest, I still thought it was a rather lame and boring erotic B feature, no more and no less. Concerning the documentary itself, well, it was definitely a decent attempt to rehabilitate one of the most vilified movies ever produced but, to be honest, it wasn’t really much more than that. First of all, they didn’t focus only on ‘Showgirls’, they actually gave a whole retrospective on Paul Verhoeven’s work. I mean, it didn’t really bother me since I’m a big fan of the Dutch master and I have seen all his movies but I thought this approach was too broad regarding the actual main subject. Sure, Verhoeven’s career was and still is actually quite fascinating, much more than this massive turkey. However, to show all his other (much better) movies and to argue that such a movie master couldn’t possibly deliver a completely worthless piece of sh*t was not really a strong approach. On top of that, in less than 80 mins, you get a whole bunch of other theories (some interesting, some others seriously far-fetched), feelings, views, usually vastly contradicting each other and, eventually, the end-result did feel pretty random. Anyway, to conclude, even if this documentary didn’t change my views on this rather lame erotic cult-classic, it is still worth a look, especially if you are intrigued by one of the weirdest movie fandoms ever. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I really loved ‘Hamilton’ on Disney+, I was quite eager to check Lin-Manuel Miranda’s directorial debut. Well, while it was probably a passion project for Miranda, to be honest, I didn’t really have a connection with the material. The tricky thing is that, even though I’m well aware that ‘Rent’ was one of the most successful musicals ever produced, the only contact I had with this work was the film adaptation by Chris Columbus which didn’t really impress me. Furthermore, I’m not sure if mixing an actual stage performance with ‘Tick, Tick... Boom!’ with a rather straightforward biopic about Jonathan Larson was such a great idea. The other issue I had was that it was pretty obvious that ‘Superbia’ was just a way too ambitious project for an unestablished author. Indeed, I thought it is rather bewildering that during the whopping 7 years Larson had worked on it, nobody ever pointed this out, told him to put aside this huge project and work instead on something which might actually get produced. It was also a mistake to spend so much time on Larson supposedly struggling to write a new song. Indeed, it was a rather weak, predictable and, above all, completely unnecessary narrative gimmick. It also completely contradicted that the fact that Larson was displayed as being apparently some kind of genius who could write a song about anything within a few minutes. At least, I have to admit that the songs in this movie (all written by Jonathan Larson) were really catchy and I can imagine that the guy must have been a big inspiration for Miranda. Furthermore, even if I didn’t know Larson, Andrew Garfield still nailed another really strong performance here. Concerning the rest of the cast, I thought that Alexandra Shipp was really charismatic but, to be honest, the movie was really focused only on Larson so she didn’t have much to do. At least, this movie did display one of the most realistic and probably one of the best break-up scenes I have seen. It was also the first time I saw Vanessa Hudgens in a musical since the ‘High School Musical’ franchise and she actually impressed me, even if her character was not developed whatsoever. Seriously, she was basically born for this genre. Anyway, to conclude, even if it never really blew away, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, 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. Unfortunately, even though the concept did have some potential, the end-result still turned out to be terribly weak, I’m afraid. The first issue was that, even though the damned thing was really short (not even 80 mins), there were just way too many characters involved with each their own rather underwhelming little story. Seriously, what was the point of Jorge Garcia’s janitor character? It was also rather bewildering that, even though Anna Kendrick was prominently displayed on all the promotional material and was presented as a lead character, she barely had anything to do through the whole duration. Anyway, the whole thing was just terribly random. Concerning the tone and the approach, even there, it didn’t really work either. Indeed, at first, the idea that everyone has to get a job at some point, no matter what, was actually intriguing but it was completely unclear what the makers eventually wanted to say about this subject. In fact, it could have been really cool if they had gone for a grittier realistic approach. For example, the (surprising topless) scene involving Cameron Richardson was not only entertaining but actually pretty effective and displayed the correct tone that they should have gone for. Unfortunately, instead, they went for some cheap jokes and a bunch of half-baked sub-plots. The ending was also extremely lame. Indeed, after going back-and-forth between being realistic or not through the whole duration, they basically threw everything out of the window and went for some completely far-fetched fairy tale ending. Indeed, after all, the main character shouldn’t worry about getting a steady job as, according to this movie, the easiest and smartest thing to do was apparently to start up his own company. Anyway, to conclude, even if the damned thing had some potential, it didn’t care much for it and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by Steven Soderbergh and since there was a pretty cool cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, after going through one of the shortest retirements ever (around 3 years), Soderbergh is back at it, releasing at least one movie each year, even 2 in 2019. Well, even though I actually enjoyed this crime thriller which was so much grittier than the ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ franchise, like most of Soderbergh’s work, even if it was really stylish, the end-result still felt rather empty. By the way, Soderbergh apparently did experiment with some anamorphic lenses and, as a result, the image was very often distorted on the edges which was rather distracting. Concerning the story, since it was a néo-noir, it was at times rather convoluted but it is inherent to the genre. Indeed, one of the pleasures of this movie was to figure who was who and what the hell was going on. I wonder if it would be interesting to see it again at some point, to see if I could better figure it out, but I’m afraid I would discover plenty of plot-holes since I’m not sure that everything did make sense. Still, I did like the cynical approach as not only the police forces turned out to be crooked but the biggest gangsters of the whole bunch turned out to be the leaders of the huge business corporations. However, it was pretty weird that the whole thing became suddenly some kind of ecological pamphlet towards the end. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing really amazing, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.