juantheroux Reviews

Incendies (2010)

The father looks no older at the end than he did when raping his mother

[7/10 · 10 March 2024]

Several details that kept me from giving this movie a 9/10 rating.

One is as stated in the title above. Another is the mother and daughter look too much alike so hard to know at first who is who.

Also the daughter is carrying different baggage every time we see her (the script girl should have caught that). Why did Jeanne go off to Middle East by herself? Mother spent 15 years in jail without "breaking" we are told. What is she hiding that she needs to be tortured? Some scenes go on and on for no reason but the shock value, i.e. The burning bus sequence. All the explanations given by the warlord at the end seem just there to wrap things up; hard to believe he knew everything. Both Jeanne and her mother are often seen walking alone everywhere; hard to believe any woman would do that in the Middle East.

Where the Crawdads Sing (2022)

Too many unanswered questions

[5/10 · 21 January 2024]

How can a 10-year old survive in the wild without becoming feral?

How did she even survive and provide for herself? Selling fishes isn't enough, or did she eat grits morning noon and night?

How does she learn so much about her surroundings and biology/botany? Her explanations for refusing to take the stand were spot on but too literary for her limited education.

Why did the black couple store owners agree to portray such stereotypes?

How did Kya get all those books? Why would her father abandon his house and land? Why does Kya always take her boat to get somewhere? How did she learn to draw? How did she get her art supplies? Her makeup? Clothes?

The movie time spent on Kya's predictable relationships with Tate and Chase could have been better used to fleshing out Kya's day to day life, thus drawing us deeper into her character.

Fallen Leaves (2023)

Another depressing movie about depressed people in a depressed society

[4/10 · 20 January 2024]

No doubt the movie scores on all 3. The director repeats this scenario in I would say all his movies. Seen one you've seen them all.

So as a viewer you are looking for non sequiturs and other one-liners that you can chuckle about. Not many.

Many voice overs about the killings in Ukraine war. To what point?

How an alcoholic goes sober? Just empty two bottles in the sink.

How you get another job? Just show up.

Date didn't work out? Just throw away the one set of dishes.

Need a pick me up? Have another drink, or light another cigarette or chew out your boss, or how about adopting a dog.

The next movie will probably have voice overs about the killings in Gaza. I can't wait.

Fremont (2023)

Desperation itself not enough for rating

[4/10 · 13 January 2024]

So what's with the subtitles? There when they speak English and missing when speaking Arabic or whatever? Is that supposed to be cute/innovative? Or to demonstrate that what they are talking about is irrelevant?

Almost as bad is the never-ending discussion with the psychoanalyst who feels that White Fang, a story about a wolf dog, is the most important book he has ever read (did he even go to college?) and a book all his patients should read because the theme applies to them all. The irony about the uselessness of therapy is mostly tiring and labored.

As for the performance of the lead actress, yes deadpan looks and emotionless responses, are all the rage these days, but it's not enough to overcome the listless and hahaha script.

Two Years at Sea (2011)

2 years somewhere

[2/10 · 3 June 2023]

At sea only in the sense that the sole actor seems without purpose.

It's really about a hoarder choosing to live alone in the wild.

Black and white grainy film, low light, out of focus close ups.

I kept wondering what his set-up was. Does he have electricity?

Yes - there's a record player working. Does he have hot water?

Yes, he takes a shower, though he has no soap. What's in that huge house? A lot of junk mostly. Is he a hoarder? What does he eat? Who knows. Once he makes a sort of soup outdoors,.

Where does he go on his walks? Nowhere, except to find a place to sleep. He drives his jeep somewhere, so he must have access to gas. He builds a kind of boat, at least something that floats, where he can maybe meditate and of course sleep.

There's a black cat in the house but the man doesn't interact with it.

He never talks, not even to himself.

At the end, we still know nothing about the man as we watch his face slowly disappear from the screen.

2 stars? Well, there are a few nice shots of nature and of his beard.

Sorry We Missed You (2019)

How many times can you use the f word in 90 minutes

[6/10 · 21 January 2023]

Factory workers are now delivery drivers for goods made in China.

Makes a pretty convincing case for the exploitation of gig workers, but as I watched I kept thinking that I never have to sign for packages. Is it so different in the UK, or is this just another example of stacking the deck in favor of the good guys who have to put up with everything against them?

Reminds me of those Michael Moore documentaries where only those factors that support the film's thesis are brought out.

Besides the constant stream of the f word, I felt that the conversations were often a little too Brit-like.

But ultimately the acting by the family is what saved the film from being just another dramatization of a social problem without addressing the root causes.

God's Crooked Lines (2022)

What's God got to do with it?

[5/10 · 19 January 2023]

Take a scene with a fire in it, put some at the beginning and the rest at the end, so that you can do whatever you like in between, and there you have it, today's idea of how to structure a film so viewers will want to watch it.

As for other scenes, one gets the impression that the editor simply arranged them randomly, the better to confuse the audience.

There are some good lines, mostly in the altercations between the lead, a many-faceted female "detective", and the asylum's director, who wants and usually gets the last word.

The depiction of the insane asylum and its residents verges on the lurid, and is certainly not sympathetic (compare with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest).

Like many other viewers, by the end, I feel like I've been had.

Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood (2022)

1969? Feels more like 1959 minus the moon shot

[5/10 · 10 January 2023]

Lots of music from the era, but NO Beatles, Stones, Dylan, etc.

Let's hear it from The Monkees.

Linklater must have been with the squares. The cartoony animation fits right in.

Basically a memoir with pictures; home movies would have served the movie better. The kid astronaut fantasy is not the least bit interesting, in fact, cutting it out would help immensely.

Linklater was like 9 years old then but these are more like memories of at least a teenager. Probably explains why so many extracts reminded me of the 50's rather than 1969. Life in that Houston suburb must have been as boring as the movie.

The Fundamentals of Caring (2016)

self serving screenplay

[3/10 · 22 November 2022]

Starts out as promising but when Selena Gomez appears, it begins to lose all semblance to reality. Girls, especially if they look like Selena, don't wait even 5 minutes to hitch a ride.

Half way through the trip, Trevor announces he wants to see his dad whom he hasn't seen since he was three years old.

Trevor suddenly produces all the letters dad sent but turns out they were really written by his mom. What a convenient deus ex machina.

Now his dad can be just another asshole.

By the time they all reach the bottom of the world's greatest pit, the movie itself is in the pits.

Dot (Selena) makes up with her dad (who's not believable himself), Peaches delivers the baby at the bottom, Ben becomes the deliverer, a huge crowd claps, Trevor pisses standing up, anything else?

And Breathe Normally (2018)

Promising beginning only

[4/10 · 16 April 2022]

It starts as a realistic portrayal of a single mom trying to survive but gradually collapses after the arrival of a refugee. The two don't really interact. Most of the time we don't know where we are or why, and the poker faced actors add nothing. Gradually the film disintegrates into disjointed episodes obviously staged.

Flee (2021)

Painfully pompous and glib

[3/10 · 25 March 2022]

The animation is plain and uninteresting.

The only saving grace is that it's a new form of film - combining animation, drama, documentary, biography - but better luck next time.

The Lost Daughter (2021)

Lacks focus

[5/10 · 19 January 2022]

Fairly early on, I wanted to stay in Leda's past because of the obvious difficult time she was having with her daughters, so I was frustrated when the film returned to the present where nothing much was happening anyway. But the exploration into her past was not focused either, as too much screen time is given to her extra marital affair for one, and none to "whatever happened to her daughters" who are now 22 and 24. So I started expecting some development in the present to justify all the flashbacks, and instead we get a kind of "deus ex machina" ending with the doll.

Long Day's Journey Into Night (2018)

other people's nightmares are meaningless to us

[5/10 · 16 January 2022]

Using the title from Eugene O'Neill's famous play is the ultimate rip-off, only adding insult to injury in this directionless, pretentious mish-mash of a movie. The striking direction and lush cinematography cannot save the film from its infuriating, senseless, meaningless action and dialogue.

Poor attempt at imitating Tarkovsky, Antonioni et al.

Bright Star (2009)

As hackneyed as its title

[5/10 · 15 January 2022]

Primarily interested in quoting Keats. Mr. Brown is especially annoying.

Doesn't he have a first name? John, Fanny, Toots, Samuel do.

Fanny wears a different outfit for every scene. Reminds me of a sorority sister. Hard to believe they remain a chaste couple.

Little Toots most astute of the bunch.

If you like romance novels, you'll like this movie.

Loro (2018)

Exploitation pure and simple

[4/10 · 19 December 2021]

More than half the movie is showing semi-nude girls prancing around, the rest milks the prime minister for all he's worth, making sure his bowling ball head rolls down the gutter.

Maelstrom (2000)

ok until it tries to be funny

[5/10 · 19 December 2021]

Yeah it's a "fish" story. Rated a comedy, it's a respectable drama until she meets the son of the man she killed. Then it becomes a trite Hollywood comedy romance.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)

One of Anderson's few failures

[6/10 · 14 December 2021]

It has all the usual features of Anderson's signature style - unpredictable dialogue, head on shots, droll humor, genre send ups, comic book characters and mostly plotless and pointless narrative...but it just doesn't hang together.

Low Tide (2012)

Probably got the festival prize for most boring

[3/10 · 10 December 2021]

Many boring days in the life of a 12-year old in the middle of nowhere Texas. Nothing significant happens until the kid decides to drink some laundry detergent near the end. This stirs up his mom.

Best thing about it is it probably cost about $500 to make. Reminds me of Super8 home movies.

Ya ne vernus (2014)

Contrived script ruins good acting

[5/10 · 15 November 2021]

Every step along the way is trite, cliche and the ending is not believable.

Fights, cops, chases, thefts, extortion, car accidents, death, nursery stories, histrionics, etc. All there just to liven things up. Would be OK in the usual action movie, but adds nothing here.

Girl (II) (2018)

Touching transgender portrayal

[8/10 · 13 November 2021]

Were it not for the overly repetitive dancing and hard to believe ending (why not conclude with the surgery?), this little gem would be a 10.

Lara is utterly convincing dealing with her sexual frustration, teenage loneliness and physically demanding dancing.

Scenes from a Marriage (1974)

If you like theater over films this one's for you

[6/10 · 11 November 2021]

Very talky, almost all in close ups. Like being on stage. The couple is clearly depicted early on - he's full of himself and she's subservient.

The film will try to show how their lives unraveled over the years, but strictly from dialogue in rooms, as we never meet the mistress, children, parents, or anyone else. Basically, an essay not a film, on male/female values. Bergman has made much better films.

Lore (2012)

Through the woods in closeups

[2/10 · 11 November 2021]

That's about it. The relationship between the German girl and the Jewish boy is not believable - no 14-year-old German girl in the 1940s is going to initiate anything sexual, especially with a Jewish boy. The baby is continually crying. One closeup after another, probably because of the low budget, and they conveniently encounter practically no one so it could take place anywhere anytime. Finally the boy leaves. Why we don't know.

No script, no directing, no acting.

Jerichow (2008)

A pseudo Greek drama ending

[6/10 · 29 October 2021]

A promising slow paced depiction proceeds to a disappointing ending.

One of the principals plans on killing his boss after saving his life on three occasions, all for the love of the man's wife, a woman he hardly knows and a former criminal. A cigarette lighter becomes the deus ex machina.

Stray Dogs (2013)

Interminable

[4/10 · 29 October 2021]

A motion picture redefined as a slow montage of still photos and/or slides. The camera stays fixated on people doing nothing much, like eating chicken. Other than a documentary-like expose of a homeless family in Taipei, the film accomplishes little.

The Club (2015)

No structure whatever

[6/10 · 25 October 2021]

The 5 members of "the club" are there to deliver their cryptic lines albeit some are strong. But basically another film that goes nowhere.

Does anyone know why greyhound dog racing has anything to do with the theme (clergy abuse)?