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abelberthomier
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Reviews
Meeting the Man (1970)
An interesting glimpse of Baldwin's views
Interesting conversations, the way Baldwin presents the issues really holds the attention and leaves me full of thoughts. Although it took me aback, the scene in Place de la Bastille leads to an essential point of the documentary: the way Baldwin felt while being filmed by a white man.
It is frustrating to feel that the director's interests and the topics he chose (the books, the position as a writer) did not match Baldwin's broader concerns about life and history.
Akira (1988)
The sheer power of imagination
(+) The soundrack is amazing and the use of silence is clever.
(+) The images and the scenes display a sheer power of imagination and left me speechless. The bending of reality is beautifully rendered (eg: the toys in the bedroom). The exploration of human possibilities appears in both the visuals and the plot itself. The reflexion about the limits of power gets clearer as the story unfolds, and gives food for thoughts after the ending.
(+) The violence is not gratuitous (after reading some reviews, I ask myself: why should violence be considered the opposite of a good storyline in the first place?)
(+) The story looked understandable to me, despite this reputation of a movie you have to watch twice of more. Conversely, a lot of reviews criticize the thinness of the plot line... which is not a problem to me (it is totally understandable: since this is an adaptation of a 2000+ pages manga, there may have been a tendency to over-simplify) and if ever it is problematic, it is largely offset by the visuals.
(-) The movie is too long and too heavy to be enjoyed in one sitting.
Mid90s (2018)
Worth a slice of life, not more
(+) the actors are great
(+) the plot is very simple but not flat nor pretentiously minimalist
(+) an attention to realism without a documentary tone, or at least we can forget the documentary style thanks to some good scenes (the party, the fight)
(-) no surprise at all, it is just a slice of life, the little "thing" in the scenario that makes you remember the movie or that makes it a piece of art is simply not there
(-) no mystery in the characters, they are all either predicitble or inexplicable (why does the brother act like that?)
(-) there is a feeling of something missing - as another reviewer wrote, it feels like watching the first half of a good movie - and the ending is quite disappointing
It (2017)
Inexplicably overrated
(I haven't read the book, this is only a viewer-of-this-movie perspective)
(+) the photography is great and each scene is well made...
(-) ...but we end up with a collection of good scenes, which is not a movie
(-) plus the apparitions of IT seem a way of showing off the CGI budget, and they are too many: we are more curious about the next one than scared, it loses the expected effect
(-) at some point the movie just gets funny... and not even entertaining, because there is no escalation of tension, no surprise: the children discover IT, want to destroy it, they do so, the movie is over, oh no let's meet in 27 years and do the same (no thank you)
(-) just like the movie itself, the villain is flat: IT is here to scare children, take them, and that's all... why? this interesting idea about playing on fears is not really used
(-) that is maybe why I had a feeling that the characters don't take the whole story seriously... by the way they are too many, each character has something to say, but they are all underdeveloped. The worst thing is their introduction: as a viewer, I was like "ok, we have to wait for all the personal backstories, let's goooo" and I was disappointed because each character seems to deserve more than the time he/she is given
The VVitch: A New-England Folktale (2015)
A good movie with underused potential
(+) the atmosphere is well built and we really feel oursleves immersed into this old pious world thanks to the use of old english
(+) no jump scares, the tension builds up naturally
(-) a bit disappointing to see the witch at the beginning, a good part of the mystery is spoiled
(-) elements could have been more developped, such as the odd connection between the twins and the goat, from which we only get some hints, or the hardship of a family who has to forget its homeland, that is mentioned once by the mother
(-) I did not like the ending, it would have been enough if the movie just ended when Thomasin ends up alone, and we don't even know what happened to the twins