Change Your Image
Portis_Charles
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Fallout: The Target (2024)
More SF/post-apocalyptic madness
Even more SF/post-apocalyptic madness in this episode, to finally convince me to continue the series, after a somewhat disparate first episode. At the heart of the episode's climax is an absolutely brutal and well-filmed action scene in a degraded urban environment allowing for some complex shots. I am still not convinced by the choices of old music which create a somewhat ironic and quite unpleasant offset, but this remains a minor defect in an episode centred on the Wasteland which imposes its aesthetic universe with force and quality. Original characters like The Ghoul, Lord Titus, Dr. Siggi Wilzig or Ma June add to the madness of the universe and provide fun.
Hypnotic (2023)
Not good
There are some interesting visual elements here and there (a nice shot of Danny Rourke's black leather jacket, weapon, badge and cell phone...iconic Police Department atmosphere), moments of special Rodriguez madness (the brutal car accident), but the film tends to disintegrate and bore as it progresses, playing ineffectively the card of the uncertain reality with the only result being the dilution of the stakes of the story, from the beginning which will turn out to be falsely tragic until a happy ending in automatic mode. In the middle of all this, Ben Affleck's performance is nothing special, but was there a chance for it given the material?
Fallout: The End (2024)
A sense of craziness specific to science-fiction
A post-apocalyptic world well represented visually, with obviously some budget, rich and diverse. We go through extremely different atmospheres: underground shelter, military SF, western... All this creates a sense of craziness that is specific to science fiction.
Much of it is told in an uneven humorous tone. Some lines and situations hit the mark (for example the brilliant last shot of the episode), but the derisive and ironic tone sometimes used creates a distance and diminishes the impact of certain scenes, such as the massacre of the inhabitants of Vault 33 by the Raiders, partly in slow motion and on 'Some Enchanted Evening' by The Castells... That could have been a much more shocking moment if treated more brutally.
Also I didn't find any character to really relate to / identify with in the episode. The closest thing to a main male character is Maximus, but his attitudes and dialogue make him an uninspiring figure to me so far. On the feminine side, Lucy stands out, but the scope of her enthusiastic positivity is limited by a partially satirical treatment.
It's not exactly totally great so far, but there are enough interesting elements in it to keep it going.
Sugar: Starry-Eyed (2024)
Colin Farrell is so excellent
After the brilliant episode 3, we are seeing a drop in tension here. The episode, more classically emotional than the rest of the series, is punctuated by Instagram videos of the missing Olivia. It's both a bit melodramatic and aesthetically rather poor. Fortunately, John Sugar saves the episode from depression by countering Melanie, who started with the sadness and ugliness of the world and all the miserabilist stuff, by listing some of the beauties of this world. He will have had less success trying to share with his doctor the genius of John Carpenter's The Thing... Colin Farrell is so excellent in all these scenes, subtly printing these emotions on his face... Magnificent.
Seinfeld: Good News, Bad News (1989)
It's the most boring moment I've ever experienced
The pilot of the best sitcom of all time could only receive a 10/10... Of course, everything is not in place yet: Kramer is called Kessler and is a recluse, George is a real estate agent who is a little too dynamic , Elaine does not exist yet...
But the main thing is there, namely the spirit, the writing and the acting. The script and the dialogues are excellent and already contain everything Seinfeld, including the self-irony. "It's the most boring moment I've ever experienced," says George in a laundromat scene... The stand-up scenes also deliver a whole Seinfeldian philosophy delivered in an intoxicating lightness.
Rob Reiner sums it up perfectly: "They had the idea of essentially doing a conversational sitcom, which was an extension of Jerry's stand-up routines. Larry and Jerry shared such a great sensibility, and what was wonderful was that you had this kind of grumpy, misanthropic, dyspeptic Larry David, pushed by this very accessible and likeable Jerry Seinfeld... It was a match made in heaven."
Sugar: Shibuya Crossing (2024)
An objective account of personal interactions that occurred as the result of my state of profession
A shorter, fairly dense episode, named after a discussion John has with a friend, where he mentions Shibuya Crossing. This conversation, and another that follows with Ruby, are the heart of the episode. It is written, performed, filmed, edited, to a very high level of quality. "An objective account of personal interactions that occurred as the result of my state of profession", says John Sugar... wow.... We perceive in these dialogues, as in the rest of the episode, that something is not normal. We are entering strange territory. And at the end, 'Da Funk' by Daft Punk!! The cherry on the cake of an almost perfect episode.
Homesdale (1971)
A real sense of mise-en-scene and of cutting
A quasi-amateur film in appearance, in black and white, less than an hour long, shot over 5 days with a few thousand dollars... But a lot of talent is brought together there. Peter Weir demonstrates a real sense of mise-en-scene and of cutting, multiplying quality cuts and researched framing. The faces are scrutinized, and the actors are surprisingly excellent. The music score is also of good quality, oscillating between the disturbing and the amusing, in accordance with the general tone of the film which will be taken up a few years later in the excellent 'The Cars That Ate Paris'. We also find here a main character who is also naive. The plot recreates basically the process of making a film, which is to bring people together in a place, ask them to do things and see what happens... Very interesting.
Sugar: Olivia (2024)
Inspiring
A wonderful discovery.
A TV series but really directed (by Fernando Meirelles). It's a very rich work of filming, editing and sound design, with film inserts, iris cuts, very short focal lengths, sequences in color and others in black and white... It's a festival of effects that enrich the world of the main character.
This main character, a private detective, is sublimely played by Colin Farrell, but how could it have been otherwise? He is one of the greatest actors of his generation. He exudes levels of vaguely uneasy sweetness and suavity rarely achieved.
Watching this first episode had a direct effect on me. It inspired me to tidy up the living room, to be in a better environment, and to plan my day tomorrow, to try to avoid the chaos of the day before. There is a scene near the beginning where John Sugar drinks a Japanese whiskey, probably excellent. He appreciates it intensely, and I said to myself when I saw it, "this is life". That said, right after, John realizes that a guy is staring at him meanly, for no reason. Hell is never far from Paradise in this world.
3 Body Problem (2024)
Promising but too flat
I would have liked to like this series, but I got lost somewhere in the middle of the 3rd episode and I did not could/want to get back into it. The beginning is very promising, the context is interesting (Cultural Revolution in China in particular) and the narration spread over different eras gives hope for something exciting. But tedious conversations and very flat scenes, supported by music that is most often bland, follow one another. It becomes difficult to care about the characters and thereby to be interested in the story in which they are caught, whatever its fascinating existential implications for humanity. It made me want to read the books though.
Dune: Part Two (2024)
Disappointment
Massive disappointment. I know the book a little and I knew where the story was going, but the outcome is worse than I expected. I liked the first film, its grandiose settings, its open questions. The way the second responds is quite appalling.
That the Emperor's throne comes down to a knife fight is already hard to swallow, but what's more, it ends with the good old trick of 'it's the hero who is dead, ah no it's the other one', already seen a million times in film, it's disappointing...
Aesthetically, the story immensely reduces the ambitions of this second part by focusing on the Fremens and their rough desert settings. With the exception of a scene on the Harkonnen planet, Giedi Prime, which is rather impressive in martial white and black tones. That said, I still miss David Lynch's crazy and disgusting Harkonnen with their strange greenish/industrial planet and sexual perversions.
Here we are in a demonstration of pure force, strangely contradicted by the ridiculous fear suddenly displayed by Rabban, and by an astonishing vulnerability of the Harkonnen troops like the Sardaukars to the guerrilla techniques of the Fremens without this being convincingly justified by the mise-en-scene.
We can only imagine that what makes the difference is the infinitely superior number of the Fremen, greatly underestimated by the Harkonnen, which allows them to gain the upper hand at the cost of a major human sacrifice. But this quasi-genocidal aspect is only evoked by a film which obviously must be easy on the general public to be profitable. Here we touch on the structural limits of the project.
Master Gardener (2022)
I hate gardening and it's not going to get better with this film
I hate gardening and it's not going to get better with this film... The very beautiful image that punctuates the film is the main character Narvel Roth, sitting at his desk at night, writing in his diary, mentioning in voice-over some key sentences. Unfortunately, the film does not go beyond this level of introspection and remains very flat in its mise-en-scene, with the exception of too few flashbacks and inserts. We understand Paul Schrader's metaphorical desire to create a character who tries to regain control of his life as he controls the garden for which he is responsible, but he is completely incapable of transcribing it in stylistic terms. A thousand miles from a hieraticism that could have been inspiring, the filming is just flat and bland. The only element that elevates the film to excellence and fascination at times is Dev Hynes' sublime electronic score, but it's not enough to save the film.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)
Largely of a tiring series of cartoonish action scenes
The film consists largely of a tiring series of cartoonish action scenes that are so over the top that they become derisory and tedious. The rest is made up of sometimes amusing scenes played by a quality cast but without much ambition. Mangold's filmmaking is totally neutral and bland. The most serious problem is that the potential of the story, linked to the possibility of time travel, is completely underexploited. Between the main timeline located in 1969, the origin of the rivalry of the two main antagonists which takes place during World War II, and the dive into the Ancient Greece of Archimedes, there are few correspondences and no complex back and forth movements which could complicate the viewer's understanding. In the end, Indy wants to stay permanently in 213 BC, at the risk of creating a temporal paradox. To stop him, Phoebe Waller-Bridge just punches him (very credible...), and next thing everyone is in New York for a banal happy ending. That sums up rather well the routine spirit of this film.
Dune (2021)
Magnificent
"The mystery of life is not a mystery to solve, but a reality to experience," says a Fremen after two hours of film. This might as well be a definition of cinema, as it is done here. Above all, we are faced here with an immense reconstruction, precise and luxurious, with grand decorations and landscapes. You have to see the Harkonnen legions leave Arrakis on a sober voice-over of the imperial decree which ordered them to do so, you have to see the Sardaukar ceremony in the rain, you have to see this long tragic attack which puts an end to the House of Atreides , you have to see their planet of origin with its medieval accents, you have to see the visual references to the bulls that Paul's grandfather fought, you have to see Rabban Harkonnen executing prisoners in the heat of the flames... etc... etc... The essential value of the film is there, and it is already immense. The structural limit of the story for me is the whole premonitions / voices / The Chosen One aspect around Paul, conventional and tedious, which tends to reduce the narration to a narrow inevitability. It's not enough to really ruin the whole experience of course.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)
Bad
A very basic and formulaic entry, a world away from the pure madness and frenetic editing of Tobe Hooper's original and its sequel. Here it's a classic cat and mouse game, not bad in itself and sometimes frightening, but very limited in ambition. The setting is a Texas ghost town that young urbanites want to revitalise. There could have been potential in an exploitation of a mysterious past, particularly around the orphanage present in the city, but almost none of this is explored, neither aesthetically nor narratively, apart from a defaced photo of a young Leatherface, to leave room for plain action. The action is filmed rather poorly, gory at times but mostly with a lack of brutality in the cutting itself. Hooper did much better 50 years ago... The only moment where the film brings a striking aesthetic originality is the scene in a sunflower field, on which all the promotional material is based and which makes for a very beautiful poster by the way. But the whole part in the city doesn't really provide any magic. The gripping ending is still worth the detour.
Silo (2023)
Interesting
This universe is quite exciting and fascinating, I wanted to know what happens next and what is the mystery behind. The aesthetic representation of the buried city is successful, in simple and evocative settings, with an industrial tendency, as is the opening credits music. The narration involving different periods adds richness to the storytelling. Rebecca Ferguson is quite interesting in her physicality. On the downside, the mise-en-scene is completely ordinary and basic, as is the dialogue. I was bored and skipped some conversation scenes. A worthwhile series on the whole, although not achieving excellence.
The New World (2005)
Historically realistic and intimately poetic at the same time
Sorry but the prelude of 'Das Rheingold', this is Werner Herzog's Nosferatu forever to me. But Malick has the right, he is just as sublime here. The subject is fascinating in itself. The story is historically realistic and intimately poetic at the same time, which is a remarkable achievement. It's great to see the interactions between the natives and the settlers rendered in a natural, intimate and non-caricatural way.
When I first saw the film in theatre, I was a bit annoyed with its precious pantheism: "Come, spirit. Help us sing the story of our land. You are our mother; we, your field of corn. We rise from out of the soul of you," says Pocahontas in the first scene. After two hours, Malick had convinced me. A striking experience.
The Black Dahlia (2006)
Heterogeneous
An uneven and heterogeneous film. The brutal and dirty universe of James Ellroy is out of step with the meticulous art of Brian De Palma. The film is smooth and aesthetic, and often resembles a predictable colorized picture book compiling all the clichés of film noir from the 40s and 50s, where Ellroy subverted them by showing the decayed side. The conventional and flat voice-over completely fails to convey the haunting chaos of Ellroy's language. Hartnett and Eckhart are unconvincing, lacking the inherent savagery these characters require, and making up for it in excess.
Despite everything, the film contains many very interesting and exciting elements, which end up coming together in its last third. Fiona Shaw delivers an absolutely colossal scene of pure madness. There is also a very detailed dramatic action scene typical of the best De Palma, and the influence of Dario Argento is felt in a couple of slightly frightening scenes. It's far from being a useless film, but there is the feeling that the film is too short and too soft to exploit the full potential of Ellroy's 'Black Dahlia'.
Casualties of War (1989)
Rather conventional
A lower De Palma. We only find here in rare moments the very rich and worked cinematographic grammar which gives all the immense value of his filmmaking. There is a remarkable action scene in the middle of the film but it is not much. Probably impressed by a very serious and tragic subject inspired by a real case, De Palma films almost everything in a very classic way here and produces a rather conventional and flat film. Given his specific qualities as a director, I find it a little strange that De Palma was interested in this scenario, certainly based on the Vietnam War but with limited spectacular potential.
Oppenheimer (2023)
Great editing and acting
I found the film sometimes too conventional in its content, it is a lot of conversations and scientific-political-judicial intrigues with questionable cinematographic interest. Sometimes I felt like I was watching a luxury TV series. Amidst all this, a few exciting elements bring depth to the film and suggest that there is something bigger behind it.
What makes the film a very pleasant moment over a duration of three hours is firstly a very virtuosic editing which multiplies very short scenes and effectively mixes several timelines. Secondly, these are very rich interpretations provided by a very high level casting. For my part, special mention to Matt Damon, perfect in a brusque and precise military role.
Scarface (1983)
Monster film
A monster film, a vast story scripted by Oliver Stone on the rise and fall of a gangster, shown without concessions as the disgusting beast that he is, and at the same time humanised by Pacino's intense and profound performance. De Palma's direction is ultra-elaborate, exploiting the bombastic and colourful settings of Miami to give an almost mythological depth to what was basically a simple gangster story. Several scenes have passed into legend, as well as the very 1980s score by Giorgio Moroder which adds a unique colour to what has become a piece of cinematic and sociological history. The brilliant idea of transposing the story of the original Scarface, of which Pacino wanted to do a remake, to the Marielitos' Miami came from Sidney Lumet, who had originally been chosen to direct before giving his place to De Palma. When all the planets align like this...
The Zone of Interest (2023)
Strange and fascinating
A strange and fascinating object. I can't say that I had a very good time but that's probably not the goal... There is no plot to speak of, which some spectators will miss. The real event happens at the edge of the frame, and leads the viewer to track down its visual and audio signs, which is a fairly unique cinematic experience. Even what is in the frame requires interpretation from the viewer. Hedwig's mother leaves the house suddenly leaving a letter that Hedwig reads but the viewer does not. It will be up to him to imagine the content. After the excellent 'Under The Skin', this film confirms the exceptional (and rare, four feature films in 25 years) nature of Jonathan Glazer's cinema.
Babylon (2022)
It's all a bit bloody much
I tried it again, just to be sure, but it's the same verdict: it's all a bit bloody much, as Richard Burton said once of Liz Taylor. The mise-en-scene is gross, on the nose, too obvious, forced. For example, in the party scene at the beginning, the same shot heading towards a trumpet comes up 3 times, as if just one couldn't be enough. Chazelle piles everything on for three hours without much discernment.
But there is such a passion in all this that it becomes convincing at times, as convincing as Jack Conrad's (an excellent Brad Pitt) tirade to his reluctant wife on the total importance and greatness of cinema. The film shooting scene at the beginning is admirable in its urgency and madness. The ending is absolutely superb, a moving ode to cinema coupled with the personal defeat of most of the protagonists, who will have lost everything but will have participated in a grandiose enterprise, cinema...
Poor Things (2023)
Suspension of disbelief didn't work
I love Lanthimos but I had a little problem with this film. It's often funny and exciting, the actors are fabulous, but the choice of an overtly artificial aesthetic took me out of the film a little. Suspension of belief didn't work. The sublime 'The Lobster' and 'The Killing of a Sacred Deer' had the merit of introducing the genre (respectively dystopia and fantastic) into very realistic settings, thereby creating fruitful correspondences with our world (is the society of 'The Lobster' more absurd than our society? Can magic exist in the real world?). With 'Poor Things' I found myself facing a fun but abstract universe.
Zodiac (2007)
Never too obvious
A very good film, very classic but the subject is strong and fascinating. The film unfolds this narrative thread over years without apparent effort but with great precision in the rhythm and the direction. The characters are admirably well constructed and superbly played by a very high level cast. Their motivations and their evolution throughout the story are never too obvious or lacking in credibility. It's all well balanced. Much is kept beneath the surface, elegantly suggested rather than asserted. As such, maybe the ending is slightly disappointing, literal, and would have benefited from an even greater degree of ambiguity and openness.
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973)
Depressed and depressing
A depressed and depressing western, with a twilight atmosphere. John Coquillon's photography is mainly in beautiful earthy tones. "Times have changed". The action is as if stuck in a constant alcoholic haze, corresponding to that of the director himself. Even the numerous scenes of violence, essential in Peckinpah, lose the diffracted editing which made it all the unique genius. Death becomes an inevitability against which no one even has the courage to fight anymore. Bob Dylan's drawling score doesn't help matters. I would have preferred Jerry Fielding. There are still plenty of interesting shots, moments, and details, but it's not a film I like to watch often, due to its defeated mood.