Meet the free, proud, independent people of Ukraine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzNxLzFfR5w Nothing but reviews. In excess.
From ZERO to 6 ♥s. 100% ad-free. Run on pure love for movies, documentaries and TV-series. June 2025: Countdown to: Top 10: Best horror comedy movies - Upcoming review: There's Still Tomorrow (2023)
Eagerly anticipating this month ... (6-25)
Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value (2025)
Showing posts with label Juliette Binoche. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Juliette Binoche. Show all posts
+ Most Profitable Movie of the Year: 65.76 mil. $ range
Ralph Fiennes squints back at us serenely in the sandy colors that permeate much of Anthony Minghella's The English Patient
A mysterious count, who is in bad condition following a plane crash, gets treated by a kind nurse, while his own story gradually returns to him.
The English Patient is an adaptation of Michael Ondaatje's (Anil's Ghost (2000)) same-titled 1992 novel by great English, Oscar-winning writer-director Anthony Minghella (The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)) It is an epic war romance that mixes airy dialog with a plot that swells in every direction. Its core romance is not unlike the kind you'd expect to meet a much briefer summation of in a women's magazine. Attractive actors and grand, Oscar-winning production values make this peculiar, overrated mega-hit worth watching. For me its most distinguishing trait is the beauty of many of its images; the remarkable, Oscar-winning cinematography is by John Seale (The Tourist (2010)). In the end the reason I only award 3 hearts to the film is that despite these qualities, it still thoroughly bores me.
Cost: 27 mil. $ Box office: 231.9 mil. $ = Mega-hit [The English Patient premiered 6 November (LA) and runs 162 minutes. Studio Fox wanted bigger star actors in the leads, but Minghella and producer Saul Zaents were adamant about their choices, and eventually Miramax took over for Fox and allowed them their cast. Filming took place in Siena, Pisa, Tuscany, Venice and Rome, Italy, including in the Cinecittà Studios of Rome, and in Tunesia from September 1995 - January 1996. The film opened limited in 10 theaters to a 278k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked at #7 and in 1,409 theaters (different weeks) and grossed 78.6 mil. $ (33.9 % of the total gross). Roger Ebert awarded it 4/4 stars. It was nominated for 12 Oscars and won 9: For Best Picture, Supporting Actress (Juliette Binoche), Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume Design, Director, Editing, Score (Gabriel Yared) and Sound Mixing. It lost Best Lead Actor (Ralph Fiennes) to Geoffrey Rush in the great Shine; Lead Actress (Kristin Scott Thomas) to Frances McDormand in masterpiece Fargo, and Adapted Screenplay to Billy Bob Thornton for Sling Blade. The film also won 2 Golden Globes out of 7 nominations, 6 BAFTAs out of 13 nominations, a César award nomination (France's Oscar), 2 European Film Awards out of 3 nominations, 3 National Board of Review awards and many more. The English Patient is certified fresh at 84 % with a 7.6 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.] What do you think of The English Patient?
Channing Tatum looks like he's hung over on the poster for Dito Montiel's The Son of No One
QUICK REVIEW:
John spends his childhood in the horrific Queensboro Projects in New York City, where he accidentally kills two scumbags, just as he is about to escape with his friend Vinnie. 16 years later, his past comes back to haunt him. Son of No One starts really strong: Particularly compelling are the scenes of the young John and Vinnie, played by Jake Cherry (Hits (2014)) and Brian Gilbert (Last Night of the Year (2015)). Everything seems promising, but then it turns out that the script, by writer-director Dito Montiel (Boulevard (2014)), is loaded with problems, (and not the good kind): Juliette Binoche (Godzilla (2014)) does well with a NY-accent, but the way she blurps out the title of the film in a line is a shame. SPOILER Later Al Pacino's (Heat (1995)) character's godson dies, who has done everything for him, yet Pacino just continues to scream plot-relevant lines to our lead Channing Tatum (A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006)). He acts for the third time in a Montiel picture here, following A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints and Fighting (2009). Tracy Morgan (30 Rock (2006-13)) appears in a dramatic part SPOILER as a character who is both schizophrenic and carrying out an extremely determined vengeance campaign at the same time, - not very believable either. - Add to this the uninspired typecasting of Ray Liotta (Goodfellas (1990)) and Katie Homes (Jack and Jill (2011)). The Son of No One is a jumbled film that could have been so much better.
While Dito Montiel's The Son of No One is undoubtedly a dubious film, - it does have Channing Tatum in uniform going for it
Watch the trailer for the movie here
Cost: 15 mil. $ Box office: 1.3 mil. $ = Mega-flop [The film, shot on location in New York, closed Sundance to a poor reception that resulted in a changed ending. It got generally bad reviews and made a stunning low of less than 30k $ in the US. Impressively, Montiel has been heading two big films since: Empire State (2013) and Boulevard (2014), and soon Man Down (2015), an apocalyptic film.] What do you think of The Son of No One?
Eating you, eating me ... the poster for Lasse Hallström's Chocolat
QUICK REVIEW:
Vianne and her daughter are traveling chocolate-sellers in post-war Europe, as they decide to settle in a little French town that savor tranquility above all else. And as an apostle of life's sensuousness, Vianne now slowly salvages their rigidly pinned down Catholic society.
Juliette Binoche (Three Colours: Blue/Trois Coleurs: Bleu (1993)) and Johnny Depp (The Rum Diary (2011)) are irresistible in Chocolat, a film which, if ingested with lavish amounts of succulent hot cocoa, may seem erotic, despite its almost complete lack of carnality. Most of Chocolat is as predictable as a ride to the bus station, and what's left is criminally banal and silly bleeding heart liberalism. - Frankly, most Disney movies are more complex than Chocolat. It is (of course...) directed by Swedish champ of twaddle Lasse Hallström (What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)), who does sometimes, - fair is fair, - hit the mark. - Chocolat, unfortunately, isn't even on the board.
Watch the sugary trailer for the film here
Cost: 25 mil. $ Box office: 152.6 mil. $ = Big hit [Chocolat was, incredibly, very popular among many audiences, (women particularly), and even critics stood up for it. The guilty pleasure even got so far as 5 Oscar-nominations, including Best Film. - Unbelievable...]
What do you think of Chocolat? If you are one of the film's defenders, - please, defend it!
+ Best French Film of the Year + Best Mystery of the Year
Spanish poster for Michael Haneke's Hidden
QUICK REVIEW:
A married parental couple who work in the creative industry start to receive videotapes with recordings of their own house as well as ominous drawings in the mail. The man (Daniel Auteuil (Conversations With My Gardner/Dialogue Avec Mon Jardinier (2007)) believes that they may come from a brother, he once never had ...
Caché is a drama thriller written and directed by Austrian film master Michael Haneke (The White Ribbon/Das Weiße Band - Eine Deutsche Kindergeschichte(2009)). My sympathy for the leading couple in this film reaches a limit at some point, because they are so awfully 'intellectual', pathetic and ridiculous. The film is told in a starkly realistic style without a score even, and the many emotions going through the main characters are quite palpable, and work to heighten the tension. The film also has SPOILER one of the most shocking suicide scenes that has ever been put on film. The couple, who is the core of Caché, are pretty much lost throughout the film, and thus Caché itself also gets to feel somewhat lost in my eyes. Still, it is a smart and sleek European co-production, if not among Haneke's best. At the moment, he is in preproduction with a film that is set to come out next year with the title Flashmob. Related posts: Michael Haneke: Amour (2012) - Tender love, unseizing death in Haneke's pictures
Cost: 10.5 mil. $ Box office: 16.1 mil. $ = Flop [Caché was most successful in Europe, which is common for Haneke's mostly very European films, here about French intellectuals. It has won a slew of awards; chief among them, 3 at Cannes, including Best Director. It did make 3.6 mil. $ in the US, which isn't bad for a thriller as minimalistic as Caché, but with its relatively high cost, it didn't sell enough to start turning profits.] What do you think of Caché? If you think it is a masterpiece, please, tell us why
Robert Pattinson, look up! You're on the poster for David Cronenberg's Cosmopolis
A billionaire currency speculator drives around New York in his Lincoln limo and bangs women and talks about money, markets, reality and his prostate, while anarchists protest outside. Cosmopolis, - the first novel by US writer Don DeLillo (Mao II (1992)) to be adapted onto the big screen, - is like listening to a group of philosophically inclined commerce students on drugs for almost two hours ... One learns fast that plot is the last goal of the movie, which mostly takes place in the stretched vehicle and consists of a long row of prolonged conversations of speculative kinds. Big stars like Juliette Binoche enter the film shortly, - in her case mostly just to screw the uninteresting lead Robert Pattinson, which seems bizarre. The gallery of characters is fundamentally very alienated and cerebrally concentrated, and no real emotions are engaged by watching Cosmopolis. Mostly, it seems ridiculous that all the characters wish to discuss philosophy - all the time. The film instead seems like an invitation to read DeLillo's book, (which it is said to have adapted very loyally), - or to fall asleep. Cosmopolis might very well be the worst film great Canadian director David Cronenberg (Eastern Promises (2007)) has ever done. It is extremely tiring.
Watch the trailer that makes Cosmopolis seem interesting
Budget: 20.5 mil. $ Box office: 6 mil. $ = Huge flop What do you think of Cosmopolis? Is Robert Pattinson an actor worthy of the attention and roles he gets? Why/why not?
+ Best Kaiju Movie of the Year + Best Screen Couple of the Year (Elizabeth Olsen & Aaron Taylor-Johnson)
Awesome, beautiful poster for Gareth Edwards' Godzilla
Godzilla is back! After an American hiatus since the 1998 movie by Roland Emmerich, Godzilla, which wasn't terrible, but definitely wasn't great either, and the Japanese Toho's (owners of the franchise) Godzilla: Final Wars (2004), which I haven't seen, the giant, ancient creature is back, - and this time in the best Godzilla movie that I as a Godzilla fan have ever seen, (and yes, I have seen several of the classic Japanese entries.) Godzilla begins in 1998, where a worried American nuclear scientist in Japan sees his worst fears realized, as an apparent earthquake causes his nuclear plant to come crashing down and kill his wife. Fifteen years later, the same man is still obsessed with the event and what is really going on. He gets arrested in Japan, and his son, - a Navy lieutenant with his own family now, - goes to get him home. But father's ideas turn out to be not so far-fetched at all ...
Beautiful Elizabeth Olsen is a very welcome feature in Gareth Edwards' Godzilla
First of all, Godzilla bolsters a first class cast, led by one of the most handsome screen couples seen in a long time, Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)), who, however, doesn't have much to work with here, and hunky Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass (2010)). - Even in a mediocre monster movie, these two would have made an important difference.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson is a strong and handsome bomb defuse expert in Gareth Edwards' Godzilla
They get great back-up from Bryan Cranston (Drive (2011)) in the strong role as the desperate father and Juliette Binoche (Three Colours: Blue (1993)) as the mother, though she is only in the movie very shortly. Ken Watanabe is a scientist that brings a lot of the welcome 'philosophical' material of the original movies into Godzilla, about Godzilla's motivation, goal, and how we should behave towards him. His acting is mostly variations on this look, which does become a bit comical:
Ken Watanabe as flabbergasted scientist in Gareth Edwards' Godzilla
- But it's part of the fun of the movie. Other minor steps that you as an audience had better jump over instead of pause to speculate at include: David Strathairn's Navy admiral, who seems to accept it right away, when his job becomes to chase MUTO's (giant mutated monsters) or rather lure them his way - with nuclear warheads! Another such 'step' is when the first monster breaks out of a huge mine with loads of people around and flees to the ocean, and the official strategy is then to keep that a secret, which I feel would be difficult if not impossible in our age. But this strategy doesn't remain in place for very long, as the MUTO isn't satisfied just scuba-diving oceans and laying low. These objections are very minor and didn't hurt the overall experience, which was one of wild exhilaration! Read on to know exactly why.Godzilla allows its audience, what Emmerich's Godzilla did not; to root for Godzilla, (which will be most audiences biggest joy at a Godzilla movie, and especially what fans of the franchise are looking for.) We form a kind of alliance with Godzilla in the new movie, and He helps us to defeat the nasty MUTO's before the end of the movie, which I won't spoil, but I'll just say that it's PERFECT. Gareth Edwards' Godzilla leaves us uplifted, exhilarated and filled with boyish excitement and faith in the giant creature. - Which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, very appropriately with the release of this new film, which is my personal favorite in the series now. Edwards has impressed a lot of the right people with his low-budget monster adventure Monsters (2010).After the solid story is laid down, the monsters get the right amount of screen-time for themselves, and the MUTO's are very well-made, scary multi-legged mutant-freaks; their sounds are frightening, - they are very fascinating:
Concept image of one of the MUTO's' attack in Gareth Edwards' Godzilla
Godzilla has grown, - he's more than double the size he was in 1954, which makes sense, because our cities have grown. He's HUGE in the new movie, and the coolest thing is that he gets to cast his blue flames (radiation?) out at his enemies. I loved that the people in the universe of the movie also get to see him as their savior and look at him with tremendous respect and fascination, (as we do). Godzilla really becomes God-like in Gareth Edwards' movie, which is just incredible. Also it was nice to see a huge Hollywood picture actually end, as so many these days seem to think they have an off-putting obligation to promote the next entry at the end of the film. It is also a plus for Godzilla that it doesn't go overboard with Taylor-Johnson's heroic character; he never saves everything and becomes unreal; the movie is never that much his. Locations include Japan - with references to the Fujiyama-catstrophe, - beautiful Hawaii, Las Vegas, - a fun few minutes of extreme destruction there, - and San Francisco, where the main fights go down. My favorite scene was on the Golden Gate Bridge involving a school bus full of kids desperately trying to get off the bridge, as the military try to attack a monster there. - Really exciting! Another favorite scene was the one where the special troops parachute down San Francisco, emitting red smoke, as Godzilla and the MUTO's prance around the city, - really beautifully achieved! Online critique that Alexandre Desplat's (The King's Speech (2010)) score is below par for him, - because it isn't as 'sophisticated' as he usually is, - is ridiculous. Desplat's Godzilla-score is bombastic, as it should be, and intelligent, - as so many other decisions about the movie is, - and works perfectly with it. I especially liked the music at Godzilla's triumph at the end, which was just perfect. Go enjoy this rare monster movie, bring your kids if you have any, and they're big enough to see it (age 6/8 depending on the child), enjoy the roars, because it may very well be years before a movie about giant monsters as good as this is released again. (But I am really hoping for Jurassic World (2015)!) I didn't see it in 3D and enjoyed is just as much without it, but if you're a 3D fan, go for it.
Budget: 160 mil. $ Box office: 489.4 mil. $ = Big hit What do you think of Gareth Edwards' Godzilla? Do you agree it is the best Godzilla movie to date?
+ Breakthrough of the Year, Female: Juliette Binoche+ Best Drama of the Year + Best French Movie of the Year
The French poster for Krzysztof Kieslowski's French/Swiss/Polish co-production Three Colors: Blue
QUICK REVIEW: Julie experiences that her husband and daughter perish in a car accident, but that she survives. Her husband was one of the greatest composers of their time, and she is devastated by their deaths. Bleu is a work of art of enormous strength. It is about human frailty, working through profound loss and experiencing something like an absence of abysmal grief. Juliette Binoche's (Hidden/Caché (2005)) performance is deeply emotional and intimate. The photography by Slawomir Idziak (Black Hawk Down (2001)) is staggeringly beautiful, and the music by Zbigniew Preisner (It's All About Love (2003)) completes this lyrical-poetic masterpiece. The Polish director Krzystof Kieslowski (Dekalog: The Ten Commandments (1989-90)) completed Bleu as the first in his trilogy based upon the tricolore, (blue, white and red), from the French flag, symbolizing liberty, equality and fraternity. The following White (1994) and Red (1994) in the trilogy are so-called comedies, but mostly deeply unfunny, and don't at all reach the majestic heights of Blue. Kieslowski passed away not long after completing this trilogy and remains one of the top Polish directors ever. Related posts: Krzysztof Kieslowski: 1993 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Juliette Binoche in probably her finest work ever in Kieslowski's Blue
Budget: Unknown Box office: 1.3 mil. $ (US only) = Uncertainty What is your experience with Blue? Have you seen other Kieslowski films, and if so, how did you find them?
♥ + 2nd Worst Movie of the Year + Most Tasteless Movie of the Year + Most Undeserved Hit of the Year
Steve Carell resting his universally beloved face on a stack of pancakes on this poster for Peter Hedges' Dan in Real Life
Dan
is a widower with three daughters. He is a family column writer, (we
gather this curious profession only by and by during the course of the
film), who has to take his girls to a small, Rhode Island cabin, where
all of their enormous family gathers annually to spend inordinate
amounts of time together. But during this stay Dan falls inexplicably in
love with his brother's girlfriend, and here we go.
Dan in Real Life is written by Pierce Gardner (Lost Souls (2000)) and co-writer/director Peter Hedges (Pieces of April (2003)).
For the love of God, avoid this movie! Don't watch it! Leave it be! Dan in Real Life is one of the most aggravating, insultingly bad movies I have ever seen.
I was lured to the film as it is a comedy with Steve Carell (The Office (2005-13), but boy was I disappointed. Even Carell's other really bad movie Evan Almighty (2007)) seems Oscar-worthy compared to Dan in Real Life. You can tell just ten minutes into the film that it sucks and will suck to the end, and largely it is due to a terrible script. There's no smartness or surprises or actually funny scenes here, just clichés upon clichés and a really messed up ideal of family life. This ideal is shown in the cabin section of the movie, which is almost the entire film, in which the weird family is crammed together in a house to spend time together, playing football, dancing, singing songs for each other and eating and cooking. They are definitely invented as a version of a wholesome, close family by the writers, but somehow they come off as totally the opposite. Especially Dan's dimwitted brother, played by an awful Dane Cook (My Best Friend's Girl (2008)), is an odd character who is obsessed with showing and talking about his literally incredible love for his girlfriend. One climax in the family's sickening family activities comes when, after two or three days together, they pamper Dan with advice on his love life, which they all apparently feel they need to tend to and save, (this takes place without much objection from Dan), and they set up a date for him with a woman they know from his childhood, presumably, whom they all refer to as 'pig-face'. They then go on to demean Dan with a happy-go-lucky song, - piano, patriarch, kids-and-all included, - about 'pig-face Ruth'. Bear in mind that this isn't served with any dark-humored sarcasm, but as straight-up romcom, normal family behavior. Juliette Binoche (Three Colours: Blue (1993)) plays the oh-so-lovely infatuation, Dan's brother's girlfriend - with an unexplained, heavy French accent, - and I lost much for her by seeing her in this movie. In some shots, it seemed to me that you can actually see her suffering through it as well. (Take a look at her in the still below and you decide.) While Binoche loses integrity from her participation, Carellhurts to watch here.
Two more normally good actors are trapped in the painfully bad Dan in Real Life: Dianne Wiest (Edward Scissorhands (1990)) and John Mahoney (Frasier (1993-04)). Wiest plays the naggy mother 'character', while Mahoney mostly stands around putting his hands down into different jars and/or looks close to dying. Many times I wished that all the other characters would just vanish, and the rest of the film would only be about Mahoney. Needless to say, that never happened. Instead you go through the film wondering who is who in the ever-enlarging, faceless crowd of a family that walk around the background.
Dan in Real Life also, of course, has a sappy, sentimental ending, acoustic guitar to tap into an indie-feel audience in an awful singing scene with Cook and Carell - as well as seemingly endless shots in a bowling alley romance. And a completely unbelievable job interview scene that also somehow involves Dan's hellish family. And Carell - once again - playing a 'good' dad, who is simultaneously a total Nazi to his almost grown daughter, whom he doesn't allow having an innocent romance with the sweetest kid, you have probably ever seen. This boy, played by Felipe Dieppa (The Great Fight (2011) is probably the best thing in the film. Dan in Real Life talks down to you from a vantage point of zero intelligence or originality. The only reason it still gets a single heart here, is because it is not 100 % technically inept, (light, sound and photography is mostly okay), while the story, however, is simply beyond awful.
Cost: 25 mil. $ Box office: 68.4 mil. $ = Box office success (returned 2.73 times its cost)
[Dan in Real Life was released 26 October (North America) and runs 98 minutes. Binoche was paid 800k $ for her performance in the film. Shooting took place from October - December 2006 in Rhode Island, New Jersey and in New York. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release Saw IV, to an 11.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent 2 more weekends in the top 5 (#4-#5), grossing 47.6 mil. $ (69.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 3.1 mil. $ (4.5 %) and Spain with 2.7 mil. $ (3.9 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to 3 notches over this one. Hedges returned with The Odd Life of Timothy Green (2012). Carell returned in Stories USA (2007). Dan in Real Life is fresh at 63 % at Rotten Tomatoes.]
