Wes_Dean Reviews

Leto (2018)

A Hymn to Youth, Change and Dream

[10/10 · 2 February 2019]

Leto is one of these rare movies that know how to talk to your heart, to open it up and awaken all the dreams you ever thought of. Leto is a little jewel, the one in which resides such powerful, impacting strength but also a beauty that you can only admire.

The movie puts us in the underground rock scene of late Soviet Union. It sets itself in a climate where change is asked but also felt, the times of the Perestroika. But yet control over culture is really strong. The way youth wants to express itself, by the music they listen to and make (music inspired in many occidental rock groups) is only limited to abandoned warehouses where access is restricted, under control of the regime's police. This creative climate is always contained, but never feels oppressive for the viewer nor for the characters that actually act with great liberty. And this is particularly thanks to Serebrennikov's directing. He uses all cinema's artifices, pushes the limits of staging to create his own universe. The black and white creates an atmosphere of such simplicity, yet full of possibilities. The adopted view expresses how all the characters and all the legends that forged this period were great dreamers at core. They had dreams, they dream all along, they tried to transmit their dreams in the frame that was imposed to them. They created a new vision, a new world. The power of youth for change is one of the great motors of this movie. But the real beauty is that the movie never falls in a pamphletarian tone, it always stays with this optimist vision that awakens the dreamer in each one of us, and encourages everyone to pursue their dreams. Although it's dealing with past, Serebrennikov's tale is still really relevant in our time, where we all absolutely need to dream and need to fulfill our dreams to escape this anxiogenous climate that reigns in our society. The movie warms your heart, gives you power and energy for change -whatever type of change it is- and that's where resides all the greatness of the movie; it is a source of light that will reheat your heart, and give you hope.

That's why I am still scandalized that it didn't win a single prize in Cannes when it is one of the movies that was really worth winning a distinction. It would of been the occasion of giving a great impulse to this creative, crazy and ambitious cinema, that throws traditional codes away and finally dares to brake rules ! It would of been the occasion to recognize the talent and vision of Serebrennikov that is, we all know, put at risk by elements that he cannot control.

So go, run to watch this hymn to youth, revolution, change, beauty and dream !

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Beyond what you can possibly imagine.

[10/10 · 25 June 2018]

2001: A Space Odyssey is a peculiar movie, no, peculiar is too negatively connoted and does not measure to this masterpiece; 2001: A Space Odyssey is a unique, transcendental, mind-blowing experience.

For it to be one of the most memorable cinematic moments of your life, you have to watch it in certain conditions. I personally first watched this movie on DVD, in my couch, on a TV, with a normal sound system. The memory I recall from my first viewing was good, although it didn't meet my expectations. Because when you see everyone saying that this movie is a masterpiece, unique in its genre (what I actually said in the beginning) you then have high expectations and you do not only expect for the movie to be good, you are also hoping for emotions, sensations you can only feel while viewing this movie. Unfortunately the emotion, the little je ne sais quoi, didn't come to me nor to my living-room. But the enigma of the whole movie started to germinate in me, I wanted to understand what I had witnessed. However, the little seed only germinated and never blossomed.

The day Kubrick's masterpiece blossomed was the day where I finally went to see it where it should be watched and where all movies exist, live and die, in that dark room where the simple act of pushing a door and sitting down gives you the power of becoming invisible to others and yet embark on a journey with anyone who decided to sit in the dark with you. Yes, the movie theater. I can still remember the state I was in when the credits started rolling: shaking like a leaf, my blood whirring through my entire body, hands shaking, leg muscles tensing up; I had just experienced a whole new feeling. The silences (sometimes boring) didn't of course miraculously disappear, but I can tell you, just changing sound system, I rediscovered this film. I recall hearing about a nun that would've watched the movie and never experienced such a religious trance, she felt close to God. I can understand her, although I am not religious at all, this movie has this inexplicable power, puts you under a spell.

Kubrick also confirms by that movie, once again, that he is a master to his art, he excels and imposes his visionary style and ideas that are still relevant today. But to fully have a thorough 2001 experience, you should watch it at least two times but you must watch it at least once in a movie theater. So enjoy the fact that there are rereleases of the movie the 50th anniversary to discover something that is yet unknown to your emotional spectrum.

In the House (2012)

Between Desire and Reality

[9/10 · 11 March 2018]

In the house is a movie, like a lot of Ozon's work, that unveils secret and repressed desires. Frustrations are also a key element to the movie and the plot is based on a need coming from every character, that makes the story go forward, at almost any price.

This story is narrated through the lens of Claude, a student whose french teacher sees an incredibly huge potential as a writer in him. But what's the most interesting in this story, is how through his essays, Claude manipulates his teacher and manipulates the reality of the story. This movie has a complex narrative that is happening in different places but that are all connected through a simple sheet of paper, showing the power of words. But what's the most interesting and disturbing at times, is Claude's interpretation of what is Realism for him. It is not a coincidence if the major literary figure in this movie is Gustave Flaubert, one of the greatest representatives of 19th century realism. Because Claude says it, he only writes what he sees and what happens around him. And we clearly see that when he starts imagining what he is writing, it doesn't work. That obsessive need is what makes Claude all along the movie, becoming what could name a manipulative sociopath, and his teacher a complice of his acts because he only sees himself in his student, and doesn't want him to reproduce the same mistakes that he already made.

This is a great stimulating movie, where (at the beginning especially) Kristin Scott Thomas and Fabrice Luchini are kind of off, but then the intrigue catches you and I challenge anyone who watches this movie, not to be caught by this wonderfully unsettling and thrilling movie.

Allied (2016)

Good, but could've been great.

[7/10 · 16 June 2017]

Robert Zemeckis plunges us into the set of WWII in a very Casablanca style. Many scenes make you think of the Hollywood Golden-Age classic, although Allied is a much more dramatic movie that pictures the French collaborative Regime, Nazi Germany but also Canada, which is not a country that is usually represented in WWII pictures. Actually I think it's the first movie that I've seen that puts the Canadian side as protagonist. The photography is also very good. The shots that take place in the Moroccan desert, and in Morocco in a more general way, are precious. They have very refined aesthetics and a subtle symbolism. But the big problem of this movie is the chemistry between the two lead actors. Marion Cotillard and Brad Pitt may be great actors themselves but when both are together the chemistry just doesn't spark. The romantic scenes they share are just missing a "je ne sais quoi" that has a terrible impact on the movie. In my opinion it's what makes it a good movie but not a great one. It's really disappointing that so little impacts so much.