Lasse Hallstrom’s (The Cider House Rules, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape) brings a fresh taste to a small, mythical French village in 1959 in his new film Chocolat. This fictitious fable delivers a gentle, kind, and uniquely original message. Its peculiar characters, everyone-knows-everyone small-town vibe, new neighbor intrigue, and sympathetic humor mix together more sweetly than the many chocolate recipes created by the film’s protagonist, Vianne (Juliette Binoche – The English Patient, Dan in Real Life).
Category Archives: Johnny Depp
Black Mass (2015)
Black Mass? More like Black Mess. This movie was not just a story that most of us could care less about, but it’s boring. It reminded me of American Hustle in that it was set in the same time period; it had a fantastic cast and, most importantly, the high expectations coming into it. I wouldn’t say that this movie was as disappointing because it didn’t have the Oscar expectations going into it as American Hustle did. Nonetheless, like the Christian Bale-led movie, I expected big things from this Johnny (Finding Neverland, Chocolat) endeavor. I don’t know if this movie was trying to be a combination of The Godfather/The Departed/Public Enemies and others, but it didn’t succeed outside of making Depp look like an old Jack Nicholson. I liked seeing Depp outside of the quirky roles he has been performing in as of late. And while he was pretty good, I did feel like the movie was brought down, in part, to how boring his character was. Unlike American Hustle, in which the performances were good (yet still overrated), the performances in Black Mass were flat. A terrific cast is wasted here. It is a disappointing movie in every sense of the word.
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Transcendence (2014)
After months of hype, Wally Pfister’s directorial debut, Transcendence, was by its 19% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I remember looking forward to this movie when I first heard about it. However, my hopes quickly extinguished when I saw how poorly the critics received it and how poorly it did at the box office. It grossed only $23 million domestically (although it did end up grossing $103 million worldwide, surpassing its $100 million budget barely and making it a slightly profitable movie). I thought that movie was not disappointing at all, but maybe misunderstood. It was slow (one of its significant gripes), but honestly, not any slower than Interstellar (which critics loved, made a ton of movies in the United States, and was released just a few short months earlier). I know I am in the minority when I say that, despite its limitations and shortcomings, which I will discuss, you should give the movie a chance.
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