Demolition (Jean-Marc Vallee, 2015)

6.5/10
I can't really make heads or tails of what this movie was going for. Jake Gyllenhaal's Davis loses his wife in a car accident, lashes out by claiming he never really loved her, and deals with his grief by taking things apart - and yes, eventually, demolishing them. It feels derivative of movies like American Beauty or Fight Club where there's some event that causes the main character to disconnect from society in bizarre and unexpected ways. But as Demolition goes on it turns more and more formulaic. Davis strikes up a friendship with his paramour's oddball son and, you know, The Healing Process Begins and all that stuff. It's okay; Gyllenhaal puts in a good performance, the kid actor is not entirely insufferable, there's good music, some funny scenes, etc. The direction itself is pretty bland though, not really what I would have expected from Jean-Marc Vallee, and overall there is a feeling that the movie thinks it's more clever and original than it actually is.

Dallas Buyers Club (Jean-Marc Vallee, 2013)

7.5/10
Long-hyped on the basis of Matthew McConaughey's radical physical transformation for the role of Ron Woodroof, an AIDS victim who starts his own "buyers club" to get non-licensed and unapproved medicine to others dying of AIDS. At the very least, it delivers on that promise - McConaughey is excellent, and so gaunt as to be frequently unrecognizable. Jared Leto co-stars and is also just as good. Jennifer Garner is in the mix as well but seems out of her depth (trying on a Texan accent exactly once) - even her character feels like an odd fit in the film itself.
I found the movie struggled a lot with its rhythm. It seemed to have a hard time figuring out when to poke fun at the absurdity of the whole situation and when to treat it as serious as it was. As such, the movie never really hits the emotional heights it seems destined for and the tragedy and comedy rub against each other awkwardly rather than meshing as a cohesive feeling.
The pace is also frequently messy, jumping to include as much of Woodroof's (admittedly fascinating) story as possible.
I criticised it a lot but really Dallas Buyers Club is not a bad movie by any means - it's interesting, entertaining, and very well-acted. But it's hard not to feel like there's an even better movie somewhere in here, something that would rise above a merely entertaining showcase for its two talented lead actors.

Cafe de Flore (Jean-Marc Vallee, 2011)

7.5/10
I would have to think, that in most reviews of Cafe de Flore, the word "ambitious" cropped up quite a bit. I wouldn't disagree. It's an impressive twisting of two seemingly unrelated stories, one in Montreal in 2011 and another in Paris in 1969. In addition to trying to figure out how these stories will come together, we're also tasked with figuring out the stories themselves, which are presented in jagged and knotted forms. To me, there's a thin line between a movie unveiling its surprises organically, and a director intentionally withholding information from the audience to create these surprises artificially. I felt more often than not, CdF fell on the side of the latter. Both timelines, and the grand connection as a whole, are so obfuscated it made me wish more time was spent on the story and a little less time on the surrounding smoke and mirrors. I was reminded of a very relevant lyric by the end of the movie - "the time is gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say".
But I will definitely say that the smoke and mirrors were impressive. I give the movie a lot of credit for telling a couple of interesting stories in a highly unique manner, and for making the way these stories connected credible. A heap of praise is also deserved for the soundtrack (and for the central theme of the importance of music as well). God knows that Sigur Ros don't need any accompanying pictures to evoke emotion, and "Dark Side of the Moon" already carries 40 years worth of baggage with it. But the movie used this and other music in a very authentic, natural, and credible way - rather than feeling like the director is just bragging about the stuff on his iPod, a la Cameron Crowe.
I don't typically get the urge to watch a movie a second time to better "figure it out", but I did get that feeling with Cafe de Flore. Even though I think I got the general idea, a second viewing certainly wouldn't hurt. I'd also really like to see the director's previous effort, C.R.A.Z.Y., as I've been putting that off for ages as well. If it's half as ambitious as Cafe de Flore, I'm sure it'll be worthy of interest as well.