Chevalier - Movie Review
love me a good historical biopic in this case a biopic about someone we all probably should have learned about in history class but we did not so now we get to see this person's life through a keyhole let's do it so Chevalier is a biopic about the life of Joseph Balon musical Maestro also expert sword fighter also Marksman you imagine something that the human body or imagination can do and he was just good at it a superpower he just had a superpower that was being great at things I was glad they touched on him being a swordsman it's not just like oh he's great at violin there was more to it but more to it in real life than the movie actually showed so there is that now this takes place Circa France 1700s right before the French Revolution out the gate giving credit to Kelvin Harrison Jr as Joseph Balon Chevalier himself I thought it was fantastic in the role and he generally carries the film yes he does have some great supporting actors working with him Samara weaving being one of them now this movie surprised me at being about an hour and 45 minute run time I'm not used to that for historical musical biopics usually I'm I'm used to the Amadeus that's a quantifiable run time Amadeus it's usually like how long is this movie uh Amadeus [Ø¢ __Ø¢ ] all right let me piss first one second right so an hour 45 it works both for this film and against in that same way that your weaknesses are your strengths just in certain situations and vice versa case in point hour 45 minutes is generally speaking a pretty tight run time you're engaged for most of it that said this movie could have and should have been so much more I mean keeping it vague he has this friend in the movie and then he and his friends they seem pretty close and they have a falling out and he says something like I defended you when people were besmirching your name I wanted to be like anyone in this theater who saw that happen could you raise your hand all right so it's not just me that legitimately did not happen on screen it's a classic case for the movie telling you something happened without showing you that thing happened which means it doesn't really stick The Landing emotionally speaking I wouldn't doubt it it would not surprise me if I found out later there's some three hour cut of this film out there somewhere I feel like this film's gonna run into problems with audiences with one of two scenarios you're in one of two camps one you are skilled and versed you're a scholar into the life of Joseph Balon in which case you're gonna watch this film and be like well that was a Bare Bones could have should have been more version of that person's life or two and this is where I ran into it I walked out of the movie being like that was perfectly enjoyable it was a perfectly enjoyable biopic absolutely then I was interested enough to look into the life further which is really what a biopic should leave you with but man this is a rare case of the real life story being far more interesting than this movie was yeah aside from violin riding dancing swimming skating fencing the movie touches on two of those things including violin and some of it was traded out for the sake of entertainment but also not historically accurate for example the way this movie starts out is is him having a dueling violin Showdown with Mozart for the film's entertainment purposes it was absolutely entertaining and pretty awesome and I know why they did it because people have taken to calling Joseph balloon black Mozart which severely undercuts him and his skills and all that he did so it's like all right have him whip Mozart's ass there you go but historically not only do these two cross paths but they lived under the same roof at a point in fact historians have taken some of Mozart's music and lined it up with Joseph balloons and they're like I'm pretty sure Mozart stole that that to me is more interesting but yeah you can have him just dueling violins at the beginning and sure also the dude fought in war that's a huge part of his life but we just kind of get that in the text at the end I hope this movie is successful in that gauging audience interest kind of way so we can hopefully get that HBO miniseries that this life absolutely lends itself to this was an interesting glimpse into a very fascinating life but it feels like that a glimpse if you can imagine viewing a beautiful landscape through a keyhole that's what this movie feels like but for a casual viewing experience it's perfectly enjoyable I'm gonna say it's a good time no alcohol required caveat at matinee price all right so Chevalier have you seen it what did you think about it what's your favorite historical biopic whatever it is whatever you think comment below let me know and as always if you like what you've seen here and you want to see more click right here to see more [Music]