pauleskridge

Seven stars. Bumped up because the ending was so unexpectedly non-Bergmanesque. This is the earliest Bergman film I've seen, and it supports my opinion that he didn't really come into his own as a director until he made Summer Interlude. There are some great nuggets here, but it feels like Bergman wasn't sure how to put them together properly. That said, I think this worked better than either To Joy or Thirst. I especially loved Nine-Christine Jonsson's body acting. Take a look at how her posture reflects the emotional state of her character as the film progresses. And Gosta and Berit are a great pair of characters. Now, I have to say that if a woman like Berit had made her reveal to me when I was a young man, it wouldn't have bothered me. But I was a young man in the 1980s, not the 1940s. Modern viewers will need to be able to comprehend the social mores of 70 years ago to understand why things play out the way they do. Still, Berit's interrogation scene is brilliant at revealing a universal truth -- society cares about the wealthy and powerful. It will gladly grind up and discard the rest of us. Finally, I must give a shout out to Berta Hall, who played Berit's mother. She gave one of the most horrifying portrayals of a mother I've ever seen. Her non-chalant, callous, manipulative evil was just riveting. This isn't a great Bergman film. But it shows a lot of the elements that would make Bergman a great director in only a few more years. 2 September 2020.

Nine stars. Not ten because of some puzzling plot holes. And it's not quite as good as Pan's Labyrinth. But this is one of Del Toro's masterpieces. What an idea -- reimagining The Creature from the Black Lagoon as a straight-up love story! And it follows the usual trope of sci-fi babe falling for hunky guy who saves her from the monster. It's just that a) Sally Hawkins is one of the best actors of her generation, playing anything but an "almost a doctor" part, and b) the hunky guy is the monster, and vice-versa.

Del Toro is a perfectionist. It shows in every frame here. The color palettes of the apartments and lab, the costumes, the detailing of the monster-suit. And the lab is a quintessential Del Toro set -- all those tubes and pipes going every which way.

I've already praised Hawkins, but I'll do it again. She's knocked it out of the park in every film I've seen of hers. Here she has to convey everything with gesture and expression, and one can always tell what's up with her character. I'll say the same for Doug Jones, who also had to deal with being covered head to toe with that costume. And he still manages to let us know what's going on in the creature's head. The other performance I have to honor is Octavia Spencer's. In the years since I first saw the film, I had forgotten how much I loved EVERYTHING Zelda says in the whole movie. Spencer was brilliant as her own and Elisa's mouthpiece.

As for that plot-hole quibble from above: How is it, in a facility that is festooned with security cameras, that there aren't any of them in the actual lab?

I decided to rewatch the movie so I could show it to my teen-age son. He's a big fan of old monster movies, and of The Creature from the Black Lagoon in particular. I knew he'd lap this one up, now that he's old enough. And, sure enough, he loved it. If you haven't seen it, take a look! 15 August 2025.

Eight stars. That was my grade when I watched this ten years ago with my first kid. And it's still my grade now that I've watched it again with my second.

Charlie Cox does a fine job as the hero, but he's nothing special. The acting that sells the story comes from the rest of the cast. Claire Danes is, well, luminous. Michelle Pfeiffer is ferocious in what was her return from a five-year hiatus. Mark Strong may be typecast as a villain, but he sure played it great here. And De Niro, who often mails it in these days, was hysterically brilliant as the cross-dressing sky pirate Captain Shakespeare. There are splendid small turns by David Kelly, Peter O'Toole, Mark Williams and Ricky Gervais as well. The story is classic Gaiman, with his inspired mix of whimsy and practicality. And Cox did play the coming-of-age angle very well. This is a splendid nugget of a film. It seems to have become a little overlooked in the last dozen years, but it stands head and shoulders above the vast majority of fantasy films that have appeared since then. 9 September 2020.