This year, the Academy Awards turn 90, and the race for the best picture of 2017 is pretty wide open. This is certainly no runaway Titanic or Lord of the Rings year, and by the same token, as long as Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway are kept far away from the envelopes, it seems unlikely that there will be audible gasps in the wee hours of the morning after Sunday. … [Read more...]
2017’s Top 10 in film
You would never know it from what the multiplexes were showing in the first 10 months of 2017, but with a November and December delivering a flurry of quality films, this became a top-notch year at the movies. Here are my 10 favorites, with plenty more just barely not making the cut. 1. The Shape of Water – Tapping into the magic realism and political fantasy that fueled his … [Read more...]
Mute Hawkins speaks volumes in creaky ‘Shape of Water’
“That’s the future now — green!” With this correction, about 40 minutes into The Shape of Water, struggling commercial illustrator Giles (Richard Jenkins), proudly toting his commissioned portrait of a nuclear American family huddled around a red gelatin mold, is sent back to the drawing board. Green is the hue of progress, not red. Green is certainly the warmest color in … [Read more...]