THE SHAPE OF WATER - Silence is Golden

I knew I would find THE SHAPE OF WATER interesting. I knew it would be visually arresting. I didn't expect it to pack such an emotional punch!

The story is the same old thing - girl meets fish/man, girl falls in love with fish/man, girls joins forces with Communist spy to rescue fish/man, girl floods bathroom to have standing up sex with fish/man... You know the drill.

The film has an interesting cast - it features three of my all time favorite male character actors and two highly regarded female actors that I tend to underestimate - and they all brought it HARD!

First off is Sally Hawkins. I had only previously seen her in HAPPY-GO-LUCKY which I thought was great, although I found her a little irritating. My expectations were meh. But without a word -except for one glorious fantasy sequence - she gradually lets you into the incredibly rich inner life of Elisa Esposito - a mute cleaning lady at a government facility. I'm sorry I doubted you, Sally.

The other apology goes to Octavia Spencer. The camera loves this woman. In every movie in which I have seen her, she has been a no nonsense, truth telling presence and I kind of considered that her schtick. Here, there is more of the same - but the fact that she does this often doesn't mean that she doesn't do it perfectly. Her running monologue when she and the Hawkins character go about their daily cleaning tasks is truthful and illuminating. She doesn't talk to hear the sound of her own voice. She is clearly having a conversation, despite the fact that her partner is non-verbal.

Michael Stuhlbarg is always interesting. Okay, I've only seen him in MEN IN BLACK 3 and A SERIOUS MAN, but he was hella interesting in both. Here he speaks two languages and communicates awkwardly in both. His character charmed me for most of the movie and disappointed me at the end, but Stuhlbarg was a master throughout.

Michael Shannon's style of communication is just the worst. I am seriously conflicted about Michael Shannon. He creeped me out the minute he appeared on screen in REVOLUTIONARY ROAD and cemented his stuff-of-nightmares-ness in BOARDWALK EMPIRE. He didn't do me any favors in this film either. His style of communication is offensive in its brusqueness. His casual racism, his self-aggrandizement and his bathroom habits are just gross. And yet, he is fantastic. I would have thought that the girl-on-fish/man action late in the movie would have been the most uncomfortable sex scene I would see that day, but honestly - it was delicately done and beautiful. Shannon and his wife have missionary-style suburban daytime sex and it is just icky. Who'd have thunk?

Richard Jenkins never disappoints. He plays a closeted, musical-loving sixty-ish gentleman who communicates beautifully with Elisa but awkwardly with everyone else. He is a painter who has had drinking issues and a lot of cats. He is also a man of integrity who can be counted on to do the right thing as much as he can. His timid vanity and his stalwart heart are just spectacular.




This is a strange, beautiful movie that has a lot of layers. Go see it.

THE DARKEST HOUR - Communication Makes it Happen

The final project for my film class at the high school is to find three movies and develop an essential question or theses and answer or argue it based on the students' interpretation of the movies. I tell the kids that they can choose any three movies in the world and I will find a way to connect them. It is my superpower.

My Wednesday movies were easy - LADYBIRD, 3 BILLBOARDS and I, TONYA were all colored in broad strokes by motherhood. Yesterday's movies were THE SHAPE OF WATER and DARKEST HOUR were both conflict movies, both set mid 20th century and both beautifully shot. Seriously, my eyes sent me a thank you note for letting them feast on the cinematography. But the theme that jumped out at me on the drive home was that of communication.

THE DARKEST HOUR is the story of Winston Churchill's first month as prime minister, culminating in the "We shall fight on the beaches" speech to Parliament that basically cemented the stiff upper lips of the population of Britain with regard to fighting the Axis.  The last line of the movie is "He just mobilized the English language and sent it into battle." I think Viscount Halifax said it in the movie, although in real life it is attributed to Edward R. Murrow (and gently plagiarized by JFK when he granted Churchill honorary American citizenship). Either way, it is the crux of the movie and sums up the power of Churchill's words.

The performances are splendid - Kristin Scott Thomas and Lily James are softly supportive as Churchill's wife and secretary. Ronald Pickup and Stephan Dillane are snooty and dismissive (and yet always one step behind) as Chamberlain and Halifax. Ben Mendelsohn plays George IV as conflicted and smart and it took me visiting IMDB 10 seconds ago to realize that he was Danny Rayburn from BLOODLINE. Good grief - he's a chameleon! David Strathairn plays FDR in one short phone conversation. I totally ID-ed him. So proud.

But there is only one *star* in this movie. According to the internet, Churchill is played by Gary Oldman, but I don't see it. That was Winston Churchill up there on the screen. According to Vanity Fair it took 4 hours a day to get Oldman in make-up and fat suit but he acts through the layers and layers of artifice to great effect. I finally forgave him for his carelessness in the Ministry of Magic (Sirious-ly, killed by a doorway? WTF, Black...)

I loved many of Oldman's performances in the past, starting with PRICK UP YOUR EARS (which I described to Alfred Molina when I met him in London - okay, asked for his autograph after a play, still counts! - as "The feel-good movie of the year." Yep, I cracked Alfred Molina up.) and SID AND NANCY, but other than the Harry Potters, he had lately fallen off my radar. But dang, he's still got it.

His performance is the lynchpin upon which the whole thing is constructed, but it is the power of Churchill's mastery of language that, well, saved the world. There is a scene (apocryphal) where he slips out of his car and takes the underground to Westminster and takes the pulse of a carload of Londoners regarding trying to negotiate a peace with Hitler. At one point he begins quoting something (St. Crispin's Day, maybe) and a young working-class man on the train finishes it for him and they exchange a look that says that they are brothers who will fight to the death together.  Yes it was manipulative, and yet - it worked.

I, TONYA - Where the Hits Just Keep On Coming...

Yesterday I spent the day at Kendall Square Cinema. It was magic.

You know you've had a good day at the movies when I, TONYA is the worst movie you saw. Because it is a freaking miracle on ice. It was SO GOOD. Margot Robbie is a dream. I went with my friends the Chardonnay family. When she first showed up on screen, my goddaughter Mimosa said, “Well, she's no Charlize Theron in MONSTER..." Which is accurate. She didn't ugly-up for this role. But the difference in her appearance between young Tonya and present-day Tonya is striking.

Her slightly thickened neck is the best bit of neck acting since Jessica Chastain screamed at Coach Taylor  in ZERO DARK THIRTY.

She is pure Tonya, though. And this movie gave layers to a story everybody thought they knew. Well, I didn't know, I had a new baby and wasn't paying attention. I didn't care about figure skating. But I care now! The cinematography in the skating scenes had me breathing heavy. Not in a creepy way, but because it felt so immediate. The scene where Tonya lands the first triple-Lindy or whatever it's called was the greatest moment of sports triumph I have ever seen on screen.

There were some tremendous supporting players, too. Allison Janney is getting a lot of press, but saying Allison Janney deserves an Oscar is like saying Allison Janney breathes oxygen. She should be rewarded just for getting out of bed in the morning. The scene in JUNO when she snaps at the ultrasound tech makes me burst into tears every time.

Who the heck is Julianne Nicholson? I know her face and she has been in a ton of shows I have probably half-watched on TV, but I couldn't have pulled her out of a lineup before this movie. She gave an extraordinarily restrained performance in a movie where virtually no one else had any restraint at all. She was magnificent.

Sebastian Stan was Bucky Barnes! Again, I had a vague feeling that I had seen him before, but couldn't have said where. He played Jeff Gillooly who was a very complex character in spite of being essentially a dull-witted goof. He played sweet at the beginning of the Jeff/Tonya relationship – so much so that the first time he slammed her face made me rear back in my seat. And the calm, almost anesthetized manner of modern-day Jeff was an entirely different animal. Just so good.

SO FREAKING PUNCHABLE!!!

About two thirds of the way through the movie I just started muttering “Punch his face. Punch his stupid face.” I am a pacifist! I don't condone face punching. And yet Paul Walter Hauser as Shaun Eckhardt had the most punchable face in the history of faces. His blank stare and complete inalienable belief in his own completely fictitious achievements worked so beautifully that, well, were he to have appeared before me, I would have punched first and asked questions later. Probably questions like, “Are you going to sue me because I clearly don't know the difference between actors and characters or how movies entirely work?” He was splendid, too.

I was going to review all three of the movies I saw yesterday in one shot, but I think if I do that it will be too obvious how often I rely on the word “marvelous” when I am impressed with performances. So I am going to go have a refreshing beverage and watch either season one of MASTERS OF SEX or SAVING MR. BANKS. I hear the plots are essentially identical.

Next up THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI and LADYBIRD.