Because I am making this blog more spontaneous and less planned, I hereby decided to write a film review every now and then. Cinema is an old passion of mine. I used to be a film critic and I have worked as a film programmer (mostly Asian/Japanese).

Now I am not going into detail about what the story is about, but more about how I felt about the film. Just sharing, just making conversation. Would love to hear what you thought of these movies.

With these days of cold I like to turn to the cinema for warmth and imagination. A place to escape the harshness of the weather and that of the ‘real world’. Now I am aware of the programming in films and television and the subliminal messages and the frequencies projected from the screen. But I am still a sucker for films and I will always have a weak spot for the cinema.

For me there is always a bit of guilt involved in sitting on my bum watching films and not creating anything myself. But these days I feel I deserve breaks and enjoyment. “Entertain them”. And I try to learn from films and try to see through their programming and messages. I am a curious mind and I am a rabbit hole seeker. So no I can never fully relax and watch a film, I am constantly questioning as in every day life. Call me paranoid, I call it awake, or at least no longer sleeping. Mind you ‘they’ need to let us know what they are up to, they need our permission so to speak, so they use film and music amongst many other tools to show in plain sight what is going on. But it is presented to us as fiction. If you like to know more, do your own research, there is a lot to be found, such as Jay Dyer on film and Mark Devlin on music.

The Shape of Water

But back to cinema magic. Now I have a soft spot for Del Toro and I had high hopes for The Shape of Water, but I left the screening a bit disappointed, but then the expectations were perhaps too high. It is decent, but not brilliant as many make it out to be, at least not for me.

The Shape of Water is the paradoxical story of an otherworldly connection of two souls, and it would be equally at home in a book of fairy tales or an anthology of science fiction.

1-D

The acting is very over the top and one-dimensional; the typecast sassy black friend, yammering about her husband, the gay artist neighbor/best friend, the evil villain detective, the Russian spy, etc. I didn’t really care that much about the characters. The romance felt forced and rushed to me. The main character basically falls in love with the “Asset” just after a couple of meetings with him. The whole story was just a bit bland and predictable or has the winter cold just chilled my heart? It wasn’t a surprising film, but a nice way to pass time. Five stars and Oscar worthy? Nah (well perhaps for the set design and I do have a soft spot for Sally Hawkins, but I have seen her in much better roles). As with all Del Toro’s movies, I loved the cinematography and the score. A real cinematic treat! The lighting and set designs were exquisite.

Sleeping with the fishes

This film discloses interspecie breeding (I personally don’t believe us humans are, well 100% human, we have been (and perhaps still are) mixed with other species and this film is trying to help us accept that easier – that and the general message of accepting people that are different, it is especially pushing the gender agenda). But I applaud the more obvious love over fear message. Now if that is a good thing or a bad thing when it comes to alien beings, I am still not sure. I am sure many aliens are benevolent, but surely not all, so “the aliens coming to help us” narrative is something I am very careful with. I do not believe we will be saved and that we should just trust everyone/-thing just because they are not human (this also goes for spirits, angels, ascended masters etc.). Different doesn’t equal good. Just as much as it doesn’t equal bad. But that is another story all together. The film tells us that rather than fearing the unknown, we should embrace it. That being unique makes you lovable and perfect and that love makes anything possible, a timely, allegorical message about our willingness to accept difference. Now Amen to that. “The Shape of Water” shines a light, although it is set in the early 1960s, is a perfect commentary for our time. It asks us to reflect on the qualities that distinguish us; it asks us where we stand. It also asks us to think about the impact of new scientific discoveries on the environment: Science can be used to either respect or dominate the natural world.

As del Toro said after the TIFF premiere: “It is important to choose love over fear because love is the answer.”

The movie just feels forgettable, nothing about the story or the way its told is that great. Its hard to put in words exactly why but just from a subjective point of view the story was lacking a bit. Overall this is a decent film for sure, one that is overall entertaining and is never boring, but don’t expect it to knock your socks off. But like the characters’ reactions to the creature, everyone will take away something different from the film.

Phantom Thread

Now another film I recently watched in the cinema is Phantom Thread. Now I still feel claustrophobic and the melancholic atmosphere has crept under my skin with superb acting and beautiful sets.
The camera work beautifully portrays the high society of the 1950s and the relationships between the complex characters is fascinating as they cannot be fathomed in a single view. Accompanied by heavenly piano music (by Jonny Greenwood) Anderson shows that everything in Woodcock’s life is but as a vehicle for his art. Phantom Thread is about sovereign artistic control and perfectionism.

Silent mortification

The film is sometimes funny, but in the end the melancholy stays with you. That is that despite all fame and wealth something fundamental is lacking in the characters, namely happiness. This feeling is expressed at the end of the film as there is ‘an atmosphere of silent mortification’ in the house. The three main characters are slowly dying. They do not continue. They want something that is unreachable. They never learned how to be content in the present. Always seeking, never satisfied. Perfectionism is a silent and cold killer.

Human desire

In Phantom Thread Anderson knows how to painfully portray this human desire. Yet it is not unbearable, because the film is a treat for the senses and it has it’s funny moments. The film’s use of irony is also immensely clever, as dramatic and situational irony are both used in clever and impactful manners, both when the audience most and least expects them to arrive and occur.

This film is like a sumptuous haute couture dress, made by a brilliant but worried artist. This wasn’t a film to warm myself up to, it actually chilled me to the bone at the end. But it left me feeling something and kept me thinking. For me this film much more deserved an Oscar. But I seldom agree with the choice of winner.

Keep the magic alive.

Love, Charissa x