THE SHAPE OF WATER (Malaysia, 22 Mar 2018)

Genre: Fantasy / Romance
Running Length: 2:03
Cast: Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Stuhlbarg, Doug Jones
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Screenplay: Guillermo del Toro & Vanessa Taylor

I can understand why THE SHAPE OF WATER recently won the Best Picture at the Oscars. But it's not because of a compelling story but it checks most of the boxes of what the Academy voters were looking for at this current time. It was the safest choice. It would have been interesting if Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri won because it would have been a controversial pick.

What's the movie about?
Set in the 1960s, a mute and lonely cleaning lady who works at a top secret government facility forms an unconventional relationship with a scaled creature that is being held in captivity. She attempts to free the creature from the sadistic government agent. 

What I like about it?

• The overall grandeur of the production. It's beautiful to look at and the set designs are detailed and rich. 
• The creature. Thank God the filmmakers didn't use CGI but instead opted for the traditional hours and hours of make-up job. But then it's a Guillermo del Toro film :) 
• Eventhough it's a fantasy, it's still a more realistic adult fairy tale story vs Beauty and the Beast. In this movie, the creature do behave dangerously like an animal at times. 
• Unconventional choice for a leading lady. Instead of choosing a pretty young thing, the filmmakers decided to go with a mature lady with a next door neighbour looks. And Sally Hawkin's performance as an "incomplete" lonely lady in love with a non-human being is very believable. She's very likeable here.  
• Homage to classic musical movies. Cinephiles out there will love what delToro did here. 

What I didn't?

• Shallow approach to inclusiveness, racism, homosexuality, women's empowerment, the black community, the Cold War, the Russian spy and technological unemployment. It felt as though the filmmakers threw in a buffet of such Oscar worthy subjects just to get noticed by the Academy. It was very heavy handed.      
• Unbelievable antagonist. Although Michael Shannon's performance here is scary and intense, his frothing at the mouth character is unbelievable and overly stereotyped (All white, heterosexual, Christian, American men are evil).
• Boring. Despite such an interesting concept, I was actually bored throughout most of the film. I wasn't immersed with the characters and some parts were just too predictable. (Three Billboards is much more interesting in its unpredictability and characters' arc).

RATING: 7.5/10

GIFTED (2017)

Genre: Drama
Running Length: 1:41
Cast: Chris Evans, Lindsay Duncan, McKenna Grace, Octavia Spencer, Jenny Slate
Director: Marc Webb
Screenplay: Tom Flynn

GIFTED explores the premise of unconventional parental upbringing very much similar to last year's Captain Fantastic. The only difference is that the former feels more grounded and emotionally more satisfying.

Frank Adler (Evans) is the guardian of 7-year old Maths prodigy Mary (Grace), his dead sister's daughter. Frank chooses to nurture Mary like any other ordinary kid so she could lead a normal life. While Frank's estranged mother believes that special attention should be given to little Mary to hone her strengths. What ensues is Frank battling his own mother in court over the custody of Mary.

What I really like about this movie is how natural the story unfolds. One can expect such a dramatic plot would manipulate its audience to be emotional and take sides, but it doesn't. Because both sides are "correct" in presenting their case, there is no right or wrong method in parenting a gifted child. As an audience, I too wanted the best for the kid but what is "the best" in such a grey issue which desperately needs closure?

What makes this movie so watchable is the authentic performances. Evans brings his charm here and is believable in his character. Throughout the course of the film, I wasn't reminded that Chris Evans = Captain America (but I suspect I would feel otherwise if Ryan Reynolds was to play this part). The rest of the supporting cast is solid. Of course, the standout here is little McKenna Grace who gives such an honest performance, especially during the quieter emotional moments - I couldn't help but tear up.

This is not a perfect film as I felt the ending was a little too convenient. But I'm not complaining as it's always nice to just watch everyday people quietly going through their joys and struggles of their daily life for a change (vs loud fast cars trying to escape a charging submarine).

RATING: 8.5/10

HIDDEN FIGURES (2017)

Genre: Drama / Comedy
Running Length: 2:07
Cast: Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst, Jim Parsons, Mahershala Ali, Aldis Hodge, Glen Powell
Director: Theodore Melfi
Screenplay: Allison Schroder and Theodore Melfi, based on the book by Margot Lee Shetterly

HIDDEN FIGURES' second half is a much more interesting watch than its first half. Granted that the filmmakers needed to quickly establish the context of this true story, I felt they were too heavy-handed in delivering the message of race and gender equality. I've seen some films which were more subtle in dealing with this subject but yet still gets the message across effectively and powerfully. In this movie, we have forceful dialogues like, "Here at NASA, we all pee the same colour!"

This movie which is set in the early 1960s, tells the untold tale of three African-American ladies who had to fight an uphill battle of racism and feminism at NASA to put the first American into space. I'm not sure how accurate this based on real events film is but I'm pretty sure the filmmakers took some liberty in the narrative especially our unsung heroes' private lives.

And speaking of that, the NASA scenes are much more engaging than the side plots revolving around their personal lives. Somehow, the performance of our trio is more authentic in the work place vs those segments revolving around their home life.

Performance wise, the filmmakers have assembled a strong cast. Our protagonists give solid performance and the supporting cast is serviceable especially Costner. He does seem to get better as he ages. There is this rather peculiar and prolonged segment where we see Taraji's character dashing half a mile in high heels in a cartoonish manner to the bathroom. After a while, it felt like one of those, "Ok, I get it. Now get on with it already, will ya?" segments but the resolution to it is by far the movie's most satisfying scene.

Overall a light-hearted and feel-good drama which tells how race played an important role in the US vs Soviet space race in the 1960s.

RATING: 7.5/10

ZOOTOPIA (2016)

 

Genre: Animated

Running Length: 1:48
Cast (voices): Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba, J.K. Simmons, Jenny Slate, Nate Torrence, Octavia Spencer, Shakira
Director: Byron Howard, Rich Moore
Screenplay: Jared Bush, Phil Johnston

Considering what's happening in our country, ZOOTOPIA is another timely released movie on embracing our differences. Although many animated movies involving the animal kingdom have lightly explored this theme, Zootopia has done it so directly and cleverly without being preachy. And thrown into the mix is the classic mismatched partnership as they race against time to solve a mystery case.

The case in question here is a series of disappearance of predators in a city ie. Zootopia, where all mammals live harmoniously together. So, it's up to an overly optimistic rookie bunny cop (Goodwin) and a cynical con-artist fox (Bateman) to figure out who's behind the kidnappings.

There are many things to like about this movie. Firstly, Zootopia the city itself is a visual marvel as the animators have created different worlds eg. Tundratown, Rain Forest District within the city and with so many interesting details it's worth re-watching again and again. The animation is just outstanding. And of course, the characters are very lovable (and some are just plain quirky) especially our two main characters. OMG, their expressive cute ears!

There is a very moving moment involving the backstory of our fox, which sums up the theme of co-existence neatly for me. Despite our obvious differences, we have much more in common than we think eg. our need to be loved and accepted, our hopes and dreams and our fears. It's just that we don't talk publicly about such things. If we only do so, we will discover that we are all flawed creatures trying to make sense of our existence in our broken world. And that's what makes us, human.
   
All in all, Zootopia gives its audience plenty of food for thought, is funny and more importantly has a lot of heart.

Rating: 8.5/10