The Shape of Water: Blu Ray Review

The Shape of Water: Blu Ray Review

How you feel about whimsy will largely dictate your feelings on the beautifully sumptuous but occasionally wanting Golden Globe nominated The Shape of Water.

In Guillermo del Toro's Cold War fairytale, Hawkins plays mute janitor Elisa, who lives with a struggling artist (Jenkin, in a warm and empathetic performance) above a cinema.

One day at work, Elisa encounters a strange event, when an apparent iron lung is shifted into the research facility where she works, complete with mysterious G-man (played with vitriol by Michael Shannon).

Despite being ordered not to do so, Elisa discovers a common bond with the Merman type creature in the tank (played by creature wizard Doug Jones). However, with the Russians trying to get their hands on it, and the Americans threatening to vivisect, Elisa decides to take matters into her own hands.

The Shape Of Water has some truly astounding visuals and is awash in a Jeunet-esque green glow that bathes everything in marine. Many sly references are made to green being the colour of the future, and the opening sequence, with its startling aqua-world is covered in green, and reflective of both the film's mystery and its 30s monster movie machinations.

Yet, even for a fantasy, there are moments in the Cold War showdown that don't hold together - lapses of logic and behaviour mar parts of the film and slightly take you out from the fantasy within.

Thankfully, even though the film's drowning in fantasy, it's grounded by some very human presences.

Jenkins is the everyman with heart, whose desire to fit in and return is rendered all the more tragic because of societal attitudes to his open lifestyle; Jones is as impressive as ever as a creature, with plenty of years in Hellboy to know that the simplest move of his Creature from the Black Lagoon can mean so much and Shannon's driven Government agent is as necessary a villain as you'd need in a film like this.

But it's Hawkins whose mute turn speaks the loudest in del Toro's movie about the love of movies. Her empathetic Elisa gives the fantasy its heart, and in her silent turn, Hawkins pays tribute to Del Toro's aim to salute the golden era of Hollywood's finest. But there's depth to Hawkins, even if the connection initially with the creature feels a little forced; this is a film that follows the conventions of Hollywood's monster movie era where a kindred is born.

Ultimately, The Shape of Water may go on a little too long, but if you're content to rest in its fantasy world and revel in Del Toro's unique vision, it's the perfect luxuriating piece of cinema. 

I, Tonya: DVD Review

I, Tonya: DVD Review

It's hard to know where the truth lies in the cinematic and literal punchbag and punchline that is director Craig Gillespie and actor Margot Robbie's I, Tonya.

A non-conventional biopic that mingles fourth-wall breaking, Fargo-esque shenanigans, Goodfellas-style extreme domestic violence, comedy and unreliable narrators, the truth is as difficult to trace as the film is keen to promote Margot Robbie's Tonya Harding as a victim, not a villain.

As Verbal in The Usual Suspects intoned at the end, "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist", much of a similar ethos has been thrown at I, Tonya and you're likely to emerge still not quite believing who is right, what the truth of the incident that hobbled Harding's contender Nancy Kerrigan in January 1994 actually is and assured that Alison Janney deserves all the plaudits she's being showered in for the role of Tonya's harridan mother.

Beginning with a relatively quiet start and a series of others piece-to-cameras explaining their role in the Tonya tale, Gillespie sets about building an image of Tonya before Robbie's presence is fully revealed.

Sitting in her kitchen, looking non-descript and complete with lank hair and limp bangs, Robbie portrays Harding as the victim in all of this, who never wanted anything more than to skate.

Taking in her childhood in 1970, where her mother LaVona (a nothing short of sinister and compelling turn from Janney under a pudding bowl cut and pair of unflattering glasses) daily verbally and physically abuses Harding, the film follows Tonya's rise to adulthood, her abusive relationship with Jeff Gillooly and her desire to simply skate and do nothing else.

Robbie's impressive as Harding for the most part - even if the back third of the film feels directionless and sprawling as it takes in a crime ripped straight from the annals of the Fargo anthology series in its ineptness and woeful stupidity.

But Robbie's game is seriously raised - and the film is indeed never better than when Janney is on screen and we dwell in their interactions. Simmering with an horrific tension and redolent of systemic abuse, these scenes are frank in their approach and as eye-opening an insight into character as could be expected.

However, Gillespie's desire to make the audience complicit (and Harding's on-screen end insistence that the audience is to blame for what happened to her) makes the film particularly conflicting viewing at times.

Punctuating moments of strong violence from Gillooly with Robbie's fourth-wall breaking leaves an occasionally uncertain taste in the mouth as the film goes on. Granted the material is pulled from a He Said, She Said style narrative, but the oddly jokey tone sits uncomfortably throughout.

That said, there are moments of directorial bravura in I, Tonya.

Gillespie's eye for dazzling sweeping shots of skating on the ice give the film a sequinned thrill and Tonya's tale an arc of tragedy, where the beauty she displayed in the rink is so fused with the ugliness of what lies off it in her domestic hillbilly life. (Though occasionally, it feels like some of the CGI fails its subject.)

Ultimately, and unfortunately, I, Tonya makes a literal punchline of its subject, and leaves you none the wiser to the reliability and relatability of what transpires on screen.

It does feel overlong hitting nearly 2 hours, and the farcical elements sit with unease next to the violence, but perhaps, in some ways, this is the point of I, Tonya.

Harding has always been a conflicting and divisive figure.

It certainly feels in its denouement as she protests her innocence that she believes she's misunderstood (and the film allows this agenda throughout).

Even with Janney's superlative turn and Robbie's occasional shining strength and resolute performance, I, Tonya spins a polarising story, a bastardisation of the American dream that's hard to get to the core of - and definitely one whose black humour and approach will leave you feeling deeply conflicted afterwards.

Win a copy of The Greatest Showman

Win a copy of The Greatest Showman

To celebrate the release of The Greatest Showman you can win a copy, thanks to the great people at Universal Home Entertainment.

About The Greatest Showman

Experience the award-winning music!

Hugh Jackman leads an all-star cast in this bold and original musical filled with infectious show stopping performances that will
bring you to your feet time and time again.

Inspired by the story of P.T. Barnum (Jackman) and celebrating the birth of show business, the film follows the visionary who rose from nothing to create a mesmerizing spectacle.

To win a copy, all you have to do is email  your details to this address: darrensworldofentertainment@gmail.com or CLICK HERE NOW!

Please label your entry BARNUM

Competition closes May 18th

Win a copy of Phantom Thread

Win a copy of Phantom Thread

To celebrate the release of the Oscar-nominated Phantom Thread, you could win a copy thanks to our friends at Universal Home Entertainment.

About Phantom Thread

Set in the glamour of 1950’s post-war London, renowned dressmaker Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) and his sister Cyril (Lesley Manville) are at the centre of British fashion, dressing royalty, movie stars, heiresses, socialites, debutants and dames with the distinct style of The House of Woodcock.

Women come and go through Woodcock’s life until he comes across a young, strong-willed woman, Alma (Vicky Krieps), who soon becomes a fixture in his life as his muse and lover.

Once controlled and planned, he finds his carefully tailored life disrupted by the scariest curse of all...love.

And so begins a Gothic Romance of twists, turns and power struggles.

  To win a copy, all you have to do is email  your details to this address: darrensworldofentertainment@gmail.com or CLICK HERE NOW!

Please label your entry PHANTOM

Competition closes May 18th

Win a copy of The Florida Project

Win a copy of The Florida Project

To celebrate the release of Sean Baker's The Florida Project on DVD and Blu-Ray, you could win 1 of 3 copies, thanks to Universal Home Entertainment.

About The Florida Project

Directed and co-written by Sean Baker (Tangerine) The Florida Project is the story of precocious six-year-old Moonee (Brooklynn Prince) and her ragtag group of
friends whose summer break is filled with childhood wonder, possibility and a sense of adventure.

Living at a motel in the shadow of Disney World, Moonee is seemingly oblivious to the struggles of adults around her, including mother Halley (Bria
Vinaite), and motel manager/father-figure Bobby (Willem Dafoe).

A vibrant yet heart-breaking portrait of life on the fringe.

  To win a copy, all you have to do is email  your details to this address: darrensworldofentertainment@gmail.com or CLICK HERE NOW!

Please label your entry FLORIDA

Competition closes May 18th

Win a copy of The Shape Of Water

Win a copy of The Shape Of Water

To celebrate the release of the Oscar-winning The Shape Of Water, you can win a copy thanks to Universal Home Entertainment.

About The Shape of Water

From master storyteller, Guillermo del Toro, comes The Shape Of Water, an otherworldly fairy tale set against the backdrop of Cold War-era America circa
1962.

In the hidden, high-security government laboratory where she works, lonely Elisa (Sally Hawkins) is trapped in a life of isolation. Elisa’s life is changed forever
when she and co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer) discover a secret classified experiment.

To win a copy, all you have to do is email  your details to this address: darrensworldofentertainment@gmail.com or CLICK HERE NOW!

Please label your entry SHAPE

Competition closes May 18th

Isle of Dogs: Film Review

Isle of Dogs: Film Review

Cast: Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Koyu Rankin, Greta Gerwig, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Kunichi Nomura
Director: Wes Anderson

Propaganda, genocide, Japanese homage, accusations levelled of cultural appropriation and a white saviour - Wes Anderson's latest quirk fest, the stop animation Isle of Dogs, certainly has it all.

Set on Trash Island off the coast of Japan, it centres on a colony of canines, cut from their owner's lives at the behest of Prime Minister Kobayashi (Nomura) after an outbreak of dog flu and snout fever. Ripped from civilisation and living a little like Lord of The Flies with pockets of rabid ruffians looking for food, a group of four dogs one day see a visitor come to the island.

This is the little pilot, a boy looking simply for his lost pooch.

Taking the boy under their collective wings, the dogs, along with stray interloper Chief (Cranston, rich and gravelly), set out to find the Little Pilot's long lost pal - as a conspiracy on the mainland develops under Kobayashi's watch.

As stop animation and as a follow up to the stirling work done in Fantastic Mr Fox, West Anderson's latest is really second to none in the animation stakes, with everything painted through with the typical Anderson whimsy and quirk.

It's also second to none in the hipster quirk stakes as well - and towards the end, the light  fancy edges threaten to cloy and choke rather than assume the desired effect. Plus, there's a very sudden about face for one of the main characters which comes from nowhere and tonally jars.

But in terms of engaging a quest and Samurai element to the proceedings, the group's search certainly feels formed and is intriguing enough - even if it feels like little happens and they simply trudge from one element to the next, leading to a meandering feeling.

That's perhaps the joy of what Anderson's committed to the screen here - it feels slight, and light, with rafts of once over lightly, rather than big emotional heft - which may rankle some viewers.

However, with Chief's back story and the homage to Japan and its culture, Isle of Dogs is as traditional a animal adventure as anything Disney has put out - even if there are a few darker elements.

The one majorly troubling part of the story is the way that Little Pilot gets sidelined later on in favour of Greta Gerwig's white saviour Tracey who breaks open the conspiracy. It's hard to justify this, or whether it's a sly subversion of the dumb American cracking open the whole plot that's within (this may be granting Anderson a little too much space).

It feels like a misfire in a film that works to incorporate its cultural elements into the symmetry and tapestry of its film (although this has seen the film have criticisms levelled at it) and really does stick out like a sore thumb.

Ultimately though, Isle of Dogs, while it threatens to collapse under the weight of the quirk and times of occasional tedium it's created, is a film that nearly hits some of Fantastic Mr Fox's animated, but not heart, highs. It may lack the spontaneity and chaos of the previous entry, and some of the lighter touches (certainly, when it does cut loose it's a lot more fun and engaging), but it's definitely proof that stop-animation isn't a dying art form - and one that deserves to be seen on the big screen.