Lost in Lualand

As I've said elsewhere, Mr Del Toro put his whole pussy into this movie. Also Grand Admiral Thrawn was there.

We had just recently rewatched The Shape of Water, which is one of my favourite movies. Perry's read Frankenstein but I never have. You'd think, though, between knowing the gist of the story and being familiar with GDT's game I would have been prepared, but I still was really rocked by the gore, especially early on with the pre-Creature science experiments. I had to watch a lot of it with my face covered. I loved it though.

Flawless cast (I don't know what a Jacob Elordi is, but he crushed it), the kind of rich, symbolic visuals you expect from GDT, and an excellent score. The scene where this bright, peppy waltz is playing over Oscar Isaac sawing off limbs is so well done.

I've seen people primarily criticizing two things, one that somebody actually said the line (more or less) "You're the monster, Victor," and that GDT woobyfied the Creature, which weakens the original book's meditation on what role our surroundings play in our choices and what evil looks like and whether you can truly say whether Frankenstein or the Creature is more monstrous than the other. I haven't read the book, so I can't really comment on that, but the Creature does some pretty extreme stuff to a lot of people! Almost entirely reactively, which I think does definitely change the message from the murders that I understand he does in the book, but I don't hate it because I kind of enjoy the musing on the fact that we can be in a situation where evil actions might be the much more likely outcome and still not do them. The short version is simply that GDT is a monsterfucker and he was never going to present a less than sympathetic version of the Creature. I'm fine with it.

I suppose the script wasn't the most subtle, but between the acting chops and the incredible costuming and scenery and details, I didn't have any complaints. Even the monster line was delivered in a really poignant way.


I'm really glad we went to see it in the theatre (even though it was 35$ for two tickets, jesus christ) and I'm excited for it to be...acquirable at home next week so we can watch it again. I think it's staying in theatres until it starts streaming on Netflix, so if it's available near you, highly recommend the cinematic experience.