GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS (2019) Movie Review

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) d. Michael Dougherty (USA) (137 min)

Anyone who knows me even a little knows that I grew up a big Godzilla fan, that the Big G was essentially my gateway into the new world of gods and monsters, that from my love for this overgrown radioactive lizard (and his kaiju pals) would come the pursuit of further thrills in the form of King Kong and Frankenstein and Dracula and the Wolf Man and the magic of Ray Harryhausen and Bert I. Gordon, which in turn would turn a dark corner and reveal such deeper chills as Psycho, Halloween, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and more. It’s all thanks to Godzilla.

THE SHAPE OF WATER (2017) movie review

The Shape of Water (2017) d. del Toro, Guillermo (USA)

This “adult fairy tale” sees Sally Hawkins’ mute cleaning woman falling in love with an unworldly beast after it is captured in the Amazon and spirited away to a generic top-secret research facility, with scientist Michael Stuhlbarg and government thug Michael Shannon vying for proprietary rights. What follows is a Visually Stunning Effort, with all creative collaborators working overtime to deliver a heightened urban landscape of the early 1960s (we hear references to JFK, the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement), and the inimitable Doug Jones (Hellboy) donning arguably the most elegant rubber monster suit to grace the silver screen.