octavia spencer

Onward

Kevin Fentress Movie Reviews , , , , , , , , , , , ,

onward

Day of the Dad

As others have observed, the overall trend of Pixar’s releases has been a gradual decline in creativity, with the freshness of Toy Story giving way to the banal likes of Cars and Inside Out.  The conceit of Onward is on the trite end of the spectrum; its serviceable and shallow fantasy-creatures-meet-modern-technology setup feels like it could have come from any one of Hollywood’s anonymous computer animation factories. Continue reading →

The Shape of Water

Kevin Fentress Movie Reviews , , , , , , , , , , ,

shape of water

It’s impossible to get mad at a Guillermo Del Toro movie.  Even his misfires, like the forgettable Crimson Peak and generic Mimic have a creative spark to them that seems increasingly rare in modern Hollywood.  He’s a man who clearly loves what he does, even managing to put his artistic stamp on prefab properties like Blade II.  But The Shape of Water is his vision through and through, for better and for worse. Continue reading →