EXBERLINER Issue 168, February 2018

WHAT’S ON — Film WHAT’S ON — Film
The new Oscar bait
From interspecies sex to Tommy Wiseau, awards hopefuls have
come a long way since Driving Miss Daisy. By Paul O’Callaghan
Editor’s Choice
Viewed from a certain angle,
Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar
frontrunner The Shape of
Water (photo) is your archetypal
prestige fare. It’s a handsome period
drama with a Cold War-era
setting that neatly echoes our current
political landscape, a bravura
central turn from Sally Hawkins as a
mute cleaner, and a gently heartbreaking
supporting performance
by Richard Jenkins as a lovelorn gay
bachelor. But – and it’s a big but –
it’s also the love story of a woman
and a sea monster, replete with
bursts of eye-popping violence,
musical numbers and interspecies
intercourse. During its thrillingly
unpredictable opening act, I
thought I was watching an instant
all-timer. But while it’s a genre-hopping
delight, and by far Del Toro’s
best work since 2006’s Pan’s Labyrinth,
the central romance doesn’t
quite deliver an emotional kick to
match the resplendent visuals.
Either way, it’s refreshing that
The Shape of Water refuses to deal
in tired Oscar-bait tropes – as do
many of this year’s major awards
contenders. Oscar voters invariably
love heaping adulation on movies
about the movies, but rather
than blow smoke up the asses of
Tinseltown luminaries, James
Franco’s The Disaster Artist tracks
the unlikely rise of oddball auteur
Tommy Wiseau, whose baffling
2003 melodrama The Room gained
notoriety as “the Citizen Kane of bad
movies”. There are inevitably laughs
here at the expense of Wiseau, who
dresses like a vampire and claims
to hail from New Orleans despite a
thick eastern European accent. But
Franco pulls off a neat trick in the
role, hamming it up whilst rendering
his subject relatable. It’s a far cry
from the self-serious showboating
awarding bodies tend to recognise,
but the performance nevertheless
netted Franco a Golden Globe
and a host of other accolades. A
subsequent Oscar nod seemed
inevitable, but it appears that
very recent accusations of sexual
misconduct scuppered his prospects
at the last minute. The film did,
however, pick up a nomination for
Best Adapted Screenplay.
On paper, The Post sounds like it
was generated by an algorithm with
the sole purpose of winning Oscars.
Uniting the Hollywood holy trinity
of Steven Spielberg, Meryl Streep
and Tom Hanks for the first time,
it tells the uncannily relevant story
of the Washington Post’s publishing
of the Pentagon Papers in 1971, a
particularly enthralling example of
a principled press taking a stand
against a corrupt government. By
placing Post publisher Katharine
Graham front and centre, Spielberg
rights a grievous wrong of Alan
J. Pakula’s All the President’s Men,
which essentially cuts her out of
the story. The most conventional
film in this year’s Oscar pack is
still not quite what you might be
expecting – neither a sprawling period
biopic, nor a deep dive into the
mechanics of investigative reporting.
Instead, it hones in squarely
on Graham’s agonising dilemma
of whether or not to publish the
explosive papers, with Streep happily
reining it in following a recent
run of gratingly over-the-top turns.
But given the heavyweight talent
involved, this is a curiously forgettable
affair, with Spielberg unable
to resist hammering his thesis
home with a couple of laughably
on-the-nose final-act flourishes. ■
Starts Feb 1 The Disaster Artist HHHH D: James Franco (US 2017) with
James Franco, Dave Franco | Starts Feb 15 The Shape of Water HHHH
D: Guillermo del Toro (US 2017) with Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon
| Starts Feb 22 The Post HHH D: Steven Spielberg (US 2017) with
Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks
REVIEWS
Das Leben ist ein Fest
(Le Sens de la fête)
D: Olivier Nakache,
Eric Toledano
(France 2017)
HH
A long-suffering
caterer (Jean-Pierre
Bacri) is charged with
organising a lavish
wedding in an opulent
château in this
crowd-pleasing but
instantly forgettable
comedy from the duo
behind 2011 breakout
hit The Intouchables.
Starts Feb 1
Freddy/Eddy
D: Tini Tüllmann
(Germany 2017)
HHH
Once-revered artist
Freddy (Felix Schäfer)
hits rock bottom
when he’s accused
of assaulting his
cheating wife, and
things take a turn for
the uncanny when his
childhood imaginary
friend returns
to wreak havoc.
Shades of Nicolas
Roeg and Roman
Polanski abound
in this generic but
undeniably wellcrafted
psychological
thriller. Starts Feb 1
FEBRUARY 2018 27