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Lady Bird

The Shape of Water

Darkest Hour
Greta Gerwig’s impressive directorial debut stars
Saoirse Ronan as a seventeen year old desperate
to get away from her Californian town and Catholic
high school in order to be somebody – she’s just
not quite sure what kind of somebody she wants to
be yet. Christine ‘Lady Bird’ McPherson dreams of
escaping to university on the east coast, mostly to
spite her mother Marion (Laurie Metcalf) who
wants her daughter to go to a local, less expensive
college. Her difficult relationship with her mother
propels Lady Bird to act out, not just with adopting
Guillermo del Toro weaves an extraordinary her preferred nom de plume, but with trying out
fairy tale of love, desire and monsters in the new friends and sexually experimenting with two
gorgeous creature feature THE SHAPE OF WATER. very different boys (Lucas Hedges and Timothée
Sally Hawkins stars as Elisa, a mute woman who Chalamet). Gerwig crafts a masterful study of that
works as a cleaner in a secret high-security
government laboratory in the midst of 1960s Cold period of life for teenagers when adulthood and
freedom seems so close and yet so far. With Ronan
War paranoia. But within the facility is something
delivering the most accomplished performance of
that will cause Elisa’s lonely life to start singing –
an aquatic, humanoid creature (Doug Jones) who her career thus far, LADY BIRD is a must-see
has been dragged from the watery depths and now confluence of women making heartfelt art. (CTC)
lives in a tank. Witnessing the horror that the
Within days of becoming Prime Minister of Great ghastly federal agent Strickland (Michael Shannon) “Feels thrillingly real and deeply personal, every
Britain, Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman) must face wants to subject the creature to in order to turn single beat ringing true.” The Guardian
one of his most turbulent and defining trials: him into a weapon, Elisa comes up with a plan to
exploring a negotiated peace treaty with Nazi save her pescatorial beloved. With supporting Director: Greta Gerwig
Germany, or standing firm to fight for the ideals, turns from Octavia Spencer, Michael Stuhlbarg and Release date: February 15
liberty and freedom of a nation. As the unstoppable Richard Jenkins, THE SHAPE OF WATER deftly
Nazi forces roll across Western Europe and the whirls through classic film genres and soars to the
threat of invasion is imminent, and with an heights of a great love story. It’s a film that chooses
unprepared public, a skeptical King, and his own kindness over cruelty, the impossible over the
party plotting against him, Churchill must withstand ordinary, and the love that a human woman can
his darkest hour, rally a nation, and attempt to feel for a 7-foot tall supernatural fish-man! (CTC)
change the course of world history. Gary Oldman’s
tremendous performance as Churchill has “A ravishing, eccentric auteur’s imagining, spilling
garnered near universal praise. He is surrounded artistry, empathy and sensuality from every open
by a gifted supporting cast including Kristen Scott pore.” Variety
Thomas as Clementine Churchill and Ben
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Mendelsohn as King George VI. (PG)
Release date: January 18
“Oldman ensures that every line hits home as surely
as any bullet. It’s a towering performance.”
Screen Daily
Director: Joe Wright
Release date: January 11

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