TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

The generic cup of Guillermo del Toro's latest, The Shape of Water , runneth over. It is fantastical, horrific in points, a musical element (I won't spoil that surprise), intense psychological drama, comedic moments courtesy of the always-fabulous Octavia Spencer and Richard Jenkins, and of course, as the amphibian man will tip off to you, sci-fi. But if I had Michael Shannon pointing a gun to my head (and let's be honest, with the performances he gives, that might not be out of the realm of possibility), I'd label The Shape of Water a romance. It's ruminations of love and hate and the ways we can show love, express it, would be goopy and syrupy in the hands of a lesser director, but del Toro is full-on freaky fairy tale here, and if you're wondering why the movie with the big green fish man is getting nominated for so many awards, I suggest you read my review. Of course, the magic of this movie is that you don't have to choose. It's gruesome, it's...

Something bothered me right before I watched Denis Villeneuve's new film  Arrival : the trailer to the upcoming sci-fi flick Passengers . It's a film I've been anticipating for quite some time, and perhaps I'm going in with blind admiration for it's two leads, Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt, the current gods of movies. The trailer hooked me; these two in a spaceship already promised my butt in the seat. But then it kept going, revealing more and more about the plot that I would have gladly wanted to find out when I was seeing it for the first time. Hollywood trailers revealing too much gets enough publicity though...the ones that don't need more press for the ones that do to not succeed. The marketing for Arrival was perfect: it revealed the most sensational, attention-grabbing aspect of its product (an alien invasion) but gave you no more, and no less. So when you see Arrival , don't come expecting Independence Day 3 , expect a quiet, somber exercise in ...