Frankenstein - 9 nominations

 

Best Achievement in Cinematography: Dan Laustsen

Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling: : Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel, Cliona Furey

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score): Alexandre Desplat

Best Sound: Greg Chapman, Nathan Robitaille, Nelson Ferreira, Christian T. Cooke, Brad Zoern

Best Motion Picture of the Year: Guillermo del Toro, J. Miles Dale, Scott Stuber

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: Jacob Elordi

Best Adapted Screenplay: Guillermo del Toro

Best Achievement in Production Design: Tamara Deverell (production designer), Shane Vieau (set decorator)

Best Achievement in Costume Design: Kate Hawley

I thought I’d seen enough Frankensteins to last me a lifetime, so when Guillermo del Toro announced that this would be his new film, I was not excited. But knowing that GDT, who made Pan’s Labyrinth and other extraordinary genre reinventions, was at the helm, I was open to it.

This Frankenstein is a whole other narrative. The obsessive scientist who methodically puts together a human body and reenvisions how one could animate that body pieced together is a whole story in itself. Oscar Isaac’s brilliant portrayal of the man obsessed with solving a puzzle and his descent into madness is gut punching. The level of detail put into the human anatomy of the work gives the audience the feeling that this crazy idea could become reality.

That’s the first half of the film, though the story is not told in a linear way. But the second half of the story is through the eyes of Frankenstein’s creature himself and how being animated and being alive are two different things. We realize that it’s not just a question of just because you can doesn’t mean you should, it’s also the impossible question of now that you did, what’s next for now and for eternity? In every iteration of the monster genre, there is the moment before and the moment after and the binary is about alive and revived, but not really about being human. This new iteration is much more about becoming than being, and it completely changes the story to make it a richer, much more interesting tale. It’s the questions, not the answers, that makes this film so special.

Del Toro also makes the brilliant choice to connect the past to the present by filming in black and white, and that’s why the cinematography is so magnificent. It gives old world vibes while making a Frankenstein that is utterly new, utterly fresh, and completely worth your while - even if you are not a fan of this genre (which, as I mentioned, I am not). Every one of these 9 nominations is deserved, including the one for Jacob Elordi who gives Frankenstein’s creature the humanity I could never have anticipated - he what makes the whole film come together and work.

I highly recommend it, if for no other reason than it’s absolutely not what you are expecting when you sit down in front of a creation called Frankenstein.