Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)

Direction: Guillermo Del Toro
Country: USA

Carlo Collodi’s world-famous novel, Pinocchio, has been subjected to many versions lately. After Roberto Benigni had directed and starred in the abominable version of 2002, it was Matteo Garrone who attempted the feat with triumphant results in 2019 (curiously, the film also starred Benigni as Geppetto). 2022 brought us two opposite Pinocchios: a failed live-action remake by Robert Zemeckis, and an enjoyable, lush-looking stop-motion animated film by Guillermo Del Toro, who co-directed with the debutant Mark Gustafson.

The stubborn, super-energized wooden boy (voice by Gregory Mann) disobeys his unconsolable father, Geppetto (David Bradley), and skips school, ending up in a carnival show ran by the exploitative and authoritarian puppet-master, Count Volpe (Christoph Waltz). The story, set in the fascist Italy of the ‘30s, is narrated by Sebastian J. Cricket (Ewan McGregor), who looks after the living puppet, and also includes other interesting characters like Spazzatura (Cate Blanchett), a devilish monkey turned Pinocchio’s unlikely friend, and the sisters Wood Sprite and Death (Tilda Swinton).

The magical and moving approach of Del Toro gives the title character a fresh meaning in a delightful story that, filled with perils, joys, sorrows, and compassion, works as a life lesson. The musical aspect (entrusted to French composer Alexandre Desplat) didn’t match the technically stunning visuals, but this fable comes with enough humor, poetry, and grimness to justify the director’s childhood obsession. Extra dark tones contribute a personal touch to the least faithful rendition of Collodi’s tale.

Nightmare Alley (2021)

Direction: Guillermo Del Toro
Country: USA 

Cleverly helmed by Guillermo Del Toro, Nightmare Alley is less fantastic than The Shape of Water (2017) but more atmospherically noir in the true sense of a thriller. Based on the novel by William Lindsay Gresham, which had been adapted to the screen in 1947 by Edmund Goulding, the film boasts an amazing cast with A-listers, an intriguing energy and alluring visuals. 

By following the obscure path of Stan Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) - a manipulative, remorseless and tremendously greedy con artist - one comes to the conclusion that the miasma of misplaced morality that permeates this story can be fascinating and disturbing in an equal manner. Stan joins a bizarre traveling-show as a carny, first working with Clem (Willem Dafoe), whose number consists of a caged man/beast who decapitates a hen with his teeth, and then with the clairvoyant Zeena (Toni Colette) and her alcoholic husband, Pete (David Strathairn). After learning the tricks of Mentalism with the latter, he leaves the fair with his good-natured sweetheart, Molly (Rooney Mara), in search for their own gigs.

Two years later, they’re holding a fruitful show in Chicago, but his ambitious nature leads him to a dangerous, if financially rewarding, pact with Dr. Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett), a seductive psychologist who had defied his psychic abilities in the first time they crossed paths. 

There’s nothing really groundbreaking here, even considering that this dark and lurid thriller comes from a director who has firmly established himself as an innovator. Nightmare Alley plays more like an ever-shifting, lopsided endeavor that finds the right magic to catch us in a villainously astute manner. It boasts a great conclusion, by the way.

The Shape of Water (2017)

Directed by Guillermo Del Toro
Country: USA

Among the nine features in the filmography of Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro, only “The Pan’s Labyrinth” can compete with his newest creation “The Shape of Water”, a dark poem rooted in the most fantastic fairy-tale tradition and stirred by magic, excitement, and strong emotional spins. Impeccably written by Del Toro and Vanessa Taylor, the film is a successful compound of romance, sci-fi, comedy, drama, and thriller with espionage undertones.

Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins), a mute orphan young woman who loves old musicals and tap dancing, lives alone, above a huge movie theater in 1962 Baltimore. In one of her first scenes, she bursts in sensuality and eroticism, masturbating in the bathtub while immersed in water until the neck. Her best friend is Giles (Richard Jenkins), a solitary middle-aged gay artist who lives next door and struggles both to sell his work and assume his sexual identity. 
 
Elisa works as a janitor at a secret governmental laboratory, teaming up with Zelda (Octavia Spencer), a co-worker who is able to interpret effortlessly her gestural language. They suddenly notice an absurd daily increase of blood on the floor of the lab after being told that the facility is about to hold the most sensitive ‘asset’ ever - a humanoid amphibious creature that had been captured in a South American river by the heartless Col. Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon). Her nosiness is enlarged when Richard, a merciless torturer, loses two fingers, hauled by the raging monster as a response to the electric shocks he was being subjected to.

While cleaning or visiting in secrecy, she communicates with the perspicacious creature, which, for her surprise, likes music and also deals with emotion. When a strong bond was consolidated between them, the bad news arrives: the creature is to be dissected in order to study possible advantages in spaceflight improvement for the Americans, deeply involved in a fierce competition with the Russians. Suffering a good deal with the idea, Elisa sees no other option than risk herself to save the living thing. She will do it with precious back up from Giles, Zelda, and Dimitri (Michael Stuhlbarg), a Soviet spy infiltrated as a scientist.

Sank in astounding detail and rich imagery, this bizarre love story gets wildly violent by the end and was devised with all the ingredients needed to entertain throughout without falling into a single dull moment. As a norm, we have the good against the bad; but here, the good ones are truly empathic common mortals with whom we can immediately identify with, while the bad ones become memorable villains, especially Shannon, who gives another tour-de-force performance as an ignoble egotist, sadistic, harasser, and sexist. 

Besides this aspect, we have powerful dynamics, funny lines, and a glamorous soundtrack that ranges from Brazilian samba to romantic waltzes sung in French to expressive chamber orchestrations. Moreover, with Del Toro at his finest, expect to be jaw-dropped with the magnificence of the visuals. Let yourself be hastened into this unforgettable water slide ride.