A “Frankenstein” for our times – Lehigh Valley Press

“Frankenstein,” the 2025 film directed by master film-maker Guillermo del Toro is a landmark work of cinema.

The film is arguably the front-runner in the 2025 Academy Awards competition.

Look for double-digit Oscar nominations, including for director (Guillermo del Toro), actor (Oscar Isaac as Dr. Victor Frankenstein), supporting actor (Jacob Elordi as The Creature), supporting actor (Charles Dance as Leopold Frankenstein, Victor’s father), supporting actor (Christoph Waltz as Harlander, Victor’s science lab benefactor), supporting actor (David Bradley as the Blind Man), supporting actor (Lars Mikkelsen as the stranded ship’s Captain Anderson), supporting actress (Mia Goth as Elizabeth, fiancée of William Frankenstein, Victor’s brother, played by Felix Kammerer), adapted screenplay (Guillermo del Toro from the 1818 novel, “Frankenstein; or: The Modern Prometheus” by Mary Shelley), composer (Alexandre Desplat), cinematographer (Dan Laustsen), editor (Evan Schiff), production designer (Tamara Deverell) set decorator (Shane Vieau), costume designer (Kate Hawley), makeup, sound and special effects.

“Frankenstein” is deserving of as many accolades and awards as possible. This is grand cinema. It is film-making of the highest order, in directing, acting and production values. “Frankenstein” reinvents the Hollywood studio style of film-making in a new and innovative way.

“Frankenstein” is stunning visually, intensely-emotional, dramatically-gripping and intellectually-involving. If you can, see the movie in a movie theater. “Frankenstein” is a cinematic experience that can be best enjoyed on a big screen with big sound in a movie theater.

One prominent aspect of “Frankenstein” is that it is straight-forward cinema, without the moral ambiguity and ironic cinematic smirks of, say, other potential 2025 Oscar contenders, “One Battle After Another” and “Bugonia.”

This is a “Frankenstein” for our times. Guillermo del Toro has taken the primary source material, the novel by Mary Shelley, and put it under a microscope, exploring and mining the psychological underpinnings of not only Dr. Victor Frankenstein, but of The Creature, and all who come in contact with the unholy duo, these two tragic figures, forever linked by emotional and mental iron chains from which neither can break free.

The cast is superb.

Oscar Isaac (“Dune: Part One,” 2021; “Star Wars: Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker,” 2019) is incredibly intense as Dr. Victor Frankenstein.

Jacob Elordi (“Priscilla,” 2023; TV’s “Eurphoria,” 2019-2026) ) is wonderfully ambiguous and a sad victim as The Creature.

Mia Goth (“Pearl,” 2022) is immediately intriguing as Elizabeth.

Guillermo del Toro (Oscar, animated feature film, “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” 2023; Oscar, best picture, director, “The Shape of Water,” 2018) plunges us into the cold, dark world of Dr. Frankenstein, of castle keeps, of secret gatherings for his experiments, of the rough-hewn reality of peasant tenant farmers compared to the luxe life of landed aristocracy.

This “Frankenstein” is an exhumation of the dance that is Dr. Victor Frankenstein and his creation. The good doctor’s best, if naive, intentions as a student are enthusiastically embraced by many until it becomes clear, even to the adult doctor himself, that the road to hell can be paved with good intentions. By the time of his conscience-clearing insight, it’s too late for the doctor, The Creature and society.

The contemporary themes are only two obvious: that of cloning and AI. These are not overtly referred to. The subtext is there for those who want to consider it.

The larger context is that of father and son, of Leopold and his son Victor, and of Victor and the “son” he created, The Creature. The perils of single parenthood were never more apparent.

Guillermo del Toro directs “Frankenstein” in the style of the master artist that he is. Chapter titles are shown as screen cards to depict the milestones in Dr. Frankenstein’s journey, and to tell the tale from the viewpoint of The Creature. The story is bookended by a mast-headed sailing ship stuck in the frozen arctic.

Guillermo del Toro’s’ “Frankenstein” departs significantly from director James Whale’s 1931 Universal Pictures’ classic, “Frankenstein,” starring Boris Karloff as The Creature. The green-skinned monster with the neck bolts is a far cry from The Creature in Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” which instead is a gray-skinned David Bowiesque meets Michelangelo’s colossal marble statue of David.

Guillermo del Toro’s invokes Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” archetypes of William Shakespeare’s Caliban in “The Tempest” and ancient Greek and Latin myths of Prometheus, as indeed the novel’s subtitle implies. Do not give to man what is God’s alone. The Garden of Eden story of Adam and Eve and the Tree of Knowledge is another touchstone.

Or, to quote Salisbury Township, Pennsylvania, board of commissioners’ President Debra J. Brinton, “Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should.”

“Frankenstein,” in Mary Shelley’s novel and its iterations on screen through the decades, and especially in Guillermo del Toro’s retelling of 18-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin’s “ghost story,” is the ultimate cautionary tale.

Should we “play God”?

To some extent, for better or worse, at one time or another, many of us do just that in our lives, our relationships, our careers, and when we meddle in the lives, or destinies, or nations, of others.

And so, we have “Frankenstein.” We all know how that worked out. Even so, don’t miss this film.

“Frankenstein,” MPA rated R (Restricted: Persons under 17 require an accompanying parent or adult guardian) for bloody violence and grisly images; Genre: Fantasy, Horror, Psychological Drama, Run time: 2 hours, 29 minutes. Distributed by Netflix.

Credit Readers Anonymous: “Frankenstein” was filmed from March through September 2024 in Toronto, Canada; Edinburgh, Scotland, and Shepperton Studios, England. The soundtrack includes “Rondeau” by Henry Purcell, “The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1”: Prelude And Fugue No.17 In A Flat Major, BWV 862, by Johann Sebastian Bach, and “String Quartet No. 4 In C Major,” K. 157: I: Allegro, by by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

At The Movies: “Frankenstein” was seen in the digital format at Frank Banko Alehouse Cinemas, SteelStacks.

Theatrical Movies Domestic Weekend Box Office, Nov. 14 – 16: “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t,” third in the Crime Thriller series starring Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Isla Fisher, Rosamund Pike, Ariana Greenblatt and Morgan Freeman, opened at No. 1 with $21.3 million in 3,403 theaters.

“The Running Man,” starring Glen Powell, Emilia Jones, Josh Brolin, Katy O’Brian, Colman Domingo, William H. Macy and Michael Cera in the remake of the Science Fiction Comedy Thriller, opened at No. 2 with $17 million in 3,534 theaters.

3. “Predator: Badlands” dropped two places from its one-week at No. 1 with $13 million in 3,725 theaters, $66.3 million, two weeks. 4.“Regretting You” dropped two places, $4 million in 2,709 theaters, $44.9 million, four weeks. 5. ”Black Phone 2” dropped two places, $2.6 million in 2,419 theaters, $74.6 million, five weeks. 6. “Nuremberg” dropped one place, $2.6 million in 1,830 theaters, $8.6 million, two weeks. 7. “Keeper,” starring Tatiana Maslany, Rossif Sutherland, Claire Friesen, Birkett Turton and Eden Weiss in the horror film, $2.5 million in 1,950 theaters, opening. 8. “Sarah’s Oil” dropped four places, $2.3 million in 2,410 theaters, $8.6 million, two weeks. 9. “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” dropped two places, $1.6 million in 1,420 theaters, $41.2 million, four weeks. 10. “Bugonia” dropped four places, $1.6 million in 1,253 theaters, $15.6 million, four weeks.

Movie box office information from Box Office Mojo as of Nov. 16 is subject to change.

Unreel, Nov. 21:

The holiday movie season flies into theaters, led by “Wicked: For Good.”

“Wicked: For Good,” MPA rated PG (Parental guidance suggested: Some material may not be suitable for children) for action, violence, some suggestive material and thematic material; 2 hours, 18 minutes.

Jon M. Chu is back to direct part two of “Wicked,” starring Cynthia Erivo (Elphaba), Ariana Grande (Glinda), Jeff Goldblum (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz), Michelle Yeoh (Madame Morrible), Jonathan Bailey (Fiyero), Marissa Bode (Nessarose), Colman Domingo (voice of The Cowardly Lion), Peter Dinklage (voice of Dr. Dillamond) and Bowen Yang (Pfannee) in the Fantasy Romance Musical.

Elphaba, who will become the Wicked Witch of the West, bonds with Glinda, the Good Witch of the North.

The sequel to “Wicked” (2024) adapts the second act of the 2003 hit Broadway musical by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman.

The musical is based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel of the same title, which reimagines L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” and the classic 1939 film, “The Wizard of Oz.”

The musical’s songs by Stephen Schwartz include “Everyday More Wicked,” “Wonderful,” “No Good Deed” and “For Good.”

“Sisu: Road to Revenge,” R; 1 hour 28 minutes.

Jalmari Helander directs Stephen Lang (Igor Draganov) and Jorma Tommila (Aatami Korpi) in the Action War film. In 1946, a man returns to Soviet-occupied Karelia, where his family was murdered during World War II. A Red Army commander tracks him down in a cross-country pursuit. It’s a sequel to the 2022 film.

“Rental Family,” MPA PG-13; 1 hour, 43 minutes.

Hikari directs Brendan Fraser (Phillip Vandarpleog) in the Comedy Drama. An American actor in Tokyo works for a Japanese “rental family” agency, playing stand-in roles for strangers.

Movie opening dates from Internet Movie Database as of Nov. 16 are subject to change.

Five Popcorn Boxes out of Five Popcorn Boxes

IMAGE: NETFLIXJacob Elordi (The Creature), Oscar Isaac (Dr. Victor Frankenstein), “Frankenstein.”