Movie Review by Fr. Tom Condon, O.P.

The Shape of Water is the latest film from director Guillermo del Toro. It has been described in many ways, perhaps best as an “adult fairy tale.” It’s a beautiful, imaginative film in so many ways, and is already receiving several mentions in the end of the year awards.

The Shape of Water tells the story of Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins), a lonely, mute woman who lives in an apartment above a movie theater in Baltimore, circa 1960. Her neighbor and friend is a lonely gay man named Giles (Richard Jenkins). Elisa works as a cleaning woman at a top secret defense institution with her other friend Zelda (Octavia Spencer).
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Movie Review by Fr. Tom Condon, O.P.

Last summer the critically acclaimed movie Dunkirk was released, telling the story of the evacuation of the British troops from Dunkirk to England in 1940. Now we see the story leading up to Dunkirk, from the point of view of Winston Churchill in the new movie Darkest Hour. 

Darkest Hour takes place in the month of May, 1940, when Neville Chamberlain resigns as British Prime Minister and Churchill takes office. It’s interesting that, with his great reputation after the war, we learn that Churchill was disliked by many when he took office, including King George VI (Ben Mendelsohn). Churchill was a compromise candidate, a conservative who was also acceptable to the liberal party. On the continent of Europe, Hitler’s troops were destroying the Belgian, Dutch and French forces. If they destroyed the British forces at Dunkirk, Britain would be left virtually defenseless. In addition to the War in Europe, Churchill had his own political battles to fight at home.
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Movie Review by Fr. Tom Condon, O.P.

Going into the latest Star Wars movie, I realized that I was 23 when the first Star Wars was released in May, 1977. Who would have guessed then that it would have become a global phenomenon and is still going strong 40 years later?

In the last film of the sequence, The Force Awakens, Han Solo (Harrison Ford) is killed. In the final scene of the movie, young Rey (Daisy Ridley) finds Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) on a remote island. What part will Luke play in The Last Jedi? As The Last Jedi begins, Rey tries to convince Luke to return to help the Resistance, headed by Princess (now General) Leia (Carrie Fisher), combat the evil First Order, headed by Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), the son of Han Solo and Leia. Rey also wants Luke to train her in the way of the Jedi. Luke tells Rey that he has given up after the last Jedi he trained, Kylo Ren, turned against him.
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Movie Review by Fr. Tom Condon, O.P.

I described the last movie I reviewed, Wonder, as gentle. Three Billboards is anything but gentle. It’s a quite intense movie focusing on Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand), a woman wanting to know who raped and murdered her daughter.
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Movie Review by Fr. Tom Condon, O.P.

Based on a best-selling young adult novel by R. J. Palacio, Wonder tells the story of a boy named Auggie (Jacob Tremblay) with disfigured facial features. His loving parents Isabel (Julia Roberts) and Nate (Owen Wilson) have home schooled Auggie through the fourth grade to protect him from the stares and taunts of other children, and adults too. Auggie often wears a helmet with a plastic shield over the face to keep people from seeing his face. As the movie opens, it’s the beginning of the school year, and Nate and Isabel decide it’s time to send Auggie to a regular school. A kind principal, Mr. Tushman (Mandy Patinkin) greets Auggie and Isabel and arranges for three students to show him around the school the day before classes begin. The next day, Auggie, Nate, and Isabel, full of nerves and apprehensions, arrive for the first day of school.
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