[EXPRESSO] Frankenstein (2025) | At Stein’s Gate

Sadly no theathers in my area or close did limited screenings of Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein, so i had to wait and watch in when it dropped some days ago on Netflix, like most people will,

Which is fine and all, but you know…

That said, i think it’s kinda funny to see how it compares against odd choice of Luc Besson doing a very romance heavy version of Dracula…when he didn’t get distracted, almost accidentally did a Dracula Dead And Loving It kinda spoof of sorts, and remembered he left the subplot with Christopher Waltz as Van Helsing waiting for a call back to be resolved.

Both films do indulge in the nature of their literary sources as gothic sacred beasts, but Del Toro’s version stands on the opposite of the spectrum, and unlike its recent take on Pinocchio, his retelling of Frankenstein it surprisingly simple from a conceptual standpoint, being a fairly faithful retelling of the story as written by Mary Shelley, even with the narration starting out at the end at the North Pole and then Victor Frankenstein telling his story and the Creature’s to the captain of the icebreaker ship that rescued him, then having the Creature tell his side of the tale.

Even at is most “unoriginal”, it is Del Toro doing one of the gothic magnus opuses, so it’s exactly what you’d expected from him, and i mean that in a purely flattening fashion, i really do, he obviously loves and treats Frankenstein with such respect i understand why not try a subversive take on it, despite how many times the story has been done in film, as it’s not pedantic in recreating verbatim the book, and strays enough to avoid it feeling like stale regurgitation, kinda needed given the sizable runtime.

Pretty good.

[EXPRESSO] Dune (2021) | Utonium Based

So, quick disclaimer: i haven’t seen the older David Lynch’s adaptation of Dune, nor read the book by Frank Herbert.

But yes, Villeneuve directing it already “sealed the deal” for me, and it has been a while since they tried to launch a saga like this… and having to deliver on the first movie of what Warner Bros it’s eyeing to be a long franchise (as the Dune cycle is made of 6 books, and this movie just adapts the first half of the first book), so they can’t just do random shit with no plans. No names needed.

And it’s also quite reasonable to expect a lot from director and writer Denis Villeneuve, but let’s discuss the main gist of the story presented here.

Dune is a tale of political intrigue set in a very distant future, and taking place on the planet Anakis, a desert wasteland that is rich in “melange” or “spice”, a resource that acts as a portentous supernatural drug but it’s fought and sought after as it also essential for long distance space travel.

Political games see the Emperor “donate” Anakis to the Atriades clan, after the Harkonnen’s lineage has held and profitted from the melange for centuries, which result in setting off a war that also involves the blue eyed natives of Anakis, called “Fremens”, and the young duke of Atriades, who starts having visions of the future and nurture other supernatural powers…

While this is clearly the beginning of – at least – a trilogy, this is a great start, with amazing visuals, memorable characters played by an all star cast, all fitting a lot in under 3 hours, while not feeling bloated at all, and most importantly, creating an interesting, epic sci-fi universe you wanna see and learn more about.

Pretty good.

[EXPRESSO] The Card Counter (2021) | Hold ‘Em Close

Saw this was running as a candidate film in this Year’s Venice Film Festival, produced by Martin Scorsese, and was already in theathers here, so yeah, sounded quite like a good deal.

The short answer is yes, it was good, but also not great, here’s the longer one with context and stuff.

The Card Counter is the story of William Tell, an ex military with a gruesome, abhorrent past that after doing his time in prison, lives as a professional gambler, enjoying a very a regular, routine-led life by using his ability as a so called “card counter” to accumulate a very small fortune, without a definitive goal or dream, just repeating the circle, having learned the rules of that scene (and how to use them in his favour) as he did in prison.

One day his cherished routine is broken up by a mysterious woman that notices his talent and wants him to work with various financeers, and a young man in search of revenge, Kirk, that happens to share a common foe with William, all inevitably leading him to confront his past once again.

The premise is familiar enough but not cliched, the execution is nuanced and intense, the cinematography is amazing, the cast is relatively small but packed with familiar faces that do a great job, the characters are fairly complex and the drama is pretty good.

Aside from some choices in the final act that might be argued about, there’s no big flaw or flaws in The Card Counter, it’s not even overly long or feels slow until a certain point.

It just happens to be good….just that, nothing great, extraordinary, breathtaking, revolutionary or any other similar adjective useful for a single line review quote in a poster. Still, it is pretty good, go see it.