Excavator found a great defender in Guillermo del Toro.
The Oscar winner Frankenstein And The shape of water The director has posted multiple times over the past 24 hours in support of Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s beleaguered film, which has generated polarized reviews (some scathing).
The director’s first post on the subject was in response to an article from entertainment news site IGN, which wrote: “Theatrical experience won’t change your mind about Excavatorand the laughs that are there will still be there when it hits HBO Max.
Del Toro retorted: “A completely insignificant title. Like it or not. And, yes, I do. The film offers scale, ambition and scope at the theatrical screen level. Bold, daring and complexly cinematic. Definitely a theatrical experience.”
Then, reacting to an article about Ken Russell’s controversial 1971 film, The Devilsdel Toro wrote: “I was a kid and I remember this movie – released by (Warner Bros.) being (called by critics) ‘excessive, overbearing’ etc. and, in my country, Mexico, we were told that the Church explicitly considered it blasphemy. And here we are… I LOVE it more than ever – because it is NOT about possession but about what the political narrative makes of it. Glad WB is taking risks – even now…”
» continued the director, now directly referring to Excavator: “BTW, there is a ‘climate change’ movie coming out that is NOT about climate change but about the manipulation of narratives – and yes, it was released by WB (perhaps the very last movie WB as such will ever release) and was deemed ‘excessive, overbearing’, so see it in a theater.”
Few people are expected to see Excavator in a theater this weekend, however, with the film eyeing a domestic premiere south of $15 million.
As for reviews, the film currently has a 54% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The audience score is higher, at 65 percent (presumably, given all the hubbub in the press, those still going to see the film had at least some idea of what they were getting into).
Iñárritu and del Toro have been friends for decades and consult regularly on projects. The duo, along with Alfonso Cuarón, has been nicknamed the “Three Amigos” of Mexican cinema. In a profile on the friendship of the trio The Los Angeles Times in 2006, Iñárritu said: “We share, we complain, we fight, we suggest. And then you support.”
Del Toro’s next film is The buried gianta stop-motion animated adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2015 novel for Netflix.
Gn entert
