I’ve watched 2,000 films — Netflix just dropped one of the best I’ve ever seen | Films | Entertainment

I hate to sound like a bore but films today aren’t what they used to be. We can all relate to the experience of scrolling for ages through Netflix looking for a good new film, only to give up and settle for something that we’ve seen before. 

Ask most people of a certain age and they’ll say that the classics of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s were, on the whole, “better” than the ones being made today. It’s not just me saying this. Look at any list of the best films of all time on a film or cinema website and the recent decade or two will be under-represented, with classics from decades ago occupying most of the spots. It’s a common theme on Reddit too.

Not too long ago, Hollywood star Matt Damon explained one of the reasons for this. The A-list actor and film-maker said that, as the DVD has become obsolete, film-makers can no longer rely on that huge second cash boost a few weeks or months after their film is released in the cinema.

“When that went away, that changed the type of movie we could make,” Damon said, adding that he would potentially need to make $100m revenue on a film before he could turn a profit on it.

Add to this the fact that thousands of movies are available on demand 24/7, and that flagship TV shows from the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime and Apple have become studio priorities in the new streaming era and it’s hard to find a good new film. Even big budget new films with huge PR machines behind them are unlikely to still be spoken about in decades to come in the same way that The Godfather or Gone With The Wind are today.

You might even enjoy a new film on first viewing but you realise a short while later you can’t really remember much about it, not even its name. For example, while writing this I have just had to resort to Google to figure out the name of one such film, Leave The World Behind, which I enjoyed when it came out a couple of years ago but wouldn’t dream of ranking it alongside such classics as Jaws or Saving Private Ryan.

The relentless concentration-sapping social media platforms also make it hard to concentrate on a film these days. Anything less than gripping and I find my mind wandering to work emails or finding a good food recipe on TikTok.

But one new film that’s recently dropped on Netflix had me completely bewitched from start to finish. TikTok could not have been further from my mind. It was an all-time classic story brought to life on screen better than ever before and I watched it all practically open-mouthed, by turns horrified and enchanted, terrified and distraught. It was both monstrous and beautiful, supernatural and all-too-human. 

Director Guillermo del Toro says he had been preparing for this movie, Frankenstein, all his life. When you watch it, it’s not hard to believe that he has held a lifelong obsession with Mary Shelley’s Gothic novel from 1818. I know the feeling. As a boy, I was terrified by a children’s audiobook version of the story bought by my parents, which kept me awake at night for what felt like years.

I’m sure everyone reading this knows what Frankenstein is about but, just in case you don’t, it tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a scientist who becomes obsessed with the idea that he can give life to a being of his own creation. He does so by collecting and stitching together body parts from battlefields and execution sites. It is this part of the story that Del Toro goes into in most detail. 

Although the “monster” in this version, played by Jacob Elordi, often appears as beautiful as he does terrifying (and is nothing like the square-headed version of Boris Karloff or the more gruesome vision of Robert De Niro), Victor quickly comes to despise and reject what he has created and the monster seeks his revenge. 

But as dark and threatening as he often appears, what the monster ultimately seeks is acceptance and love, especially from his creator. Sadly, one of the only places he finds it is from a blind man who can’t see him.  

The story is 200 years old, the themes are timeless and this latest telling is visually stunning, indulgent, extreme, elaborate, violent and, ultimately, very sad. It’s the first new film in years I fully intend to watch again soon. 

Frankenstein is streaming on Netflix now.