I’m very surprised that “Frankenstein” isn’t a monster.

In Venice, Guillermo del Toro’s long awaited film for Netflix has met with mixed reviews.

So far it’s at 78% with 18 reviews posted. Stars Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi are being praised, as well as the production. But something is wrong in the telling of the story.

Oscar winner del Toro is one of my favorite all time directors. He rarely makes a mistake. Plus, Netflix was counting on this one for its Oscar chances this season.

“Frankenstein” definitely seems polarizing among the critics. Some lavish praise but Variety did not. They said:” Gorgeous as it may be, the entire film feels as if we’re watching through a peephole. Strangely, [Dan] Laustsen’s wide-angle lenses make “Frankenstein” feel smaller, when the point was conceivably to squeeze more image into every frame.”

Whatever. I’m looking forward to this eagerly.

Big news from the Telluride Film Festival last night.

The Bruce Springsteen movie, “Deliver Me from Nowhere,” won raves. Jeremy Allen White stars as The Boss, directed by Scott Cooper.

“Deliver Me” is not a biopic. It’s about how when Springsteen, at a low point, retreated to write the “Nebraska” album in 1981. The album has many devotees and over the years has become considered a classic. Once it was finished, Springsteen went on to make “Born in the USA,” and his whole career changed.

Peter DeBruge wrote in Variety: “It requires a star to play a star, and an actor to access the Boss’s more introspective side, and “The Bear” sensation Jeremy Allen White slips easily into the worn denim and sleeveless T-shirts that were Springsteen’s signature.”

The raves were echoed in The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline.com, and The Wrap.

Meantime, Chloe Zhao, who won Best Picture and Director for the remarkable “Nomadland,” is back in form. Her “Hamnet,” about William Shakespeare writing “Hamlet,” wowed everyone in Telluride.

Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley star in what sounds like a bookend to “Shakespeare in Love.”

Bilge Ebiri of New York Magazine led the huzzahs. “[Hamlet] is about as unimpeachable as a work of art can be. And yet, here is a movie that dares to explore its inception. The attempt itself is noble, and maybe a little brazen; that it succeeds feels downright supernatural.”

Angie Han wrote in The Hollywood Reporter: “Just as her William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) turns the pain of being caught between [joy and fear, love and loss] into the masterpiece that is Hamlet, Zhao harnesses those elements into something gorgeous and cathartic.”

Meantime, Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” is opening as we speak in Venice.

And here’s a little twist: Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Regina Hall, and Benicio del Toro will screen this coming week in New York just as the Toronto Film Festival begins. Also screening this week in New York: “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale.”

Movie season is here!

The new Julia Roberts movie didn’t go over so well today in Venice.

Luca Guadagnino’s “After the Hunt” has been roundly panned by critics, landing it at an unfortunate 46% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Roberts stars along with Andrew Garfield, Michael Stuhlbarg, Ayo Edibiri, and Chloe Sevigny in what is described as a #Metoo thriller/mystery.

But the main critics in Venice didn’t appreciate it. Neither did Variety or The Hollywood Reporter.

David Rooney said in THR: “It seems almost implausible that the gifted filmmaker who just gave us the sizzling buoyancy of Challengers and the heady intoxication of Queer could deliver something so dour and airless.”

Owen Gleiberman in Variety: “After the Hunt has been made with a fair amount of craft and intrigue, but it’s also a weirdly muddled experience — a tale that’s tense and compelling at times, but dotted with contrivances and too many vague unanswered questions”

“After the Hunt” follows Guadagnino’s “Challengers” from last year, which at least had tennis for a distraction.

This isn’t good news for Amazon/MGM which is in the hunt for Oscar level movies.

But this is what festivals and screenings are for, to separate the wheat from the chaff.