Cronos
Watching “Cronos” after having seen Guillermo del Toro’s later movies is like witnessing the birth of an artist retroactively. Like Robert Altman’s “MASH,” it’s not a great or mature work of art, but it set in motion everything he would later achieve. Del Toro mixes genre elements with smart and subersive allegory as he chronicles an elderly man who discovers a medieval device that promises to extend human life. “Cronos” touchingly depicts the bond between grandfather and granddaughter while also showing a sick, dysfunctional, very funny relationship between the madman obsessed with recovering the cronos device and his goonish nephew (Ron Perlman). The movie is weirdly paced, more concerned with images and texture than plot, but if I’d seen it in 1993, when it was released, I’d like to think I would have recognized del Toro’s potential for greatness — potential that, with the upcoming “Pan’s Labyrinth,” has been fully realized.