THE SHAPE OF WATER (Guillermo del Toro 2017)

[tabuno]

Only if Chris has stopped his commentary with his first paragraph he could have summed up and captured the totality of this movie perfectly. The rest of his commentary downplaying this movie is not as convincing, but more of a personal opinion. He complains using an oil and water argument of so many difference movie genres that in his opinion don't mix well. The evil is too evil, the romance not enough. Yet when considering the stylistic fairy tale format del Toro is using, the breadth and latitude permitted for accepting the various movie genres are quite flexible and del Toro holds this movie together very well. The evil of the 1950s can't be underestimated and the potential for its explosive and catastrophic outcome in today's political environment can't be ignored either. As a God fearing as well as American First policy of the 1950s took hold in this movie that allowed a pervasive moral evil to take hold, the idea of a moral evil that condones torture of a demon-creature is not beyond the pale. The romance for some people in the audience is strikingly powerful, especially since non-verbal communication can represent upwards of 70% to 80% of actual meaningful communication and in this movie the emphasis on non-verbal is quite obvious. The Shape of Water and its various positive movie critics and nominations are well deserved.

[Chris Knipp]

I recognize Guillermo del Toro's accomplishment in The Shape of Water (my first paragraph?) but it's a film that just doesn't work for me at all for myriad reasons. It is certainly true: in my review I express my taste. That's what one needs to do, though, isn't it? I can swoon over surrealism, but I shrink from the grotesque. I love things that are elegant and beautiful. That's why I admire and enjoy PHantom Thread so much. I have a problem with Sally Hawkins as a heroine. But I liked her better this past year in Maudie,in modest biopic about a Canadian folk artist. (New York Movie Journal Sept.-Oct. 2017) It's a true story, more or less. Even Maudie takes us too far into the realm of the grotesque for my taste. But the material is closer to my comfort zone. I can make sense of it and Sally Hawkins seems right in it.

[tabuno]

Sometimes it nice to have an opinion that is shared by others as this movie demonstrates. At least for a non-theater major, sometimes, it's an affirmation of the universality of so movies.

[oscar jubis]

I am very happy this movie won Best Picture. There were other "perfect" movies out there (I find it hard to fault anything in Dunkirk, for instance) but The Shape of Water is the rarer accomplishment. It's about damn time Mr. del Toro gets properly recognized for his unique ability to mix conventions from different, often disparate, genres and to make them coalesce into something socially resonant and historically grounded. Sometimes he reaches for the sublime and philosophical because he is willing to go there. His monsters and villains are so captivating because their characterizations borrows so freely and imaginatively from the artist's ample knowledge of human civilization. One example: the monster known as "Pale Man" in Pan's Labyrinth includes traits from the life of St. Lucia, a Medieval Saint who gouged her eyes out rather than let them look at a man with lust. But the monster ALSO has characteristics of the deity Saturn. It's the kind of thing that yields movies that feel new at the same time that they reveal their roots in the past.

[oscar jubis]

I finally watched the version of Mimic (1997) assembled by Guillermo del Toro for release in 2011. The original theatrical release is the product of all sorts of interference (Harvey Weinstein and friends) and commercial accommodation. The original film includes a lot of shots filmed by a "second unit" at the behest of the suits. The color timing of the truncated, original version is entirely wrong too (against the filmmaker's intentions). I am happy that del Toro invested substantial time and effort to fix what could be fixed and re-edit Mimic. Only the new director's cut is available on BluRay and it's very good. I like it more than Alien, which has a well-deserved stupendous reputation.