Sally Hawkins (Paddington) leads this Best Picture Oscar winner, other-worldly fairy tale from Pan's Labyrinth director Guillermo del Toro, set in Cold War America. The film led the 2018 Academy Awards race with a massive 13 nominations, taking home four.
Rounding out the cast are Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man) and Doug Jones (Pan's Labyrinth). In the hidden high-security government laboratory where she works, lonely Elisa (Hawkins) is trapped in a life of silence and isolation. Elisa’s life is changed forever when she and co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer, Hidden Figures) discover a secret classified experiment.
In an old episode of The Simpsons titled A Fish Called Selma, the actor Troy McClure arranged a sham marriage to divert media attention from rumours of an unsavoury sexual preference: a fetish for fish. If McCLure were an actual person one might expect him to feel finally vindicated, and somewhat aroused by director Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water, an erotic love story between a mute cleaner and her alien fish boyfriend.
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In many ways The Shape of Water is a classic Guillermo Del Toro film. All the director’s hallmarks are present: it’s a fable, it’s set against a socio-political backdrop, and it’s about a monster.
Full reviewIf you can imagine an aggressively adorable -- and somewhat effortful -- version of Amélie in which our hero f---s the Creature from the Black Lagoon, you're totally feeling this.
Full review"The Shape of Water" is partly a code-scrambled fairy tale, partly a genetically modified monster movie, and altogether wonderful.
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Del Toro provides just enough spade-work to keep the scheme plausible and his film is stylish and charming; red meat for the senses with some sugar on top.
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Del Toro is a world-class film artist and he proves it in this Cold War romance about a mute cleaning lady (Sally Hawkins, unforgettable) who falls for an amphibious creature. Don't t analyse how del Toro does it. Just dive in. There's magic in it.
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It’s brilliantly directed and acted, but there’s something fishy about the romance.
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A dark-edged fairy tale as lovingly steeped in vintage movie magic as it is in hypnotic water imagery, this captivating creature feature marries a portrait of morally corrupt early-1960s America with an outsider tale of love and friendship ...
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...magical, old fashioned cinema, which proves to be vibrant, delightful escapism rich with emotion and significance.
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The Shape of Water not only entertains as a sumptuous fairytale, but it reinforces a faith in humanity set in a time where tolerance of other races, nationalities, and non-"family values" love was volatile. And it's percolating back to the surface again.
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