Friday, December 29, 2017

The Shape of Water (2017)

Director: Guillermo del Toro. Cast: Sally Hawkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones, Michael Stuhlbarg. 123 min. Rated R. Canada/USA. Fantasy. 

Guillermo del Toro continues his Pan's Labyrinth style of telling fairy-tales for grownups containing sex, violence and profanity, but fairy-tales nonetheless. Here he counteracts an American subculture of racism and homophobia by trying to promote and normalize diversity, through (of all things) ... bestiality. The ensemble of Hawkins, Shannon, Spencer and Jenkins shine throughout, and del Toro again boasts his usual strong, captivating visual style, but I have yet to click with the man's concept of a good movie - even though evidence (e.g., the Netflix documentary Five Came Back) suggests he's probably a lovely guy to chat with.

Mo says:

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