Is the shape of water any good?

Short answer, no. A lot of people here seemed to like it, but outside of the main actress and the costumes I couldn't find too many redeeming qualities.

Damn. Ok what's a good one at the theater right now then? Anything but Black Panther, I'm not into super hero movies.

Darkest hour was legit, slow but very good Oldman is amazing.

3 billboards is the best movie I have seen in a while.

12strong is a shoot em up, action flick. Fun and fast, but not a ton of depth.

Hostiles is a lot more depth, slow and methodical, worth a watch.

I really liked Molly's game.

I, Tonya was surprisingly good. It's a dark comedy, and it was well done.

The Post was okay, not great, not bad. Streep was very good, but hanks played it really safe.

A brain and a heart? GTFOH. It’s a shite film for a multitude of reasons. I don’t wanna go all spoiler alert in this guy’s thread, but even technically speaking it was often simple, and at times downright sloppy. No camera stylo here, buddy. It was straight trash.

If that film wins best picture, the oscars lose all credibility. There were serious technical flaws in the film and the “heart”’spoken about earlier in this thread was used to beat the viewer over the head. There was nothing even remotely subtle about it. It was so fricking mechanical and sloppy for an active viewer, almost gratuitous and not in a good way.

SPOILER:









The shape of water, I just don't get it.

so the US and Russians are interested in harnessing the creature from the black lagoon and a mute falls in love with it.

Let's look at the subplot, the deeper meaning...

The movie is really about people who are ostracized by society and how they feel. The protagonist, she is an orphan without the ability to speak. Her male, gay friend, is well a gay dude in the 60s. The creature from ten black lagoon, nuff said. This is clumsily reinforced by del toro at the pie shop when the black couple attempts to sit at the counter and gay guy tries to hook up. Del Toro beats us over the head with this from jump.

Now the gaping problems. Del Toro tries to get fancy with his color pallete only to completely abandon it. Remember the green hues of everything generated by the neon lights? They eventually turned to red, then flip flopped a few times only to be abandoned. Those colors were central to what GDT was trying to convey. It was sloppy AF, and amateur.

Water was also used to move the story. Any time anything significant happens, it was initiated by water. Girl goes to work, traces water droplets on the window, creature gets its arse whipped, water, confrontation between the federal agent and girl, he knocks over a glass of water. Girls consummates relationship with creature from black lagoon, water all over the damn place. GDT did everything but leap from the screen and beat the audience over the head with it. It wasn't slick, subtle, or even clever. Is this was the art of film has become? Is the autuer of film a lost art? This shite was sloppy and lame.

The bad/good guys were 2 dimensional af. The Russian was the only tertiary character that got any depth with 1 line, "I came to America as a scientist first and foremost". That's literally all it took to give him any kind of depth. Is it that hard to, I dunno, give him 1-2 more lines to fill out his character? The American bad guy was so fricking awful it was almost laughable. He would have made a hell of a dick Tracy bad guy, but for me to take the character seriously, there needs to be depth and ripping off your fingers ain't gonna do it.

I could absolutely rip this movie a part, from the framing, to the staging, to damn near every performance save the protagonist. Outside of her performance and the wardrobe, everything else was a tired trope.

It was a Michael bay movie for women. If that movie wins best picture, frick the academy.

I was very creeped out by the bestiality in the movie. Also, Michael Shannon's character is one of the most one-note villains I've ever seen on a movie screen. Sally Hawkins was amazing though. She managed to be very charming and likable without speaking a word in the entire film. Her performance holds everything together and makes it worth watching.

Shannon’s character reminded me of a bad Bond villian or a shitty dick Tracey bad guy. You are 100% correct about Hawkins. She and the wardrobe are the only redeeming qualities in the whole film.

A close second to the bad guy is the gay friend. How many stereotypes can we shove into a 50lb bag?

One of the best scenes was the mute showing how the creature from the black lagoon’s junk works. Her performance was pretty damn great in a pretty damn shitty movie.

I was disappointed