1059. The Shape of Water

The Shape of Water
2017
Directed by Guillermo del Toro

My best friend has been trying to get me to watch this movie for ages, but I have been putting it off. I am not entirely sure why she thought I would like this film so much, and I must remember to grill her about this later. Perhaps she just knows I like cats and was trying to torture me with some of the scenes in this movie. Either way, this was not a pleasurable experience.

Elisa Esposito was found abandoned as a child by the side of a river and is completely mute. She works as a janitor at a secret government facility. She is able to communicate with her two friends, her next door neighbor and her coworker, through sign language. I am not sure how she is able to sign fluently in ASL without having received any education. Surely she would be using house signs and probably not using the ASL sentence structure. Movies really cannot get Deaf culture right. Anyway, the laboratory receives a creature from the Amazon and they of course want to do experiments on it, torture it, and weaponize it. Sally and the creature start to get...frisky with each other.

So I will admit this is a beautifully shot movie, but beyond that, I didn't find anything unique about the characters, who were all rather paint-by-the-numbers good guys and bad guys, or the story, which was a hohum story about how Deaf people can only have true connections with fish. All right, obviously I realize that wasn't the message. But I just didn't find the romance particularly compelling or believable. Apparently her neighbor did, though, and wasn't mad that she flooded his bathroom or that her boyfriend ate his cat. But hey, I'm not a romantic.

Easily skippable and I hope something will break us free from this rut soon.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

The look of the creature took nine months to develop. See, mermaids are just like humans!

The creature's design was partly based on a matador.

990. El Laberinto del Fauno

El Laberinto del Fauno
Pan's Labyrinth
2006
Directed by Guillermo del Toro

Before we begin, let's all agree that the creature pictured above is the freakiest thing to ever be shown on screen.   Apparently it even had Stephen King squirming in his seat.  Now that I have given you all nightmare fuel, I can move on to the rest of the film.

In Post Civil War Spain, eleven year old Ofelia travels to a village in Spain with her pregnant mother to meet her new stepfather, Captain Vidal.  Vidal is a cruel man who is obsessed with hunting down rebels.  A large insect/weird fairy thing leads Ofelia into an ancient labyrinth.  There, she meets a faun who tells her that she must complete three tasks in order to acquire immortality.

This is one of the best and most creative fantasy films I have ever seen.  Creatures in Hollywood fantasy movies all tend to look the same.  You have the ogres, the dragons, the fairies, etc.  However, the filmmakers here manage to create monsters that are entirely unique to this story: strange, yet whimsical; dark, yet intriguing.

I thought the fantasy and war genres were pretty incompatible (although I did end up enjoying Night of the Shooting Stars) but I thought the end result felt brilliantly cohesive.  Another five star film.  Don't worry, Borat is next so a rant is forthcoming.

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts:

Guillermo del Toro was offered twice the budget for the film if he made it in English.  He declined, saying that he wouldn't compromise the story to suit market needs.

For the fairy eating scene, Doug Jones had to bite into condoms filled with blood.