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The Shape of Water (2017)

 
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The Spike
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Joined: 23 Sep 2014
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 13, 2020 1:05 pm    Post subject: The Shape of Water (2017) Reply with quote



Bend me, shape me, anyway you want me!

Guillermo del Toro directs and co-writes with Vanessa Taylor what would turn out to be the Best Picture Academy Award Winner for 2017. A much loved film that's not without dissention in certain quarters, it's a picture that warrants dissention but it should be noted that just because someone doesn't like it, that doesn't make it a bad film. I'm certainly in the camp that finds it overLY praised, even annoyingly disappointing, whilst appreciating many of the facets within its production.

Story in simple terms is a Beauty and the Beast like fable where Sally Hawkins' mute cleaning lady Elisa Esposito falls in love with a captured Amphibian Man. Amphibian Man is known by the government types as The Asset, and as the Cold War rises and 60s paranoia takes a hold, the American big wigs want to vivisect this special species to learn from it. Elisa, after courting "The Asset", enlists the help of close friends and plots to free the creature from its captivity in the underground medical bunker labyrinth place.

Now as simple as that sounds, there is more to it than that. del Toro and Taylor, whilst enveloping the pic in a fantasy realm feel, ensure messages are thrust hard at the viewers. Be it the racial disharmony, the quest for different walks of life finding love with each other, the cry for humans to stop being bad and killing things because they don't understand them, torture is evil and etc etc. It's all right there in your face and we get it. So, plot maybe simple, but for sure there's a lot being said in the narrative.

Yet as great as it looks, and it's superbly acted by Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, and Octavia Spencer, it just to me loses its way come the mid-point, getting daft and even getting a little icky into the bargain. I have no problem with improbabilities and outrageous contrivances here, this is del Toro painting one of his fantastical worlds — only on Earth in the early 60s! But the pay off is poor, hinging on a twist that's not only ridiculous, but insulting as well, because otherwise the pic would be very troubling indeed. No art deco eye orgasms or vibrant characterizations can compensate for a film that runs out of steam.

That said, I was glad to have watched it. There's even a possibility I could return to it in the future — this is very good film making. But it's not a great film by any stretch of the imagination, and not for the first time in the Academy's long history, many are baffled by their choice of Best Picture winner. 6/10

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 13, 2020 4:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

My goodness, Spike, we certainly seem to agree on the way this film presented a strange concept and didn't quite convince us it was the aquatic version of Beauty and the Beast. Embarassed

By the way, thank you for giving me permission to add posters to your fine reviews! I selected one for this review which is artistically pleasing!

But frankly it sums up my major objection to this movie! Shocked

To put it bluntly, in the days of my manly youth I often took young ladies on dates to fine restaurants where we enjoyed delicious seafood dinners . . . and then we shared a night of sweet passion!

But this movie attempts to confuse the seafood dinner with the night of passion in a manner which makes me feel a bit queasy! Shocked

Frankly, I'd rather keep my seafood entrée separate from my romantic objective! Call me old fashioned, but that's just how I was brought up. Sad

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The Spike
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Joined: 23 Sep 2014
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 13, 2020 4:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
My goodness, Spike, we certainly seem to agree on the way this film presented a strange concept and didn't quite convince us it was the aquatic version of Beauty and the Beast. Embarassed

Thank you, sir, for giving me permission to add posters to your fine reviews — and I selected one which is artistically pleasing!

But frankly it sums up my major objection to this movie! Shocked

To put it bluntly, in the days of my manly youth I often took young ladies on dates to fine restaurants where we enjoyed delicious seafood dinners . . . and then we shared a night of sweet passion!

But this movie attempts to confuse the seafood dinner with the night of passion in a manner which makes me feel a bit queasy! Shocked

Frankly, I'd rather keep my seafood entrée separate from my romantic objective! Call me old fashioned, but that's just how I was brought up. Sad

No I don't think you are being old fashioned. We kind of get off on the suggestive sexuality of "Creature from the Black Lagoon", but this takes it one step too far - for me at least. It's a nice film, but I still felt uncomfortable, we have advanced a lot these days, but no, this isn't romantic, and the "twist" is poor.

Good film making on a technical front, yet it's hard to applaud the thematics at work.

Thanks for doing the pic mate.

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Krel
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 13, 2020 7:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So, it's "Splash" with a gender switch?

David.
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trekriffic
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 13, 2020 10:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The thing that really turned me off me about this film, like so many sci-fi films these days, Was it’s mistreatment of the feline actor. Why does the cat in these films always end up being killed? I mean, it’s becoming a cliche that at some point the poor unsuspecting feline gets ripped apart and/or eaten? Frankly, I’m sick of it. No more cat fatalities for me.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 14, 2020 8:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Krel wrote:
So, it's "Splash" with a gender switch?

Well, not quite . . .

Even when Daryl Hannah didn't have her lovely legs, she still had her beautiful upper body and a pair of kissable lips that didn't like look this!




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Last edited by Bud Brewster on Tue Jul 14, 2020 12:26 pm; edited 1 time in total
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trekriffic
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 14, 2020 12:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
Krel wrote:
So, it's "Splash" with a gender switch?

Well, not quite . . .

Even when Daryl Hannah didn't have her lovely legs, she still had her beautiful upper body and a pair of kissable lips that didn't like look this!



You know, some Hollywood celebs would pay a lot of money to get lips as full as that!
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 14, 2020 12:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

trekriffic wrote:
You know, some Hollywood celebs would pay a lot of money to get lips as full as that!

Right! And I'll bet the cosmetic surgeons could give the gals a pair of "pink fish-fin ears" too! Laughing

If women can start shaving one side their heads (something I think looks bloody awful!) then I guess surgically altered "fish-fin ears" might be next!
Shocked
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 23, 2020 11:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

trekriffic wrote:
Why does the cat in these films always end up being killed? I mean, it’s becoming a cliche that at some point the poor unsuspecting feline gets ripped apart and/or eaten?

Well, you know the old saying in the publishing business, Steve! Very Happy

"Dog bites man — that's NOT news. But fish eats cat — that IS news!" Shocked
________________________________

IMDB has several interesting trivia items for this production, Very Happy
________________________________

~ When The Shape of Water (2017) premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2017, the screening was held in the Elgin Theatre. The interior scenes of the theater in the film were shot in the Elgin Theatre, so as the audience was watching the film, they were seeing the same theater on-screen that they were sitting in.

Note from me: "Dear audience, this movie was filmed on location — right were you're sitting!" Laughing

~ Michael Shannon was in a Chicago bar, Old Town Ale House, the moment the film won Best Picture at the 90th Academy Awards. The bar's owner waited until after the ceremony was over to post a photo to Twitter of Shannon nonchalantly sitting at the bar alone with a pint of beer while watching the broadcast on the overhead TV set.

Note from me: "Well, how 'bout that? I won the Best Picture Oscar. Hey bartender . . . this glass ain't gonna fill itself, pal." Rolling Eyes

~ The creature design is heavily inspired by the film Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954). Michael Shannon's character says they picked it up in the Amazon river in South America, which is the setting of The Creature from the film.

Note from me: Spike actually mentioned that this movie took the quasi-erotic swimming scene from "The Creature" much too far.

~ The genesis of the idea for this film began, as Guillermo Del Toro explained in an interview, with reruns of the classic 1954 monster movie The Creature From The Black Lagoon. "I thought it would be great if the creature and Julie Adams [who plays Kay Adams in the film] would end up living together. I was 6, I didn't know better. But I'm 53 and I still don't know better, because I made this movie!" he laughed.

Note from me: I gotta admit, I admire six year who is so romantic and imaginative that he can see the "love story" hidden inside the "monster movie". :wink;

~ One day after completing her demanding underwater scenes for this film, Sally Hawkins flew to London to begin production on Paddington 2 (2017) - only to find out she would have to shoot underwater scenes for that film on the first day.

Note from me: This sort of sounds like a case of "type casting". (Well, then again . . . I guess not.) Confused

~ Doug Jones also played Abe in Hellboy (2004), another amphibious character which shared similar looks.

Note from me: Okay, iis THIS type casting? Shocked

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