-Guillermo del Toro made The Shape of Water for only $19.5 million and made every frame of the film look like a bazillion bucks
-The plot is literally about a mute woman falling in love with a fish man, which on paper sounds crazy, but the messages of the film are utterly beautiful and captivating.
- The leading lady Elisa communicates through sign language throughout the movie
-In the first scene we are introduced to her she is shown masturbating and the film doesn’t shame her for this, or for her actively pursuing her romantic/sexual desires (I can’t remember the last time I saw this positively portrayed in such a high profile film).
-She has a wonderful platonic relationship with her flatmate Giles, who is a closeted gay man in the 1960s, whom the film does not shame for his sexuality either.
-Del Toro also uses this storyline to call out people who are passively racist and homophobic, as shown through the scenes featuring Giles in the local diner.
-Michael Shannon’s character, while complexly written and fascinating to watch, is literally mainly used as an indictment on toxic masculinity and the dangers of unquestioningly handing over authority to white men who do not mean well for the people around them, especially women who work under them.
-Octavia Spencer’s character Zelda is a black woman working in 1960s America, and while the dangers of being who she is at the time the film takes place are addressed, her character is fleshed out and human and not just a caricature of a person.
-At the Q&A I went to for the film Octavia spoke about how the role felt so different than the two other times she has portrayed a woman in this time period and how much Guillermo cared about all the characters and their backstories and what made them human.
-Guillermo is one of the few big directors out there keeping practical effects alive, and the amount of detail he put into the creature design of Amphibian Man is absolutely astonishing, and the performance he got out of Doug Jones is a testament both to how talented Doug is as an actor, and to del Toro’s skill as a director.
-Guillermo has always gone out of his way to remind us how important love is and how important it is for girls and women to have control of their own narratives.
- I could go on and on about how amazing this man and this film are to me, and I am so so glad that he is getting all the recognition he deserves.
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