[A note from Steve: Added bonus this week due to the holiday greetings and important announcement that follows….]

The Shape of Water. Guillermo Del Toro, dir. What more can I say when I see a perfect story brought to life with beautiful imagery on the silver screen? This movie has a great plot, great characters, great settings and visuals.  There’s not a moment wasted in this fantasy thriller that is magical realism in film format. To end the year in grand style, I hope this is the last movie I see this year.

Sally Hawkins is fantastic as the sensual and mute cleaning lady Elisa Esposito.  Octavia Spencer continues her list of great performances as Elisa’s friend Zelda. Michael Shannon is the sufficiently odious and complex villain Col. Richard Strickland.  And let’s not forget Amphibian Man, the creature from the Amazon kidnapped for study in a secret government laboratory by Strickland. He’s played by Doug Jones and steals the show without one spoken word. The emotional connection between the creature and Elisa is palpable and beautiful.

Forget about Star Wars and Marvel Comics movies.  Don’t miss this gem!

***

In libris libertas!

This entry was posted on Friday, December 22nd, 2017 at 3:15 am and is filed under Movie Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.