The Shape of Water

Water seems to be a major part of my life lately…can’t seem to escape dealing with it in one form or another, whether it’s a bill, a tenant’s concerns, or in this case a Merman and a mute cleaning woman in 1962 Baltimore.  The war is cold, prejudices are plainly clear…better dead than Red.  If it’s different, definitely kill it and take it apart, but don’t keep an open mind or by God you’ll end up growing a tail.  It is and it isn’t easy to pigeonhole this love story/science fiction double feature, Doctor X has discovered (not built) a creature.  Beautifully filmed, scored, and written to help you root for the good guys, which, if you look at this from the standpoint of the military/politicos, it’s sort of like the last year and two months in the same general vicinity as Baltimore.  So, my suggestion would be, watch The Creature From The Black Lagoon (it was the inspiration for Guillermo del Toro’s screenplay) and be prepared because this is the R rated version and the monster is not who you think.  No matter who wins the Oscar for any of this film’s 13 nominations, they’re all well-deserved and personally, I’d say Michael Shannon and Doug Jones were robbed.  Both give A+ performances.  Rating:  don’t play with the kitties, hard or softboiled?, what a bloody mess, we get along swimmingly (4 starfish)