I just watched "The Shape of Water" for the first time.

[Jeebo]

Er, I mean, "The Creature from the Black Lagoon." Wait, I mean "Free Willy." No, I had it right the first time, it's "The Shape of Water." It's a pretty good movie, but Best Picture? No way. Some of the situations and premises are just simply preposterous. Could you actually fill up an entire upstairs bathroom with water? And in the closing scene, is it the suggestion that the scars on her neck are going to metamorphose into gills?

But the biggest problem I have with the film is the romance between the mute woman and the amphibian-man. I'm not a prude by any means, but I do feel profoundly uncomfortable about interspecies sex, and about watching it play out on the silver screen.

I have lots of time for watching movies -- I suppose we all do -- and I'm trying to watch the very few Best Picture winners I haven't seen yet.

-- Ron

[Ohiogal]

1. The premise was pretty far fetched IMO

I guess it wasn’t a bad movie, as movies go, but no way did I think it deserved Best Picture.

[flying_wahini]

2. I loved that film. Really captured my imagination.

[exboyfil]

3. In the 1980s George Lucas was roundly criticized

for implying inter species sex (Howard the Duck).

In the 2010s Guillermo del Toro wins an Oscar for it. Go figure?

[JDC]

4. We were going to watch it last night and the kids voted it down

My son said it looked like a version of the creature from the BL, just like you mention.

Played Uno instead. Watched part of The Sting by myself later. Which I could watch over and over.


Thx for the review.

[SuprstitionAintthWay]

5. "Best Pictures" are rarely the best pictures.

Last edited Thu Apr 16, 2020, 03:39 PM - Edit history (1)

The Academy just does its own thing. The winners now usually are about some social issue (and if not a social issue, then they're about the movie industry itself). The last one of these winning Best Pic that I thought might actually have been the year's best was Spotlight, about the Boston Globe uncovering large numbers of pedophile priests. A really excellent movie.

But the notion of ONE Best Picture is absurd anyway.

I've never understood why they refuse to break it out more like the Golden Globes do. IMO there should be at least 3 "bests" beyond Documentary, Foreign Language, Short, Animated, and just "Picture." "Picture" should be at least 3:
Best Drama
Best Comedy or Musical
Best Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Action or Horror film

There's always been a need for categories for movies like Planet Of The Apes (1969?), Alien (1979), Aliens (1986?), Pulp Fiction (1994?), Mulholland Drive (2000?), The Dark Knight (2008), Moon, or horror/suspense like It Follows, 10 Cloverfield Lane, The Babadook or The Witch to win a picture category, and not just costumes, set, or special effects. But they don't, because dramas dominate the Oscar's Best Picture, and it's almost unheard of for Best Picture to be within reach of films like these regardless of how good they are. Well, unless it's based on Tolkien, or by Guillermo del Toro. But even The Wizard of Oz, a musical fantasy, didn't win Best Picture.


As for Shape Of Water, I got around to it only a couple of months ago myself. I've found most of del Toro's films, which are fantastical allegories about outsiders and alienation, and often social injustices too, to be over-rated by the critics. And this, for me, was no exception.

As for this year's winner, I'm happy for a foreign film to win, and enjoyed that director's The Host some time back. But I saw Parasite, and I appreciated the themes, but wasn't blown away by that, either.

[Jeebo]

6. "Spartacus" should have won in 1960.

I have seen the 1960 winner "The Apartment" several times, just watched it a few days ago, in fact, on TCM. "The Apartment" is a really good movie, but "Spartacus" is much better, in my humble opinion. But then, as you said, they're very much different kinds of movies, so perhaps that isn't a fair comparison for that reason. I wouldn't have argued with it getting Best Picture in your Drama category, but "Spartacus" getting the award in another category. But I don't think "Spartacus" would have fit in any of the three categories you mentioned, so there would need to be another category. Historical Fiction, perhaps, or Big-Budget Costume Epic. I also think, incidentally, that the recent TV series "Spartacus" is the best TV series ever. In my humble opinion.

I also think "The Deer Hunter" is the WORST Best Picture winner ever. I saw it only once, in the movie theater when it was a current release. I'll never watch it again. The whole first half-hour of that movie was just a bunch of godawful noise, not exactly putting me into a receptive mood to be watching a good movie.

Yes, I think you're right that Best Picture winners often are not the best picture. But I also think they often are. This is a matter of subjective opinion, of course.

-- Ron

[SuprstitionAintthWay]

7. Spartacus has enough sword-and-sandals about it that if there had been a...

...Best Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Action or Horror Picture category, it could have been squeezed in that as "Action."

Imperfectly, granted; it truly is a drama -- yes, a classic one.

But the Globes does this, plays a bit with its assignments to categories in order to spread the wealth around better in its "Best" films categories. Using even just my suggested divisions the Academy probably could have awarded both The Apartment and Spartacus "Best" picture trophies.