Film Review – The Shape of Water

After going huge with 2013’s “Pacific Rim” and gothic with 2015’s “Crimson Peak,” writer/director Guillermo del Toro tries a little softness on for size with “The Shape of Water,” but warm and cuddly means something slightly different to the famously fantastical filmmaker. He’s created a romance (written with Vanessa Taylor) with his own unique fingerprints, eschewing dewy acts of tenderness for a bloodier, more hostile examination of forbidden connection, which also features far more masturbation than I’m sure any viewer is expecting. Offered a chance to make an R-rated fantasy that celebrates a love for monsters and the kindness of strangers, and del Toro runs with it, delivering his best effort in years, preserving his idiosyncrasies and extremities with an often wonderfully bizarre movie. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com