Chad’s Grade: A-
It’s no secret that best picture Oscar winners skew heavily toward weighty dramas, especially if the drama is a period piece with a political message. Ditto for action films with bonus points for a War World II setting. Occasionally, a comedy will break through the haze and make the Academy laugh. And during the ’50s & ’60s, numerous musicals would take home the top prize. But science fiction, fantasy, and horror have always been the evil stepchildren that the Academy constantly overlooks. Although the horror genre has made gains in recent years, starting with the massive haul “The Silence of the Lambs” took home in 1992. But science fiction and fantasy are routinely ignored.
Until 2018 when “The Shape of Water” won Best Picture of 2017. There have been dozens of science fiction nominees throughout the years, from “Star Wars” to “Inception” and “District 9.” The over-bloated “Avatar” even nabbed a nomination in 2010. But “The Shape of Water” was the first science fiction film to win in the Academy Awards 94-year history.
In 1962 Baltimore, the film follows Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins), a shy and mute woman working as a night janitor at a top-secret military facility. Along with her feisty co-worker, Zelda (Octavia Spencer), the pair stumble upon an amphibious humanoid creature (Doug Jones) being experimented on for the U.S. space program. Elisa bonds with the creature as he can communicate through sign language, music and is alone and misunderstood, much like herself. After helping the creature escape the facility, Elisa, and her friendly neighbor Giles (Richard Jenkins) hide the creature in her bathtub until she can find a way to return him to the ocean. During that time, the connection between Elisa and the creature turns romantic and sexual. Along the way, both the brutish Colonel Strickland (Michael Shannon) and undercover Russian scientist Dr. Hoffstetler (Michael Stuhlbarg) wish to retrieve the powerful creature for their own ends.
“The Shape of Water” is a deeply romantic, visual tour de force that blends the cold war science fiction aesthetic with the beauty & the beast fairy tale. There’s also a dash of “The Creature from the Black Lagoon” for good measure. The film is very much a product of director Guillermo Del Toro who also took home the Oscar for Best Director. The Mexican-born Del Toro first came to prominence with the Spanish language productions of “The Devil’s Backbone” and the still-stunning “Pan’s Labyrinth.” American audiences know his work from the two-creature-heavy “Hellboy” films, “Mimic” and more recently the bombastic “Pacific Rim.”
Del Toro can be an acquired taste for some, as his films can seem cold, distant, and more focused on visuals than storytelling. But with “The Shape of Water,” Del Toro finds his sweet spot between the two, thanks mainly to the excellent cast who grounds his stylized tale with heartfelt emotion. Sally Hawkins shines as the mute Elisa, conveying a well of emotion without uttering a word. In my opinion, she was robbed of the Oscar that year, losing to Francis McDormand in “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.” The supporting cast also shines with the Oscar-nominated Octavia Spencer and Richard Jenkins. Jenkins, in particular, has many heartbreaking scenes as he faces the isolation of being an aged, closeted gay man in the 1960s. And Michael Shannon is powerful as the villainous Col. Strickland, conveying the brute Alpha Male qualities from the Mad Men era.
Del Toro’s unique visual flavor is all over the movie. It’s like he dipped the film in a technicolor shade of aqua. And the color green is a recurring motif, from the scaly skin of the creature to the bright mint pies that Giles buys for Elisa. And it’s fascinating how Del Toro inverts the conventions of the cold war era sci-fi films. In Del Toro’s world, the monster is the brutish military man, while the kind, earnest scientist is a Russian undercover agent. The true heroes of the piece are the outsiders: A mute, a gay man, and a black woman. Yet Del Toro embraces the classic fairy tale tropes through Eliza’s romantic bond with the creature. And it’s brilliant how he blends the two.
The film also shines with its spectacular practical special effects and makeup. All the extensive prosthetics that turn the expressive Doug Jones (a frequent Del Toro collaborator) into the creature are impressive and sell the sci-fi nature of the movie. The movie reportedly had a budget of $20 million, meager for a creature effects film, but every penny is on screen. And the tangible effects with Doug Jones and Sally Hawkins interacting versus CGI give the romance a natural chemistry.
The film does have some minor missteps that knock the score down. Del Toro has gone on record that he wanted this to be an adult fairy tale. This is not far off from what he did with “Pan’s Labyrinth,” which mixed the “Alice in the Wonderland” fairytale with the real-world horrors of War World II. I’m no prude but having Elisa start a sexual relationship with the creature veers into bestiality territory. Essentially, it’s the beauty having sex with the beast. I know I wasn’t the only one turned off by this plot point, but it detracts from the fairy tale aspect of the story.
But that’s a minor quibble in an otherwise beautifully weird and deeply romantic movie. The film received a whopping 13 Oscar nominations, winning Best Picture, Director, Original Score, and Production Design.
THE 2017 BEST PICTURE NOMINEES:
The Shape of Water
Call Me by Your Name
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Get Out
Lady Bird
Phantom Thread
The Post
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
A decent but uninspiring selection of films, and many of the critics had pegged either “Phantom Thread” or “Three Billboards” as the top contenders. “Get Out” was the surprise horror nominee, and I was glad to see “Dunkirk” get a mention. And “Lady Bird” was the breakout film for Greta Gerwig, who became the fifth woman nominated for Best Director. “The Shape of Water” was considered a dark horse entry with the consensus that Del Toro was deserving of the Best Director prize.
DID IT DESERVE TO WIN?
Yes! I was surprised by the shocking, historic win. It’s was refreshing for the Academy to go out on a limb and embrace this strange, fever dream of a film. Like most critics, I thought that “Three Billboards” had it in the bag, especially after Francis McDormand won her second-Best Actress Oscar. I suspect this might have been a “legacy” win for director Del Toro, but no matter. We have our first science fiction Oscar winner for Best Picture.