This is not from the Nomad, this post comes from Eric.
There was a point in my life, around 2009 that I had a cinema membership where I could watch any movie I wanted as many times as I wanted as long as it was available in the movie theater... all of that for around 250 dolars a year. Awesome right? 2009 was the year I decided along with my brother that we would write, direct and produce a movie at some point in our lives and that dream hasn´t vanished a little from our minds, every day it passes is another day we are getting closer to achieving this goal.
We watch movies together, rewatch them, analyze the script, the camera work, the sound, the timing, the directors style, the acting style and a lot more stuff you´d be bored with. The thing is, I´ve never been confident enough to post my veredicts but now, I decided that if I want to get on the next level, I have to do it.
My movie reviews and critiques won´t be techincal - altough if someone wants to discuss techincalities I´m always open for that in the comment section - but more about the appeal of the movie and the general work the director and the actors did.
I hope you like this section of my blog.
The shape of water
One thing about Guillermo del Toro, this marvelous Mexican director, is that all of his movies have a certain vibe that makes you recognize them even if you don´t know who is directing them and The shape of water is no exception but, at the same time, they don´t seem like the same movie, or become tedious or repetitive or even a copy of each other. At first, watching this movie feels watching a re-run of Pan´s Labyrinth</b<, a movie set in Francisco Franco´s Spain.
From the very first few minutes you start feeling nostalgia; about what? Who knows, but the well prepared setting and scenarios make you wish you were born in that time, to have listened to the music and to have eaten in a dinner like the ones portrayed here. It´s that kind of nostalgia that only a movie set in decades ago but also a bit of intrigue that only a science fiction can make you feel. But, what else is Del Toro going to do? This is his genre and he knows it greatly. As the scenes go by, you start wondering how is he able to portray something so mundane, as so beautiful. Someone making a sandwich, or perhaps drawing a painting, or maybe even waking down a corridor, becomes artistic.
The Official soundtrack is out of this world, every song is chosen perfectly and with a basis so correct that it makes every scene go hand in hand with the background music. After reading more about this subject it makes sense; on an interview it was said that 9 months were invested in selecting each song for the movie. One thing that also stands out is the timimg. A song can fit perfectly with a scene but if the timing is not correct, our subconscious picks up hints of what is going to happen or sometimes, the song arrives too late, but not here, The shape of water handles music perfectly.
Sally Hawkings and Michael Shannon are impecable, they know how to transmit every feeling they need to in the moment they need to and they both carry a rythm - by themselves and while being together - that only Del Toro and a few other directors could manage to pace. Sally Hawkins consolidates a carreer of excelent performances and states firmly she is to be taken seriously and Michael Shannon, who has always been underrated, should´ve been nominated for best actor, even considering that his part is misoginistic and with all the sexual harrasment issues going on right now in Hollywood.
You know how there are movies that have the lead actors steal the movie and the cast is just meh? Well, this is not the case, Doug Jones, Octavia Spencer, Richard Jenkins and Michael Stuhlbarg they are all superb and deserve a big mention!
This kind of movies remind us that acting it´s not always about shouting, screaming, biting or crying to give an excelent performance, a lot of times the achivement lies in feeling the pace of the movie and being able to adapt to it, and also to make the audience get in pace with you, identifying the correct moments and the right intensity, just as the character you are playing merits.
This critique was thought of before the academmy awards but I hadn´t writen it. What I know is that this one was my favorite to get Best Movie and Best Director, and I wasn´t wrong. But hey, I´m posting this after the results, I guess you´ll have to read more of my reviews to see if I know what I´m talking about.