The Shape of Water (5 Stars)

I'm always doing my best to advertise my blog, with mixed success. I have a visiting card with my blog's logo and URL that I hand out to people. I don't give it at random to complete strangers. That would be rude, little more than spam. I give it to people that I talk to. For instance, yesterday I visited the doctor and I was talking to an elderly man in the waiting room, so I handed him my card. I'm not sure how old he was, maybe 80, and he didn't understand the concept of blogging. He asked me if I write film reviews professionally for a newspaper or magazine. That's a question I'm often asked, even by younger people. People who like my reviews say they're good enough to be published, and I could earn money for them. I have to disagree.

If I were on the staff of a newspaper, I'd be sent to the cinema every day to watch the newest releases. I'd have to be objective in what I write. Even if I don't like a film, I'd have to restrain myself from writing things that would prevent people visiting the cinema. That's not my intention. I strongly support cinemas, but if I think a film is trash I'll say so. You can search for my one star reviews in my alphabetical list of posts.

You may have noticed that my ratings tend to be at the upper end of the one to five scale. Three is average, but I don't rate many films with one or two stars. That's no coincidence. I don't watch just anything, which I'd have to do as a professional reporter. I only watch films that I think I'll like. Sometimes I'm wrong, and there will be a low rating, but most of the films I watch are rated four or five stars.

My reviews are also erratic. I can write ten paragraphs without saying anything about a film. What I often say is that my blog isn't about films in themselves, it's about the effect films have on me. If you read my blog regularly, as many people do, you'll get to know me. For instance, the title picture of this post is a screenshot of Octavia Spencer, who's not the main actress. In the importance of the characters in the film, she's probably fifth. I've put her photo in this post because I like her. It's as simple as that. She's one of my favourite actresses, so I'll emphasise her, however small her role is. Don't expect me to be objective.

Here she is with Sally Hawkins, the film's leading actress.

One other thing about me is that I need to enjoy films. If I've spent a whole week watching films with a three star or lower rating, I feel like my head's unclean. I need to watch one or two five star films to get myself back to normal. I might pick a film at random from my top 100 film list. I actually have a top 200 list, but I haven't published it because I don't put the bottom 100 films in order, I just keep them in alphabetical order, ready to watch whenever I want to clear my head of bad films.

"The Shape of Water" is one of those films. It's in the bottom half of my top film list. That still makes it a brilliant film. I greatly enjoyed watching it today.

And if you want to know more about the film itself, all I'll say is that it won the Best Film Oscar at the 2018 Academy Awards, so it's not just me who likes it.

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