Unfortunately you can tell it's trying very hard to win Oscars

Rating: 7/10 (4 March 2018)

The Oscars are a funny old bird. Unfortunately after the #Oscarssowhite controversy a couple of years back they have lost a lot of credibility. They came out and made a promise to diversify the nominees/winners of the show in the future. What did that do? It meant that when a film like 'Moonlight' won Best Picture the next year people were left to question whether that was based on the merits of the film, or simply the fact that they needed the winning film to be based around black people. Now obviously people are questioning the same things over Guillermo del Toro and his film 'The Shape of Water'. Is it actually deserving or are the Academy simply trying to include the Latinos in the mix this time around? These are never questions that should be asked, but unfortunately they forever will be now. So is 'The Shape of Water' the real deal, or overrated nonsense? It's somewhere in the middle.
The first thing that has to be said is that this is a film that is trying very hard to win Oscars. That comes across very clearly multiple times. We all know that the Academy love a film about film, so of course part of the film is set above a movie theatre and there is completely unnecessary scene set in it. That's a part of the film I didn't like. What I did like about the film was its intelligence. When you look back afterwards and examine certain plot points and clues this is actually a very smart and well thought out film. Without getting into spoilers this is a tough thing to explore, but needless to say there is some very interesting reading up on people's theories you can do after you've seen the film.
'The Shape of Water' is in a two horse race to win Best Picture tomorrow with 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri' (as I see it at least). Personally I think the latter is a far superior film and deserves the win. At then end of the day 'The Shape of Water' is a love story and I just didn't feel what I usually feel when I see the best love stories put to screen. Not a bad film, due to its intellect, but it's nothing earth shattering either.