In Pan’s Labyrinth we have an excellent graphic R-rated fairy tale. In Crimson Peak (a movie I am not a huge fan of) we have a love story that looks gorgeous and incorporates fantasy elements. Now, we have The Shape of Water, and this feels like the culmination of what he has been trying to do. It is a beautiful adult fairy tale that is above all a love story. Set in the 1960s it explores so many themes of taboo, forbidden love, giving voice to the voiceless and those who do not neatly fit in the perfect center of society. The performances by everyone from Richard Jenkins to Sally Hawkins and Michael Shannon are just perfect. It’s beautifully envisioned, told and rendered in spectacular period music and sets. Really loved this one in all it’s beautiful weirdness.