The Shape of Water (2017)

Director Guillermo del Toro works hard to defy genre conventions in his The Shape Of Water, a thirteen-times Oscar-nominated movie that the world went crazy for and, seriously, you are all bats**t crazy because the movie's moments of Quentin Tarantino-esque violence, Spielberg (E.T.) fantasy, cloying Amelie romance, Hidden Figures social commentary, and bad taste Peeping Tom voyeurism involving nudity, masturbation and interspecies sex are meaningless flourishes in what is, most consistently, a stultifying ham-fisted fairytale pantomime like a 'Walt Disney's Splash On Ice' that dramatically flatlines after ten minutes.

☆☆☆☆☆

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The Book of Life (2014)

Two childhood friends, one an animal lover descended from a long line of macho bullfighters, the other the bearer of an otherworldly badge of immortality, vie for the love of the same woman in this extremely busy animation about Dias de los Muertos - a culturally interesting kids film that hits its stride in its second half. 

★★★★☆

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