Mexico

In Love With The Shape Of You (The Shape Of Water review)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Join us for a very special film review on this week’s episode of Watch Culture.

I say this because I’m about to drop some knowledge on why The Shape of Water holds a special place in my heart, so much so that I’ll also be running a deep dive on Cross Talk with Chris later in the month (read: sooner).

The Shape of Water (2017)

Cast: Sally Hawkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Michael Stuhlbarg, Doug Jones
Director: Guillermo del Toro
released on blu-ray March 13, 2018
********* 10/10

IMDB: 7.5
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%, Audience Score 74%
The Guardian: ****/*****

Guillermo del Toro is a Mexican film director, screenwriter, producer and novelist. His films have a strong fantasy element running through them, often using dark themes and gothic backdrops to convey both subtle and overt messages about human nature. Some of his more mainstream films are Pacific Rim, Blade II and the two Hellboy adaptations, but he also dabbles in spanish language focused stories like The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth.

Looking back, his most recent film before The Shape of Water was Crimson Peak, a strong indicator and launching point toward fairy tale narratives.

Special thanks to Huggo for the IMDB summary.

1962 Baltimore. Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins), found abandoned as a baby with scars on her neck, has been mute all her life, that disability which has largely led to her not having opportunities. Despite being a bright woman, she works a manual labor job as a cleaner at a military research facility where she has long been friends with fellow cleaner, Zelda Fuller (Octavia Spencer), who often translates her sign language to others at the facility. And she has had no romance in her life, her major emotional support, beyond Zelda, being her aging gay artist neighbor, Giles (Richard Jenkins), the two who live in adjoining apartment units above a movie theater. Like Elisa, Giles is lonely, his homosexuality complicating both his personal and professional life, the latter as a commercial graphic artist. Elisa’s life changes when Colonel Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon) brings a new “asset” into the facility, Elisa discovering it being a seeming mixed human/amphibious creature found in the waters of the Amazon. Secretly visiting with the creature, Elisa is immediately drawn to him, and despite he having a violent side as part of his inherent being, the two find a way to communicate with each other and end up forming a bond with each other. Elisa has to decide what to do when she discovers that although the reason for bringing the creature to the facility is to test the possibility of him being sent into space, Colonel Strickland, who has always had antagonistic feelings toward the creature, ultimately wants to kill him, this following the systematic torture he has inflicted on him. Elisa may have to balance her feelings on wanting to be with the creature against what may be the greater benefit to him of being set free back into the wilds of the water. Complicating matters are that the Soviets are also aware of the creature, they having a secret agent who has infiltrated the facility.

Smarter people then I have reviewed this film to death already.

So I won’t pretend to impart the same learnings as them in my review of this film, but I will acknowledge that there is some derivation at work here. As Chris will rightly point out in his own thoughts on our upcoming Deep Dive; this is a story that effectively borrows from other films. The Beauty and the Beast story arc is the bones of this film, it also throws in homages to monster movies (Creature from the Black Lagoon), musicals (Shirley Temple, That Night in Rio) and biblical stories (The Story of Ruth).

But where the brilliance comes in is in altering the arcs of these stories. The beast doesn’t transform to be loved, the creature from the black lagoon doesn’t die AND gets the girl, the mute girl and her two minority friends save the day, and love of the arts is celebrated.

That said, even if you don’t know these things, this film challenges the notion of fearing the other – it fights fear with love, and I think it smartly uses Giles (an artist), as a narrator of this ideal, in a time when those ideas couldn’t even exist in popular culture. Giles is a closeted homosexual, someone who dreams and imagines how things could be, and I have a theory that a lot of the film actually happens in his mind.

Pros: It carefully crafts all of it’s themes and ultimately tells a universal story of acceptance, love, and celebrating what is, rather then what should be. del Toro is at his personal best, and he poses some great questions.

Cons: While beautiful to behold, and universally clear in the truths it wants to share, to fully appreciate the story, you might actually need to love all of the things it references – the subtle historical shifts at play. And if you want character nuance, the characterizations could be frustrating to watch.

Runtime: 1 hour 55 minutes

Points of Interest: Guillermo del Toro wrote lengthy backstories for each of the major characters, giving them each the option to use the information or ignore it. Some opted to take the direction, while some, like Richard Jenkins, refused it. The poem at the end of film has been paraphrased from works by Persian poet Rumi and his predecessor Hakim Sanai.

I really do see why Chris struggles with this film. And believe it or not, I’m not picking apart his thesis before he’s had a chance to defend himself, but rather I want to show you that his perspective is key in understanding my own theory.

The derivative themes, the abstracted characterizations, and the reliance on style as a vehicle for the underlying substance are important. If we consider that the whole story is told from the perspective of an artist character (Richard Jenkins) who has had to hide so much of himself in a time and space of persecution and judgment, then I think the story takes on new meaning. Not to mention the fact that his chosen form of expression, painting, is being supplanted by photography in advertising. Giles loves musicals, lives above a theatre that shows biblical films, and draws the creature he does not understand lovingly. He wants to see a fairy tale realized because his own story did not come through as he wished.

Additionally, he is the most detailed of the characters, which is often how we see ourselves, as opposed to how we simplify others in our own life stories.

theories Summarized

I think The Shape of Water is an amazing film, and to be honest, I haven’t even given you the full expression of my thoughts on it yet, but I believe that the upcoming Cross Talk deep dive episode will reveal even more about it. A fairy tale for adults is an amazing thing to behold, indeed.

If you want another fairy tale for adults, then you should check out this video review of 2010’s Scott Pilgrim VS the World, an anti-thesis to rom-coms told from the perspective of a video game geek. It’s a blast to watch, and whether you grew up between the 1980s to 1990s or not, the nostalgia callbacks are insightful.

So please let me know what you thought of our review, like and share the video, and subscribe to the channel if you haven’t already. There are even more theories coming up next week, y’all come back now.

Tim!

Extend Your Credit (Georg Rockall-Schmidt 2nd preview interview)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Sometimes you get the credit and sometimes the credit gets you.  Whether we’re talking about university or book keeping is kinda unclear, because this word has roughly ten or so definitions, but we’re gonna roll with the punches and hope that all of my generalizations will bolster a sense of respect and confidence in my writing ability.

Now that I have your attention, let’s consider the following: credit can turn you into a slave.

I realize that the credit analogies are gonna run thin pretty quick here dear readers, so instead of making a bunch of references about credit history, how arcade games work hard to turn your hard earned fast food job money against you or why all movies in the future seem to favour that word over currency, I’m just gonna make a clean break and say that credit is one of those things that you should understand but not rely on. It’ll fuck up your mojo if you let it.

bankruptcy

I mean Georg gets it. That’s why he and I spent so much time discussing credibility and what it means to him as a full-time creator of YouTube Videos. You know Georg right? Same guy that I’m preparing to release a feature length interview with in the near future.

Now the see the thing about Georg is that he is a researcher, a writer and quite bright. We ended up talking back and forth for over two hours. Which is a lot of time to edit down an interview into a reasonable length. In fact, it’s almost double what a typical interview runs for me.

Georg Rockall-Schmidt has been an excellent first foray into the world of international interviewing, and I wanted to give him as much attention as I could, so I decided (at the last minute) to release another preview of us chatting about credibility. This time the focus question is – do you communicate all of the information you need to in order to be considered authentic?

And I bet you won’t be able to guess what his answer is.

Lucky for you, I have the interview question locked and loaded. So you don’t have many more sentences to wait until the reward is at your fingertips. Now sit down if you’re standing or stand up if you’ve been sitting all day and watch this short clip featuring my friend and fellow internet darling.

Now I’ve run the theories train into the station for the evening, friends. You’re gonna have to get off here cause it’s the end of the line. But I can promise you some sweet dreams, heck, even some countrified ones that’ll make a whole lot of sense when you come back tomorrow for my Miranda Lambert music review. With that cleared up, browse the timotheories.com som more, leave some comments, subscribe, and share this post with your creative friends.

Tim!

Let’s Get Credible (Georg Rockall-Schmidt preview interview)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

We can’t all have good credit scores. Some of us because of circumstances, a lot of us because we made bad decisions about what to buy, but did you know that there are factors you wouldn’t have considered? Your payment history, credit file age, diversity of accounts, and how often searches are pulled, for instance. You do know that a credit score and credibility go hand in hand according to banks, credit card companies, collection agencies, and governments, don’t you dear readers? Credibility is the quality of being trusted and believed in. Or to put it another way, it’s a quality of being convincing or believable.

Perception is reality after all.

You see friends, when people think you’ll keep your word, they are more likely to trust you and let you make decisions. This is something that all good leaders have, salespeople and business operators included. Now this is where you come in – You make art. You love to make art, but you need to be credible in order to sell said art.

And as the old adage goes, it’s easier to ask forgiveness then permission. Especially from someone who is credible.

Once you realize that your public image is just as important as the one that you internally hold up for yourself, you can begin to consider all of the options, just a little more closely. Heck, it even applies to US politics but you’ll see what I mean when you turn on the clip

Oh wait, I forgot to mention, that this is preview of my first ever international interview with Georg Rockall-Schmidt. Georg is one of the most awesome people that I’ve never met in real life. Georg is a full-time creator of YouTube videos. You can find his channel here, but effectively he creates videos about pop culture, history, parody, his personal thoughts on life, and a whole lot more. An English dude with an anti-establishment educations, he believes that credibility defines ideation, and it’s important to him to have self-awareness but to simply leave all of the unnecessary elements out of the equation.

And that’s just a teaser. I have a full-fledged interview coming up in the next week or so featuring more of his incredible insights. This is Just A Thought on all that is Georg Rockall-Schmidt. Sorry for stealing your tagline Georg!

Can you believe it dear readers? I’m out of theories for the night. But just because I’m out of theories for now, doesn’t mean you can’t read more of my own thoughts! Browse the website, leave some comments, subscribe, and share with your creative friends. Otherwise, you should have a fantastic night, because I’ll be back tomorrow with a new Dragonette album review.

Tim!

Blame It On The Night (Spectre review)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

You know the routine, you get up, you do your thing and you get going. Sometimes it can be fun and other times it can feel irksome, but in moments of self-reflection, you realize that no matter what, you can create something special if you understand your limits and work to improve on them, one at a time.

It’s all about becoming more than a shadow of your former self.

 

 

 

Spectre (2015)
Cast: Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz, Lea Seydoux
Director: Sam Mendes
released on blu-ray February 9, 2016
******** 8/10

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IMDB: 6.9
Rotten Tomatoes: 64%, Audience Score 64%
The Guardian: ****/*****

Sam Mendes is an English stage and film director, with an interesting track record. His first film American Beauty won him an Academy award for best director, a Golden Globe for best director, and 5 Oscars. He is also the director of 2012’s Skyfall, one of the best made 007 movies ever and the second best in Daniel Craig’s quartet, according to Rotten Tomatoes.

So where does Spectre stack up? I would argue that it’s almost as good as Skyfall, but that was a difficult entry to follow up. But you know what this one did handle better? His female lead.

But let’s get into the plot for a bit first.

Bond (Daniel Craig) is in Mexico City during a Day of the Dead parade. He is following a man in a white suit and mask. After following the man named Marco Sciarra (Alessandro Cremona) to a building, Bond takes aim and listens in to their conversation about “the Pale King,” before he discover him and begin shooting.

Bond disables two of the men and blows up the bomb there as well, which causes the building to collapse. Sciarra flees to a helicopter and Bond narrowly jumps on before it takes off.

He eventually succeeds in kicking both Sciarra and the pilot out as well, but not before stealing a ring from Sciarra. A ring with a stylized octopus on it.

Back in London, M (Ralph Fiennes) reprimands Bond for the fallout in Mexico and then grounds him. As Bond is about to leave, a man walks in and M introduces him as Max Denbigh (Andrew Scott) head of the Joint Intelligence Service, consisting of the recently merged MI5 and MI6. Bond gives him the nickname C. C has a vision of a program called “Nine Eyes “, a global surveillance and intelligence co-operation initiative between nine member states, and intends to use his position to shut down the ’00’ section, believing it to be outdated.

Tanner (Rory Kinnear) takes Bond to meet with Q (Ben Whishaw),  whom M has tasked with injecting Bond with ‘smart blood,’ so Bond can be located anywhere in the world by. Bond requests that Q make him disappear for 48 hours, and then steals a custom Aston Martin DB10 made for 009 and heads for Rome.

Bond attends Sciarra’s funeral, because the recently deceased M (Judi Dench) knows he is a part of a larger organization which has been working behind the scenes, and killed her. Bond encounters Sciarra’s widow Lucia (Monica Belucci) and later visits her home to save her from hitmen. Lucia knows Bond killed her husband, but sleeps with him anyway, and then tells him about a meeting for Sciarra’s organization.

Bond then crashes the meeting, where he finds out the leader is Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz). Oberhauser appears to know Bond as well, and sends Mr. Hinx (Dave Bautista) after him. Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) informs Bond that the information he collected on the Pale King leads to Mr. White, who was part of Quantum. Bond asks for info on Oberhauser, who should be dead.

Moneypenny’s investigation reveals that Oberhauser and his father died in an avalanche. Bond finds Mr. White (Jesper Christensen) in Austria – his house is a mess and he is dying from poison, likely from leaving Oberhauser. White will give Bond information on the organization, but only if he can protect White’s daughter, Dr. Madeline Swann (Lea Seydoux). Madeline can lead Bond to L’Americain. Bond passes his Walther PPK, so White can end his own suffering.

When Bond finds Madeline, she does not want to go with him, but Hinx is there too and Bond is fortunately able to stop the villain. Bond brings Madeleine to meet with Q, who has done an analysis on the ring. Q reveals that all of Bond’s recent enemies (Mr.White, Sciarra, Le Chiffre, Dominic Greene, and Raoul Silva) are connected to Oberhauser and Madeline explains the group is Spectre. And that “L’Americain” is not a person but a place – A hotel in Tangiers, Morocco.

Meanwhile in London, M learns Bond has left the country against his orders.

 

And let’s stop that bullet for a second.

Pros: The movie manages to tie-in all the previous Daniel Craig entries, give a nod to it’s predecessors by globe-hopping, and set us up for continuity fixes that copyright prevented for decades. Lea Seydoux’s turn is emotional and competent as well, more so than other “Bond girls.”

Cons: Skyfall was an original story that brought in so many new people to the 007 franchise that it’s difficult to retain their interest when they are expecting Skyfall 2. There may have been too many cast members to maintain the pace, and allow breathing room for newcomers Andrew Scott, Christoph Waltz and Lea Seydoux

Runtime: 148 minutes

Points of Interest: Skyfall was shot digitally, but Spectre reverted to the 35mm tradition. Daniel Craig’s favourite film, From Russia With Love, features a train fight – so does this film.

Spectre is a not a shadow of Skyfall, nor is does it loom over it either. It’s a piece of the puzzle in the much greater narrative that is the 007 franchise.

What some people see as routine or attempting to please too many different kinds of fans is really just a recognition of what came before, so that Spectre can fit the Daniel Craig entries into the James Bond family, and he can then walk away or we can continue the exploration of Bond’s identity. By telling an origin story over a 4 movie arc (potentially more with Bond #25), Eon has managed to strengthen the story, rather than forcing us to consider these as reboots.

But that’s just my theory! What do you think? Please leave some comments and if you enjoyed it, subscribe! Your feedback helps me know what is good and what is shadowy, at best.

Tim!