This movie is a mess. I have disagreed with the Academy's choice for best picture in the past because they did not select my favorite film in any particular year, but ultimately I could always recognize that the film that beat mine was certainly a film of great merit. The Shape of Water breaks that mold. Sure, the production design was spot on, the cinematography beautiful (most of the time), and the cast is stellar. But my goodness, what a horrible plot for an essentially boring story that centered around an oddball assortment of one-note characters.

This movie kinda feels like a kids movie, but made for adults with the obligatory sex, violence and politics. I watched the entirety of the 2 hour run time because I like to view every best picture nominee in order to properly judge which of the films was more deserving than the others. But it took nearly 7 hours to do so, because I kept pausing it to do more pressing things like picking my nose.