9.5/10. Phenomenal world building pervades The Shape of Water, allowing you see a time period come to life, blemishes and all. Every character feels tremendously human in this film, which just works so perfectly for a film whose central argument is the definition of humanity by means of contrast. I had a gut feeling, this inexplicable hunch, that I’d have to see this movie before declaring Blade Runner 2049 as my personal MOTY. I’ve never been more right than this. I dock the movie a nitpicky .5 out of pure spite because Guillermo didn’t show me the back of arguably the most important, final calendar card. He had the perfect setup for a nice narrative flourish, and left it unused. But hey, it’s a nitpick, and if anyone knows what they’re doing with regards to storytelling, it’s GDT.