Guillermo del Toro's THE SHAPE OF WATER proves his richest, most successful film to date

Taking you places that movies seldom manage while creating a tightly-focused universe of dark enchantment based clearly on the kind of world in which we're forever stuck, Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (shown below) has, with THE SHAPE OF WATER, graced us with his (so far) masterpiece.

Ever more so than Pan's Labyrynth, which demanded at least some knowledge of Spain's history and the Spanish Civil War to bring its several strands together, del Toro's newest work asks that you remember or maybe just have a nodding acquaintance with The Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Even if you don't recall that "landmark" monster movie, you still should not have any real trouble understanding the theme, plot and raison d'être of this exceptional love story/fantasy that is filled to its brim with "outsiders" of every sort.

In the film's most striking and yet most subtle note, even the movie's premiere villain -- played to the hilt by Michael Shannon (above), the only actor we have today who could easily replace the late, great Boris Karloff -- is himself one of these outsiders, incapable of experiencing or feeling emotions like love and caring, yet unable to even understand what this lack means to his own place in the world. (The other outsiders here all very well know their lack and their place.)

Señor del Toro addresses the place and plight of our GLBT community, our people of color and our handicapped simply and gracefully via his movie's main characters. The gracious and comforting Octavia Spencer (above) plays one of the two janitorial staff with whom we bond at the government-sponsored "research" facility to which our creature, found in the Amazon, has been brought for "study."

The other worker is played by our main character, Elisa, a young woman who has had her vocal chords cut as a child and is now mute, played by the great Sally Hawkins (above). As with Rachel Brosnahan in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, I can't think of another actress who could bring all that Ms Hawkins does to this role: an inner beauty that simply glows, steely strength when required, and an openness that captivates and charms.

Another wonderful actor who possesses extraordinary subtlety and empathy, Richard Jenkins (above), plays Elisa's friend and neighbor, Giles, a gay illustrator/artist in a time in America -- the 1960s -- when the closet was still the best option. These three unite to save our creature, who is in peril of its life, and the movie's wonderful message of tolerance and love for and by not just humans but any living species is brought home as seamlessly, beautifully and cinematically as just about any in movie history.

In addition to Shannon's villainous character, we meet another scientist, played by ubiquitous and always wonderful Michael Stuhlbarg (above and also currently to be seen in Call Me By Your Name and The Post). TrustMovies would say the the film's ace-in-the-hole, performance- and character-wise would be the depiction of its creature, brought to life by actor Doug Jones (below, and oft-used by del Toro) and his incredible make-up or maybe CGI-effects, This is indeed a stunning achievement, but then all the characters and characterizations here are so good that literally no one stands out above any other.

While the plot of The Shape of Water is pretty simple -- rather typical, really -- the film is brought to fierce and gorgeous life by del Toro's wondrous imagination.

That imagination has been hugely abetted by that fine cinematographer Dan Laustsen (Crimson Peak, Brotherhood of the Wolf, and the gorgeous and engrossing Danish TV series 1864), production designer (Paul D. Austerberry), art director (Nigel Churcher) and set decorators Jeffrey A. Melvin and Shane Vieau, all of whom, save Vieau, have worked with del Toro previously.

There are only around a half dozen locations used repeatedly in the film, but all of these -- from Elisa and Giles' facing apartments (hers is shown above) to the science laboratory (two photos up) to the giant old-fashioned movie theater (below) located just below the apartments -- are brought to such amazing, beautiful, darkly noir-ish life that they will probably remain in your mind and imagination for good.

In all, The Shape of Water comes together to form something we almost never see: a kind of mainstream blockbuster, a moving work of art, and a film that manages to show us just about everything that a single motion picture can achieve.

From Fox Searchlight and running 123 minutes, the film is playing all over the country at this point. Click here to find the theater(s) nearest you.

Barry Jenkins' groundbreaking MOONLIGHT: It's everything you've heard it is -- and more

Personal filmmaking raised to about as high a level as TrustMovies has so far seen, MOONLIGHT proves as quietly magnificent, immediately engrossing and enormously powerful as any film in years, if not memory. How does writer/director Barry Jenkins manage this?  Rather than expound at great length (so much of this has already been done by others), I'll first ask that you see for yourself. You'll be glad you did. (And now I'll expound just a little.)

I must admit that having seen and semi-enjoyed Mr. Jenkins' earlier Medicine for Melancholy, I would not have expected anything this momentous. What this filmmaker, shown at right, has done is give us the Black experience in a way that seems both utterly specific and hugely encompassing. That he has chosen to show us this via a character who is gay (something not exactly considered a "plus" in the Black community) makes it all the more amazing. Further, he has used three very different actors -- who look almost nothing alike facially or in body type! -- to portray the character as a boy, an adolescent and a young man.

Here they are, at left (Alex R. Hibbert, as the boy), below (Ashton Sanders as the adolescent version), and further below (Trevante Rhodes, as the young adult),

What unites these three so disparate-looking males is their very "essence," which Jenkins and his actors have captured beautifully and profoundly via the situations, the dialog (kept to a minimum) and the all-round filmmaking skills. This essence is what holds the film together and slowly allows us to understand the meaning of "character."

The movie is also about identity, where it comes from and what it means to each of us, and how, in terms of responsibility, it is up to us to form our own.

Character building and identity are ongoing things, which Moonlight also helps us understand. The movie begins in media res and ends there, too, In between, we get all we need to enter, understand, and live in the life we encounter here. This is no small potatoes, particularly where the Black experience is concerned, and it's what makes Moonlight such an achievement.

Further, I suspect that this achievement will impact both the black and white communities. Whites will come away from the film more empathetic to the black experience than via any other fictional tale except perhaps The Wire (which still holds the prize for showing us that experience more fully and empathetically than anything else).

The mainstream Black community also has a surprise in store, as it should come away from Moonlight with its own richer and more empathetic understanding of the Black gay male.

Sure, there are all kinds of lessons to be learned here, yet Moonlight seems anything but dogmatic and "teacher-y."  It engulfs you from its first scene and holds you fast through smart storytelling and expert performances. How Jenkins worked with his actors to gain their trust and let them discover that "essence" is an award-winning move all by itself.

The drug culture is a large part of this movie, too, though you will not have seen it expressed in quite the way it is here. (Again, only The Wire can top it in this respect.) That fine actor Mahershala Ali, shown above and below (from House of Cards), plays Juan, the mentor of our youngest iteration, and he's both a drug dealer and father figure.

Women play their own major roles here, too, with Naomie Harris (below) alternately horrifying and heartbreaking as our boy's drug-addled mom, and Janelle Monáe (at bottom) as his more caring, surrogate mother.

There's so much that can be said about this unusual film, the main thing being: Experience it yourself. For its penultimate scene alone, in the restaurant, below (that's André Holland, at right, as our boy's longtime best friend, Kevin), the movie will have you hanging on every heartbeat.

From A24, who clearly has another major Oscar contender here, and running 110 minutes, Moonlight -- after huge critical and box-office response to its NYC and L.A. openings -- hit the Miami area this past weekend at the O Cinema Wynwood, Regal South Beach & AMC Aventura Mall.

Friday, November 11, it opens here in Boca Raton and in the West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale areas, as well as expanding further around the entire country. In Dade County, it will play the Cinepolis Grove 15 in Coconut Grove; in Broward County at the Cinemark Paradise 24 in Davie and the Gateway 4 in Fort Lauderdale; in   Palm Beach County at Cobb's Downtown at the Mall Gardens Palm 16 in Palm Beach Gardens and at the Cinemark Palace 20 in Boca Raton. Click here to find the theater nearest you. Then go!

BY SIDNEY LUMET: Nancy Buirski's first-class doc is yet another fine one about a filmmaker

Joining two other recent and terrific documentaries -- Hitchcock/Truffaut and De Palma -- that both herald and open up the work of great filmmakers, BY SIDNEY LUMET, the new documentary from Nancy Buirski (who also gave us the excellent Afternoon of a Faun and The Loving Story), reminds us of a wonderful filmmaker who died five years back and whom you might not immediately stick on your list of favorite directors. Watching Ms Buirski's incisive new film should place Lumet up there with the best, while giving you all the reasons why.

Buirski (shown at right) accomplishes this in the simplest of ways: She lets Mr. Lumet talk, while intercutting examples of his work, his history, and a bit of the history of the USA along the way. That is all the movie is, and that's all it takes to make it about as perfect -- intelligent, gripping, eye-opening, surprising and entertaining -- as you could want or need.

Aside from Lumet, there are no other talking heads that ramble on about the man and/or his work. Nor does there need to be. Mr. Lumet, it turns out, was extremely cogent and well-spoken. Not humble, neither was he full of himself. He had, it would seem, an excellent understanding of his abilities, as well as of some of the things that he lacked.

Ms Buirski begins her documentary with Lumet telling a tale of his time in WWII, in Calcutta, on a train, when a group of soldiers swept up a young Indian girl from the station platform, and then passed her around among them to be raped. Lumet is dumbstruck and wonders what he should do. We leave this tale in mid-stream and return to it only at film's end.

In between, Lumet talks of his family life, his time as a child actor (at left), his difficult father, and a contract with (I believe) MGM that somehow hinged on another young actor, Freddie Bartholomew. We learn a lot about his early years as a television director -- and in passing also learn that Yul Brynner, too, in his early years, was a very fine director! It will not surprise movie fans to learn that justice and the search for same is a hallmark, probably the main theme, of Lumet's work. (That's Sean Connery, below, in one of Lumet's least-seen and -appreciated movies, The Hill.)

And yet, what a versatile director he was in terms of projects (some of which he chose, others that were chosen for him). As we view scene after scene, from one film after another, I suspect that you, as I did I, will exclaim under your breath: "Oh, my god: He made that movie, too?" (During the final credit sequence, we get a list of all of the films directed by Lumet, and it's a humdinger: long and mostly good, even if it leaves out the excellent work he did for television.)

From 12 Angry Men (his first film, above) through The Verdict to his penultimate movie Find Me Guilty, Lumet was often in the courtroom, though just as often perhaps in the police station (Serpico, Prince of the City, and Q&A) and most definitely on the street a lot -- as in what many consider his best movie, Dog Day Afternoon. (How amazingly current this one seems, as much now and when it was made. That's Sidney, below, with his star Al Pacino.)  What Lumet says about New York City, its streets and its ravishing winter light, is -- as so much else he tells us -- pointed, well-said, and true.

It's seems a rather stunning discovering that just a man speaking, together with some of his visual history and a lot of his films (the clips from which are very well chosen and wonderfully edited into the documentary) could be this thoughtful and riveting. Well, of course: It all depends on the man and the movies. And, in this case, the documentary filmmaker: Thank you, Ms Buirski! You have sent us back to Lumet with newly opened eyes -- and a huge desire to see many of his movies again: some of his early work that features icons like Marlon Brando (below in The Fugitive Kind) and Sophia Loren (That Kind of Woman),  and especially, Daniel, his adaptation of the E.L. Doctorow book.

By the time this amazing and wonderful doc comes to a close, you will understand much more fully, thanks especially to that World War II/Calcutta reminiscence, why Mr. Lumet proved so interested in justice and the search for it against so many odds. (Yes, that's Peter Finch, in another of Lumet's memorable movies, Network, below)

By Sidney Lumet, running 103 minutes, opens tomorrow, Friday, October 28, in New York City (where else, so far as Sidney was concerned?) at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema, and the following Friday, November 4, in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Royal. Elsewhere? Hope so, but I don't know. Seeing as the movie is part of the American Masters series, you'll certainly be able to view it eventually via Public Television.