i’m not a huge fan of his movies, and i’m sure the critique of the shape of water itself is valid, but the larger argument kind of makes no sense to me, like i don’t even know where to begin, but in particular it seems weird to pick on del toro for this and not, say, colin treverrow. i mean the thing of ‘indie’ directors using their early features essentially as a way to get into the hollywood blockbuster game is certainly not limited to del toro, and he took a lot more time getting there than most. it’s not surprising at all that the features they would use to do this are not exactly avant-garde, despite their low budget origins.
talking about ‘the gentrification of genre cinema’ in the 21st century is hilarious to me. what the hell does that even mean?