It’s refreshing to see disabled actors in disabled roles, but can’t the academy acknowledge films that highlight disability without falling into stereotypical representations?
Three Oscar-nominated films prominently featured characters using sign languages. It’s an important contribution to recognising Deaf culture and identity.
The Shape of Water offers a clever allegory to Donald’s Trump’s presidency, with Michael Shannon’s character (on the left) representing some of the president’s worst qualities.
(Kerry Hayes/Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Not everyone can escape to the ocean’s depths to avoid the Trump presidency, but we can escape to the movies. ‘The Shape of Water’ reminds audiences of the humanity of those who are marginalized.
The Shape of Water is an entertaining movie, but it also has a timely, allegorical message about the challenges we may face with new scientific discoveries, and our willingness to accept difference.
Michael Shannon and Michael Stuhlbarg in the film “The Shape of Water.”
(Kerry Hayes /Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation All Rights Reserved)
This year’s Toronto International Film Festival is a further example of how science, technology, engineering and math illuminate movies – and, in the process, our minds.