“The Shape of Water,” February 11, 2018 (2017), theater. Written and directed by Guillermo Del Toro, this is an exhilarating political sci-fi thriller that includes homages to spy cinema and monsters (Creature from the Black Lagoon). It is, hands down, the best film from 2017 that I’ve had the pleasure to see. It’s also a follow-on to his brilliant “Pan’s Labyrinth” as a critique of fascism/authoritarianism and its minions while suggesting that each of us has choices to make. Set in the late 1950s, it follows Elisa (a brilliant Sally Hawkins), a cleaning woman at a federal oceanographic institute that also handles top secret issues. She’s mute but can communicate by signing and can hear. She lives next to Giles (a wonderful Richard Jenkins), a lonely, gay graphic artist. She and her friend Zelda (a marvelous Octavia Spencer doing a role that’s part The Help, part Hidden Figures, and all tough) clean up after the fascistic military authoritarians (embodied in the person of Michael Shannon, an arrogant, racist, sexist, classist, religious and political zealot on the make) who have discovered an Amphibian Man (Doug Jones) in the Amazon. The Cold War is blazing away and the Russians are interested in the AM too, but their agent (Michael Stuhlberg) is a scientist as well as a Soviet patriot. This scary, beautiful, horrifying, sexy, funny, political film works on so many levels at the same time that it’s almost dizzying. But they all work. It’s a real joy. See it in the theaters on a big screen if you can. Even the sound track is special.