Pan's Labyrinth

"but captain, to obey, just like that, for obedience's sake without questioning? that's something only people like you do." movies are magic. i have fallen head over heels in love with this movie. having seen some of del toro's english work, el laberinto del fauno outdoes most everything he's ever done, even the shape of water (2017) which i loved with all my heart. the dark fantasy intertwined with the horrific fascist historical setting simply made for such an amazing story without neglecting the message or theme of the movie along the way. i was enthralled the entire time, and everything, every act, every subplot tied together so beautifully in the end in such a magnificent way where harsh reality and childhood imagination collide. and the visuals!!! the cinematography!! every scene was so meticulously crafted and shot to transport your mind and soul into ofelia's world. simply the most magical fairy tale movie ever made. that is not to say that this film did not have its horrors and savagery. this is a del toro after all!!! it doesn't rely much on gore and violence to carry its message across, but even the little scenes (vidal's mouth-slit stitching i see you) elicited such visceral shivers down my spine. no, the horror is in the commingling of the innocent and pure with the brutality and barbarity of warfare. the characters here are sort of one-dimensional as in a child's story, but that is what makes them so easy to root for or to hate. our protagonist, ivana baquero's ofelia, is such a paragon of childhood innocence that we, the audience, instinctively feel the need to shield her from all the evil out there. on the flip side, our antagonist, sergi lópez's captain vidal and ofelia's stepfather, has never felt easier to detest since the very moment he stepped foot onscreen. the audience can feel his sheer depravity simply oozing out of his every pore. to me, this is what made his acting such a masterclass in this film, and most definitely my favourite performance here. everyone else here is terrific, but the other performances that deserve a special shoutout is maribel verdú's mercedes, who had me rooting for her every step of the way in her efforts with the resistance, and doug jones' dual roles as the fauno and the pale man; simply captivating and viscerally magnificent to watch. the moment where ofelia collapses into the fauno's arms after being locked up by vidal? my heart melted like butter. yet, those very same arms with those eyeball hands can and will haunt my nightmares at night. there was a scene in this where vidal follows ofelia into the labyrinth and he can't see the fauno. that obviously raises the question of whether all this existed in ofelia's head. of this i'd like to take the "it's all real" team. it made me think of how adults lose the magic in their lives as they grow older and the importance of imagination and creativity and belief, which i think is probably one of del toro's main messages in this movie. vidal is a cruel sadist and a harsh realist, and i'm sure he does not see the fauno because he actively chooses not to. some people might argue that ofelia dying was unnecessary and harsh, but i think that ofelia having to die was also a beautiful way to tie the movie together. her alter ego as princess moanna was the princess of the underworld after all. however yes i cried like a bitch at the end