From its opening sequence, this film explores many relevant social issues. The film opens with Elisa (Sally Hawkins) waking up for her night at work. During her daily preparation, she takes a bath and masturbates while waiting for her boiled eggs to cook. So, moments in, the film calls its viewers to attention, making them aware that human sexuality is going to play a role in the movie. Set in the 1960s, this also means that repression of female sexuality will likely play a role.

Elisa then takes a meal to her elderly neighbor, Giles (Richard Jenkins). Here, with the first communication of the film, we see Elisa sign and begin to learn that she has been unable to speak since childhood. So, her muteness and how people view and treat people who are differently able is another social issue approached.

She then heads to work as janitorial staff in a secure government facility where she hangs out with her friend, Zelda (Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer). Spencer is protective of Hawkins, as people give her a hard time for her inability to speak as well as her tardiness. The two go about their business, and then witness the bringing in of a secret creature by government suits and scientists, led by Michael Shannon, who does have a character name, but I'll leave that out, as he basically exists to fill the screen because "toxic masculinity" itself needs to occupy a body for viewers to understand. He is driven to violence at not understanding the creature, at feeling inadequate, at being rebuffed by Hawkins because he lusts for a woman who cannot speak, at his boss telling him he'll be nothing if he doesn't retrieve the creature so they can kill and study him... Basically, Shannon just represents the white American male's worst possible impulses, including racism when he threatens Spencer and her husband in their home whilst looking for Hawkins.

Speaking of racism and other issues, the viewer also sees this as they follow Jenkins, a man who, it becomes clear, was kicked out of his marketing firm due to his homosexuality. He begins going to a diner for pie regularly to flirt with the younger man who runs the counter. Just as he is overtly flirting with this man, and getting looked at as something evil, a black couple enters the diner and is driven away, being told that it's carry-out only for them and that all the seats are reserved, despite the fact that Jenkins appears to be the sole customer. Jenkins is driven off and told not to return, and this drives him to his work in helping the misunderstood creature with whom Hawkins has fallen in mutual love.

Without spoiling the entire film, and doing a full write-up, this gives the basis for a great deal of conversation. As I approach this conversation from a faith perspective, I suggest looking to the Scriptural messages of varied overthrows of unjust structures, the liberation of the oppressed, and the focus on love as a driving force for living in Jesus' name.

For all of these reasons, as well as its superb direction and cinematography, which takes the time to humanize those the antagonists seek to dehumanize, this is a sentimental favorite for Best Picture, as well as a great film.