Directed by:
Yorgos LanthimosCinematography:
Thimios BakatakisComposer:
Johnnie BurnCast:
Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Léa Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, John C. Reilly, Jessica Barden, Olivia Colman, Ashley Jensen, Ariane Labed, Angeliki Papoulia (more)VOD (2)
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In this highly imaginative, delightfully absurdist comedy from visionary director Yorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth), Colin Farrell stars as David, a man who has just been dumped by his wife. To make matters worse, David lives in a society where single people have 45 days to find true love, or else they are turned into the animal of their choice and released into the woods. David is kept at the mysterious HOTEL while he searches for a new partner, and after several romantic misadventures decides to make a daring escape to abandon this world. He ultimately joins up with a rebel faction known as The Loners, a group founded on a complete rejection of romance. But once there David meets an enigmatic stranger (Rachel Weisz) who stirs up unexpected and strong feelings within him... (A24 Films)
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Reviews (11)
An outside the box romantic movie set in a weird world with weird rules. An amazingly inventive screenplay. Farrell proves again that he is an acting chameleon, his minimalist creations dominating the picture. The tempo is purposefully slow, which doesn’t matter at the beginning, but the sleep syndrome kicks in half way through and doesn’t leave you till the eye operation. A good taste of the bizarre which might benefit from a more rapid tempo and a few explanations.
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I don't know if master Lanthimos, who wrote one of the most bizarre scripts we've ever seen on the silver screen, was the only one on drugs, or if it was also the actors, led by the soft-spoken Farrell, with the most bizarre role of his career. But who really cares when this emotionally ungraspable yet romantic, visually austere and static yet compelling sci-fi flick somehow works and is pieced together with exactly the right carefully chosen essences to maintain its unique face of a confident auteur film from the first to the last second. If it had been given a slightly more sinister and less parodic look the fanatical totalitarian system, and if it could evoke more sympathy for the weird characters, it could have been one of the most interesting independent films of recent years, but as it is, The Lobster is just a passing speciality for festival and arthouse audiences... 75%
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Yorgos Lanthimos is definitely an interesting filmmaker. Before The Lobster, I'd only seen Dogtooth, but that's also one of those that stick in your memory. The Lobster is another one of them. There are characters, scenes, and overall plot direction that you simply won't find anywhere else. I don't think the actors even knew what they were filming and why.
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Yorgos Lanthimos is so weird to the point of being fun, and after The Killing of a Sacred Deer I gave a chance to the the two year older The Lobster and I'm thrilled. Colin Farrel may be the man for these weird projects. The film pulls you in right from the start with its very bizarre idea and unusual hotel with strange rules and harsh punishment. Surprisingly, it was quite gritty in places, but very funny in others and managed to make you tense or downright shock you. I love that combination and some of the scenes were downright brilliant. The scream of the woman who jumped from the 10th floor to the ground was so realistically portrayed that I had goosebumps all over. For me it was a blast, but it won't suit everyone (not everyone likes this kind of controversial bizarre stuff). The only disappointment is the open ending. 85%
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Except for a few festival crap shows, I never left the cinema before the closing credits. Until The Lobster. It was clear after twenty minutes that I wasn't on the same wavelength as the film, but I hung on for another half hour. That's all I could do. Overwrought drivel full of awkwardly declaiming actors, dysfunctional humour and romance, and a tragic attempt to pretend it is something more. I give that one star to the actors, most of whom I like quite a bit and felt sorry for. But Yorgos Lanthimos goes on the blacklist. And I’m buying a beer to whomever makes sure Johnnie Burn never composes music again.
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