I saw the
trailer for The Lobster some time ago. I thought it was categorically the
funniest thing I have seen in years. I then, like a muppet, missed in the
cinema. I was overjoyed when it came out in VOD and I actually watched it
absolutely ages ago, practically on the day it came out. Its director Yorgos
Lanthimos is not a household name yet – but he is getting there. And those who
HAVE heard of him tend to give a knee jerk YES! Or NO! response. If you haven’t tried him out yet, you really should give his work a whirl – see which camp you
end up in!
The Lobster
takes place in a dystopian near future. There (as in quite a few places here,
as a matter of fact), being a couple is categorically the most important thing
you have to achieve in your life. However fewer invitations to dinners and
awkward conversations are the least the singletons of this universe have to
worry about. If you find you are single, you have 45 days to find a partner. If
you fail, you are transformed into an animal of your choice and released into
the wild. Now, of course the process in monitored, the moment you report you
have become single to the authorities you are transported to a special facility
with other singletons where you have to endeavour to find a partner. Our tale
follows David (Colin Farrel) who is recently divorced. He has just started his
stay in the facility and has a whole world of new characters to meet, make
friends with and hopefully date. Oh the whole place looks like a slightly
eccentric holiday village, but David is under no illusions. The real question
is whether he will survive – and if he does, in what form…
Yorgos
Lanthimos is one of those –black and white – kind of directors. You either
adore him and, like me, think he is the best thing since moving images on a
screen, or think he is crass, extreme and all together hard to watch. His films
are definitely not for the faint of heart. In my particular case I found
watching Dogtooth (the first film I ever watched by Lanthimos) a weirdly
sado-masochistic experience. Yes, definitely hard to watch. Harder than a lot
of things I have ever seen in fact. But also weirdly pleasurable… And why? I
guess because he has the rather dubious talent of being able to give you the
kind of shock the goriest slashers do, only without the gore and blood and in a
very innocuous looking setting. And let’s be honest here – it is rare to find
the kind of film that gets that kind of visceral response out of you in the day
to day cinematic market. I don’t necessarily think it’s a matter of shocking to
get publicity and bums on seats. It actually is the job of all art to make you
feel things. To make you react. To make you think. There is a little too much
playing it safe, a little too much staying within your comfort zone when it
comes to films these days I feel. That is sort of why Hollywood films are less
of my day to day consumption and more of an occasional treat. I need the films
that I watch actually do something to me – and if you are of the same tribe as
me I can promise you that The Lobster will smack you around the head several times and leave you spinning like a
top…
Like all of
his other films, this universe of Yorgos Lanthimos is unforgiving. The rules
are as harsh as they are eccentric and disobedience is really not an option.
Well. I say that, but in this universe – as in, I strongly suspect, most others
– as long as you give the illusion of going by the rules, you can get away
with, well, a certain amount… This, in the film has hilarious results that I
will not be discussing here today as a lot of the film counts on the element of
surprise to make it work. The film does, however, become a Kafaesque dance
where our characters have to apply an endless set of rules to the most intimate
areas of their lives. And what makes the film even funnier is the fact that
most of us – without being aware of it – do this anyway. You know those little
things called social norms we are all so attached to. Yeah… I am willing to bet
you any money that you will be giving them a hefty amount of thought after you
have watched this little number.
Of course
the brilliance of the actors only adds to the success of the dance – Colin
Farrel is the perfect slightly bumbling everyman helping us understand this
universe as we try to figure it out ourselves. Ably assisted by the likes of
John C. Reily, Ben Whishaw and Rachel Weisz who all participate in this
straight faced – in fact deadly serious – dance with conviction and gusto that
will have you cringing and crying out for them as the story takes its twists
and turns…
In short,
the first thing Lanthimos does when he takes you into a universe is tear up the
rule book, the second is to throw you into the ring at a no-holds-barred cage
fight. It is something you definitely need to decide on for yourself – but if
you survive the fight, well, the benefits are absolutely glorious…
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