The Lobster [DVD]

Spoiler Alert:This original and imaginative dark comedy by Greek writer/ director Yorgos Lanthimos is set in a dystopia where being single “or loner” is essentially a crime, and only a short time is allowed to find a matching partner, usually through the sharing of a conspicuous characteristic (like you both have a chronic nose bleed). Fail this and you are taken to a special room and irreversibly transformed into the animal of your choice.Colin Farrell gives a career -defining performance as the main protagonist David, who must rebel against such draconian authority and find a way to survive. John C. Reilly, Rachel Weisz and Ben Whishaw are great as some of the other loners, Olivia Colman is the merciless hotel manager (won Best Supporting role at 2015 BIFA) , and Léa Seydoux is the sadistic rebel leader. One of my favorite characters was the heartless loner woman played by Angeliki Papoulia.The premise may sound bizarre, but the film is highly engaging, refreshingly-consistent, the dialogue zany yet stern, and the story vastly-allegorical, with references to re-incarnation, mass cleansings, and the power of individual. The similarities to the Nazi exterminations are chilling, with the upscale hotel replacing the concentration camps, and the loners dancing to a live band replacing the music the prisoners were forced to listen to on their march to the gas chambers.This film is also a social commentary that depicts a form of personal narcissism that has become so unrestrained it is self-annihilating (It’s better to isolate and die than to try to share and live), and a society that has become so frighteningly conformist, it’s only happy to oblige the authorities (‘World Order’ anyone?). Lanthimos is a genius, and his stories have an originality that is unparalleled by his contemporaries (see his 2011 film “Alps”).This is an adult film that will make you think about it for days afterwards. It won the Jury Prize at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. Beware mature scenes, which include kinky sex as well as graphic violence done to a dog. The “extras” includes interviews by the cast that is helps to understand the story better.

Do you like Michael Bay movies? Then you will HATE this film with a passion!Very quirky, very understated, very "Indy-in-feel". The actors all use a virtually performance-free acting-style (is that a thing?). They could be reading all their lines from a cue-card, but - in the style of this film - it actually adds to the humour. Human emotion doesn't make one single appearance. One scene involving Rachel Weiss made my skin crawl (you'll know it when you see it).This is the opposite of the over-blown, showy, "Can in get my Oscar, now?" Tinseltown performances we have thrown at us every year, ad nauseam.I liked it a lot (preferred it to "The Favorite"). Other users views may differ.

maybe just my sense of humor but for Amazon to label this a dark comedy is totally misleading, and I did realise the actors where playing it in a binary manner, but there was no comedy, dark or otherwise in the film, some absurd situations but I could not see the humor in them, more like a modern day Animal Farm in its overall message, it did make you think about how some people see things in black or white, but to label it as a dark comedy is totally wrong. the only part I found amusing was when Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz started kissing on the couch while the parents where playing the guitars.

I'm having the strangest experience of my life. Now, I know I'm not high, so I can only guess that the producers of this film, The Lobster, definitely were. Being single is illegal, you get rounded up and put in a hotel with 45 days to find a partner but they have to have a matching ailment. You gain an extra day for every rogue single person you shoot in the woods, and if you don't find a partner you're turned into an animal, of your choosing. If you're caught spanking your monkey they put your hand in a toaster. And those are not the weird bits!

I think you've got to know what you are getting with this film before you go in.The film takes place within a word where adults are expected to find a partner and stick with them. Being single is not an option in this world, it's seen as a terrible thing and no one in the world 'understands' the loners.The main protagonist is fresh out of a 12 year relationship, so his is sent to a hotel with other single people to find a partner. Not a mate, not a lover, a partner. In the film's world it doesn't matter if you love or like your partner, merely that you are compatible. The protagonist's brother was in the same situation, but he failed to find a partner in time and thus was turned into a dog.For the consequence of not finding a partner at the hotel, is to be turned into an animal - so you may have a second chance at finding a partner in the animal world. The protaganist is asked what he would like to become if this situation arises, and he chooses 'a lobster'. Hence the title.So thats it, that the world set up for you, with this knowledge you know what to expect, lots of dark humour and philosophical satire on the way that people treat relationships in the 21st centenary. All of the acting is fantastic, I found the characters to personally be very investing and there were numerous times were I just could not stop laughing, but for all the wrong reasons.The world needs more films like this, weird films that most people 'won't get' unless they are in a certain situation. If your in a relationship or that's what your after, you'll find this film will rub you the wrong way, because this film is statement about relationships.The only negative for me was the score, I found it lacking and repetitive - did it make the film less enjoyable? No. Because a core theme of this film is how bland everything is.