*Academy Award nominee – Best Original Screenplay
With his latest film, provocateur Yorgos (DOGTOOTH, ALPS) Lanthimos makes us re-think the idea of relationships, bonding with a mate, and finding one’s better half.
In the dystopian near future, being single is totally unacceptable. Anyone without a partner for any reason – death, divorce, simple breakup or personal preference – must report to a secluded hotel and find a new mate within 45 days. Failing that, he or she is turned into an animal of one’s own choosing and sent off into the wild. To tell his tale, Lanthimos put together a stellar cast including Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, John C. Reilly, Lea Seydoux, Ben Whishaw. As it begins David’s (Colin Farrell) wife has left him and he reports to the seaside hotel to find a new mate but is appalled by the rigidly enforced rules. He escapes into the woods, where he finds shelter with a band of rebels and becomes attracted to a fellow rule-breaking outcast (Rachel Weisz). A prize-winner at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, THE LOBSTER blends humor with commentary to challenge the often idealized construct of marriage.
“Despite The Lobster’s slicing weirdness, and the way it elides a clean allegorical reading, the emotions it stirs and the fallacies it attacks are all too real. It might be the greatest bad date movie ever made: even if it puts you off relationships for good, if your partner laughs, you’ll know they’re a keeper.” – Robbie Collin, Telegraph
(Greece, UK, Netherlands, Ireland, France/ 2015 / Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos)
R / 118 mins.
