Delayed Reaction: The Lobster

The Pitch: It'll be like a Spike Jonze movie but not made by Spike Jonze.

I don't know what to do with The Lobster. I liked it. I'm just not sure what to do with it. Yorgos Lanthimos has a wicked screenplay that plays by its own rules. It's a fantastic deconstruction of the social constructs surrounding being in relationships and what we do to find and maintain them. It's all very clever. At a point, the movie does feel burdened by the style. Early on, while I was so busy figuring out the rules of the world, I didn't notice it. Once David (Collin Farrell) left the facility, I got more distracted. Everyone is so bound by the way they needed to deliver the lines that it didn't feel like it was getting as much out of a cast with Farrell, Rachel Weisz, and John C. Reilly as it could've. Actually, Reilly was a perfect fit in the world. Farrell and Weisz only occasionally. I have trouble with absurdism sometimes. The way it's used here is to have characters do and say ridiculous things and treat it like it's normal. This can easily dip into being self-aware.

Maybe, the better way to explain is with my One Big Leap principle. I think The Lobster makes two big leaps. The world that these characters live in is one leap. The way the characters act is another, because I don't see the humanity in them consistently. You could argue that both are part of the same conceit you have to give the movie. That's a bit much though. It's like the movie is in a world created by Charlie Kaufman filled with Wes Anderson characters. It was missing some grounding. A lot of this is just taste. I'm not on quite the right frequency for it.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend