7.5 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
A love story set in a dystopian near future where single people are arrested and transferred to a creepy hotel. There they are obliged to find a matching mate in 45 days. If they fail, they are transformed into an animal and released into the woods.
Starring: Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Jessica Barden, Olivia Colman, Ashley JensenDrama | 100% |
Dark humor | 36% |
Sci-Fi | Insignificant |
Romance | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.84:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
UV digital copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
It’s time for another round of “describe a film as a mash up of two other films”, ladies and gentlemen, and this time we’ve got a doozy: The Lobster, a patently surreal outing that could almost be thought of as a combination of Logan's Run and Tusk. For those who may now be whispering a confounded “WTF” under their breath, the “good news” may be that watching the film will probably actually only provoke further use of that acronym, but perhaps surprisingly in a kind of enjoyably offbeat way. The Lobster is the brainchild of Yorgos Lanthimos, a relatively young (43) Greek filmmaker who may not yet have totally penetrated the American filmgoing public’s consciousness, but who has nonetheless helmed a series of often fascinating if just as often intentionally mind boggling works, including My Best Friend, Kinetta, Dogtooth and Alps, most of which received considerable critical acclaim, festival recognition and, frankly, general consternation from the public at large. That tendency continues with The Lobster, a film which won the Jury Prize at Cannes along with a slew of other probably less prestigious recognitions, and which despite its unabashedly outré qualities may indicate that Lanthimos is attempting to attain something like mainstream success, at least as evidenced by this film’s stellar cast which includes Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz, along with a glut of great character actors including John C. Reilly. The Lobster will not be everyone’s cup of tea (bisque?), but for those with an adventurous spirit who are willing to go with a rather unusual flow, the film offers a dark and yet undeniably hilarious perspective on a couple of issues that confront most people in their lives: finding true love and in a kind of subtextual way that old bugaboo, the urge to establish an identity separate from what society insists is “correct”.
The Lobster is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.84:1. The IMDb lists the film as having been digitally shot with Arri Alexa XT cameras, and as the screenshots accompanying this review detail, a lot of the presentation has been rather interestingly color graded, with a drab, depressive, cool blue-gray look which aptly mirrors David's spiritual angst. Detail levels are generally excellent, even with the sometimes severe color grading, though some interior scenes especially are minimally affected by the grading and what I term "murk" that tends to attend digitally captured films shot in low light situations. Some slow motion escapades in the forest are more green in tone, and here a smattering of noise intrudes on the imagery, though I also think Lanthimos and DP Thimios Bakatakis may have intentionally tweaked the imagery in these sequences so that they almost look like 16mm footage. Depth of field in some evocative if dreary exterior shots is quite impressive at times.
The Lobster's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is often subtle, but contains consistent surround activity courtesy of some of the nicely done ambient environmental effects, especially when the film ventures out of doors. A kind of unusual score, one which combines everything from strident string quartets to what sounds like Greek folk songs, also offers good placement through the side and rear channels. Dialogue (which includes some narration) is cleanly and clearly presented and is always well prioritized. This really isn't a bombastic track, especially given the kind of lobotomized emotional aspect that underlies much of the film, but it's very effective in its own way.
Those of us who review films for a living get used to seeing the "same old, same old" — repeatedly. Some folks probably either won't "get" or frankly won't like The Lobster, but the one thing you can say about it is, you've never seen anything quite like it before. Those wanting to experience something unabashedly surreal that nonetheless offers that surreality in an almost documentarian style will have a lot of fun with this film. Having a bleak sense of humor will probably help, for this is a film that mines the traumas of the human heart in order to find its comedy. Technical merits are generally strong, and even without a lot in the way of supplements, The Lobster comes Highly recommended.
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