Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		4.0

The Lobster Blu-ray Movie Review

Love is blind.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 2, 2016

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’s central premise is that single people are put on a schedule to find a new mate, and that if in fact they do not manage to couple within a relatively short time frame, they’re transformed into the animal of their choice. Farrell portrays David, a kind of hapless schlub who discovers his wife has taken off with someone else, a fact which leaves him vulnerable as a single, which in turn leads to him being forcibly confined to a “hotel” where he’s given the perhaps impossible task of finding a new mate with 45 days. In what might be thought of as yet another kind of referent, the hotel has an arcane set of rules and regulations which may remind some lovers of cult television of similar proscriptions which greeted “Number 6” in the great old show The Prisoner: The Complete Series. As with that long ago television classic, some of these laws seem antithetical to each other, and yet the hotel’s denizens basically drift through their days blithely following them. It’s also indicative of Lanthimos’ thesis about the individual versus society at large that David is the only character in the film with an actual name—the rest of the major players are simply known by nicknames or descriptors which seek to summarize some quirk of their personality or physical appearance.

One of those “anonymous” types is Short Sighted Woman (Rachel Weisz), a female David meets, not exactly “cute” given this film’s completely odd context, but to whom he feels an almost immediate attraction. Much of The Lobster details David’s halting efforts to woo Short Sighted Woman, a plot arc which plays out against equally bizarre vignettes involving both other residents at the hotel, but also a bunch of “wild” people known as Loners who live in a nearby forest. My colleague Brian Orndorf offers a bit more information on what is basically an indescribable plot in his review of the film (tied to its theatrical exhibition), and rather than just repeat Brian’s summary, I’ll merely add that no précis could probably adequately describe this film, one which relies as much on mood and presentation as on any ostensible plot mechanics.

What is so unusual about The Lobster (other than everything, that is) is how it offers a Lewis Carroll-esque premise with an equally “wonderland”-ish dry sense of humor. This is a cartoon presented as a documentary. Emotions are tamped down, patently freakish happenings are offered as everyday occurrences, and the performance style suggests somnambulism at times. As such, The Lobster is one of those films that more or less requires complete surrender in order to enjoy its completely unusual ambience. If Lanthimos ultimately opts for a too “on the nose” (or, given the film’s final moments, “in the eyes”) summation of what David goes through to find true love, The Lobster still remains one of the most distinctive and unique films in recent (and maybe more than merely recent) memory.

The Lobster Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

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 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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.

The Lobster Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Fabric of Attraction: Concocting The Lobster (1080p; 22:49) is an above average EPK if only because the subject matter of the film is so odd.

The Lobster Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

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.