Too soon?!1 - warm up to Academy Awards (not even due till April 25) - The Lobster, 2015
Sometimes a topic that doesn't seem to make sense has a train of associations binding it. Or maybe is just fanciful.
First, I am not a movie buff, seldom watch them, and the ones I do are very specific to my interests and taste. Second, The Lobster dates to 2015 so is irrelevant to 2021 Oscars.
But what prompts this is that my most recent Oscars excitement was (2?) years ago over The Favourite and Olivia COLMAN - both the history and the actor not known to me back then. Not since The Black Swan and Gladiator had I been enthusiastic.
So... the bit of background back then was that the director/creator of Favourite was one Yorgos Lanthimos, likewise a mystery to me and that his resume included The Lobster, which sounded weird.
Never bothered to stream it. Until now.
*******And it is some *weird* freaking specimen. I say "specimen" because "s***" or "crap" would connote disapproval. And I don't disapprove, given that it held my full attention throughout, despite that the presentation in terms of human interaction was soul-less, cold, slaughtering mayhem, and inanimate, all yet ending with an approximation of human connection at its most stylistic and abstract.
What's the word, "cinematography" or Art Direction - what I'm saying to be visual appearance - the gorgeous landscapes contrasting with the robotic humans, or perhaps modeling the indifference of Nature/Universe, are, well, gorgeous.
And the constant shocking activities almost immediately "rational", shocking but making sense in the terms of its own premise. Once you figure out that Compatibility as a basis for relationships is being held out to Absurdity, the ending becomes clear.
***As with almost all movies that I've managed to see through, I won't be re-seeing it. I'm bashed in the head at linking this movie with The Favourite - or perhaps not that much since UNsentimentality is a clue.
