{"id":76984,"date":"2015-06-22T01:00:50","date_gmt":"2015-06-22T00:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=76984"},"modified":"2015-06-19T14:50:41","modified_gmt":"2015-06-19T13:50:41","slug":"the-lobster-film-review-the-toast-of-cannes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/reviews\/the-lobster-film-review-the-toast-of-cannes\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lobster film review: the toast of Cannes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>The Lobster<\/strong><\/em> is a sci-fi project that Stanley Kubrick and Luis Bu\u00f1uel\u00a0might have dreamed up together while on a weekend break in a Marienbad hotel, in the Orwellian year Nineteen Eighty-Four.<\/p>\n<p>As director Yorgos Lanthimos\u2019s previous efforts <em><strong>Dogtooth<\/strong><\/em> and <em><strong>Alps<\/strong><\/em> are studies in emotional conflict and dictatorial control, so too is <em><strong>The Lobster<\/strong><\/em>. These are the Greek director\u2019s pet themes, but now Lanthimos is working with movie stars and in the English language.<\/p>\n<p>The artistic journey, from feted auteur of grim and emotionally punishing fare to the shores of mainstream territory, is smooth sailing.<\/p>\n<p>In <em><strong>The Lobster<\/strong><\/em>, singletons are socially pressured into signing up to a dating programme with a twist. They are commanded to find a partner within 45 days, or else they\u2019re transformed into an animal of their choosing.<\/p>\n<p>For sure, the film is a few pickled herrings short of a sm\u00f6rg\u00e5sbord, but it\u2019s also very beautiful and profound as an exploration of life\u2019s dissatisfactions. Colin Farrell, piling on the pounds, is superb in the lead role, but Rachel Weisz steals the show.<\/p>\n<p>Her character\u2019s chipper attitude and sweet disposition brings much-needed warmth to the surrealist nightmare. L\u00e9a Seydoux also brings her A-game as the menacing chief of a group that have chosen to stay single, evading the authorities by living wild in the woods.<\/p>\n<p>Credited only as \u2018Loner Leader\u2019, she functions very much how O\u2019Brien does in <em><strong>Nineteen Eighty-Four<\/strong><\/em>. She\u2019s just waiting for David (Farrell) and Short Sighted Woman (Weisz) to step out of line. Her subsequent method of punishment, when the forbidden lovers attempt to flee, makes Winston Smith\u2019s cage mask filled with rats look like fun times at the petting zoo.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond the cruel deadpan humour and icy, muted visuals is a thoughtful romantic tale set in a world where people are forbidden from marching to the beat of their own drum. <em><strong>The Lobster<\/strong><\/em> is a defiantly oddball take on the classic dystopian-future narrative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Find out what we thought of the Palme d&#8217;or-winning The Lobster<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":76985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"MSN_Categories":"Uncategorized","MSN_Publish_Option":false,"MSN_Is_Local_News":false,"MSN_Is_AIAC_Included":"Empty","MSN_Location":"[]","MSN_Add_Feature_Img_On_Top_Of_Post":false,"MSN_Has_Custom_Author":false,"MSN_Custom_Author":"","MSN_Has_Custom_Canonical_Url":false,"MSN_Custom_Canonical_Url":""},"categories":[2615,8],"tags":[4470],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/The-Lobster.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76984"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}