The Lobster * * * *

I’m not going to pretend that I have an academic knowledge of the long tradition of absurdism in the history of cinema; but we all know that it has always been there, amusing, shocking and delighting us.
The Lobster by Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos is a superb new film in that genre.  It’s funny, fascinating, shocking, mentally stimulating, bamboozling and rewarding.  If you want something to talk about with a friend when you leave the cinema, go see this together.

Seemingly set today, but it could be in the future, single people are sent away to a hotel where they must emerge as a couple or they will be turned into an animal, as single people are not much use to the world.

Our hero, David (Colin Farrell), chooses to be turned into a lobster should he fail to find a partner. But you can’t get out of the “Hotel” by faking it. The “supervisors” are insistent you find the right partner. There must be a similarity between you.

The singles spend a lot of time with one hand tied behind their back to enforce the message that two is better than one. Chambermaids sexually titillate them but they are not allowed to make a move.  Masturbation is severely punished.  Sex can only be enjoyed in a committed relationship. Some get desperate and will do anything for a partner from emotional blackmail to self-abuse.

Every  few days the singles are sent into the forest to shoot each other with tranquiliser guns.  It’s a free for all.  The tranquilised losers are dragged back to the hotel to be turned into animals sooner rather than later.

Then there are the escapees who live in the forest as a clan. But  the discipline between them  seem no less harsh than the “hotel” they have run from.

The dialogue, acting, and situations are persuasively real and completely crazy at the same time.  The symbolism and analogies are endless. Lobster is a wonderful, fascinating, film.