While certainly bold and original, the second half struggles with the more serious emotions

Rating: 6/10 (17 August 2018)

The Lobster is a completely absurdist societal commentary on society's emphasis on monogamy and relationships. The first half's humor and exploration of Lanthimos' wildly creative premise is the movie's strength. The functioning of the hotel and how they encourage people to find partners as well as the animal aspect was amusing. The intentional lack of emotion and engagement with others was frustrating to watch - while I appreciate the symbolic nature of it, it took me out of the premise in which partnership was everything because it felt so unrealistic for them to act with no emotion. The second half also didn't feel strong and was less clever and active in plot. A point made repeatedly in the movie was how heavily relationships are based on shared interests or similarities, which just didn't ring very true or relevant to me. Farrell was good, and one of my favorite elements of the film (and a big reason why it's still an overall positive review) was the score - it was dramatic but simple and fit to the scenes very well. The boldness of ideas and themes were fun, but some of the relationship themes didn't quite land with me, and the second half and especially ending were disappointing, especially given the potential of the technical aspects and premise.