The Lobster

i find the first half of the movie really awkwardly charming, so it disappoints me a little when the latter half kinda loses it's substance. don't get me wrong, i can appreciate the romance between david and the short-sighted lady but it honestly feels lackluster even though there's the whole shtick about them fighting for their love amidst the loners' "no-romance" rule (maybe that's the point though i'm not familiar with the inner workings of yorgos lanthimos' mind). i think it's might be because the shenanigans that happened in the hotel were more.. exaggerated, in a way? so when the environment shifts to the loners' typical strict survivalist group-esque scenario, i admittedly got a little bored. the first half was a lot more entertaining than the second. the exposition was delivered quite nicely in my opinion, and a lot of the unelaborated aspects like what animal david decided to turn the heartless woman into, add to the slightly mysterious nature of the hotel. i think the part when the hotel staff monotonously tell david that there's no bisexual option and have no half-sizes for shoes is peak comedy idk why. the absurdism makes for a lot of "wtf" moments. i found the whole animal transformation thing really interesting and a unique concept, so i felt a little discontent when the topic is almost completely dropped after david escapes the hotel; especially given the fact that david's animal of choice is literally the title of the movie. also, i haven't seen anyone bring up the romantic undertones between the loner leader and the maid. maybe i'm looking too deep into their relationship but when the scene where they met up in the woods i was like "are they.. you know". i think what mostly contributes to it is that throughout the movie the maid seems non-sympathetic towards everyone, so to see her lying to the other hotel staff just for the leader makes me think that at least the maid thought of the leader as someone special to her, someone's she's willing to risk her safety for. so even though the moment where the leader uses the maid as a meat shield didn't hit particularly hard due to the nature of the entire movie, it took me aback a little. but again the maid did mention that she hated the hotel itself so this all might just be my doomed-yuri-pilled brain. speaking of character relationships in this movie, returning to my point about how i found david and short-sighted woman's relationship lackluster, i just didn't feel like they had any real chemistry. i know it's a callback to how the hotel considers couples to be "perfect matches" if they share a shallow common defining trait, but i honestly expected david and her to fall in love in some emotional romantic movie-esque manner and that their shared astigmatism was just the catalyst yadda yadda. i know david still loved her even though she went blind but it frustrated me a little that david decided to blind himself too at the end of the movie because there was no realization that they didn't have to share a certain trait just to be together and aughhhh. but feel free to ignore this one nitpick of mine because it might not be a fair criticism considering this isn't your run-of-the-mill drama/romance film, i'm just saying whatever comes to my head. lastly, i liked how the message that a collective acceptance of a black-and-white mindset is just dystopian regardless of which side of the coin you're on is explored through david's initial compliance to the "civilized" society's "find love or get turned into an animal" thing, and then the loners' complete rejection of romantic relationships once david joins them. i think it delivers a pretty good message and a decent absurdist portrayal of no-nuance societal rules. overall, it's a good movie to watch if you: A. want to turn your brain off to (i definitely did cause writing this review was lowkey a struggle, because i mostly had complaints/nitpicks to say but i still liked it nonetheless) or B. want a mildly uncomfortable dark comedy with mild undertones of social commentary. but probably not an ideal choice if you want to feel something. however, just take my review with a grain of salt because my frontal lobe isn't fully developed side note: i wonder if the guests are allowed to decide the subspecies of their animal of choice. if i had to choose what animal i'd be turned into i'd probably go for a cute high-demand pet like a pomeranian or something tbh, cause chances are people will be nicer to cute animals. i know dogs aren't the most creative option, but let's be real, dogs are the most common pets and therefore you have a high chance of getting a caretaker who could shelter you from the dangers of the outside world, unlike other animals who are most likely going to be hunted or encaged in a zoo my rating: 7.5/10