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movie review - The Lobster

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

This is an interesting Sci-Fi piece set in a world where people can opt to spend the remainder of their days as an animal of some kind. The lead character has chosen to become a lobster. This a bleak comedy about things like the pressure we put on one another to get into relationships. Bleak might not be the word. Attenuated. Conceptual, perhaps. "It's the concept of a comedy, stretched over far too large a frame."

Anyway, we see the lead characters doing terrible dances with said pressures, positioning themselves according to absurd societal norms that have become law. People do things like poke out their eyes so that they can be compatible with their partner. Not one character in this thing is likeable, and all of their interactions feel unhappy and abrasive. I was tempted to check whether it was a Woody Allen movie. I'll say this: it's certainly an accomplishment, because it is well off the beaten path for .. well, most human story-telling. I think the point of "black comedy" is to use miserable people and nasty situations and absurd settings to actually make you feel good. Like Delicatessen. Or perhaps to highlight our foibles and to show that there really is no 'why', like Burn After Reading. This movie just felt bitter and helpless.

I was really torn on whether to recommend this. It's true to itself, and it's ably told, but it's just too much. In the end, I asked myself, 'Would I watch this again?' and the answer is no.

Not recommended.