Archive for year: 2016

For me, this was too much of the same thing. It was beautifully shot – one of those films you remember as black-and-white, even though it was in color, with every other shot framed like a painting, a Vermeer or Hammershoi or Tooker. The lead actress was easy on the eyes, but the nuns all looked the same and the attempts to differentiate their stories didn’t amount to anything dramatically. When I saw the trailer I felt I’d seen the whole movie, and seeing the whole movie didn’t change this.

Just as art can be abstract or surrealistic as well as realistic, there’s no reason a movie can’t deviate from realism into an alternate world such as this, where people are not allowed to remain single and if they do not remarry in 45 days will be transformed into an animal of their choice. (Isn’t that sort of like what Hindus believe?) The characters in The Lobster inhabited this world quite convincingly and human nature remained eminently recognizable. I enjoyed that director Yorgos Lanthimos used actors from Ireland, England, Greece, France and America as his leads to give a universal flavor to the strange world. If there was a moral – something about love or marriage – I couldn’t quite make sense of it.

1. Why would anyone let documentary filmmakers into their private lives when the backdrop is a national scandal?

2. Why would they let the filming continue when a new scandal erupts and all your relationships are under major stress?

3. That said, I couldn’t help but feel sympathy for ex-Congressman Anthony Weiner who – major foible aside – seemed smart, reasonable and trying to do his best, mainly because

4. The press came off as badly as in all the fictional films where I feel they are being unfairly characterized: camera trucks on the lawn, etc.

5. Did Weiner really want and intend to fight for the little guy, or is that just a line to get elected? And which is the case for Hillary, and every other politician who says the same thing?

In short, this was a provocative movie to watch during election season, both for what it suggests about the people running for office and the way the electorate gets its information. As a study in narcissism, it is merely a primer for what we are seeing with Donald Trump.

Another cuddly Greta Herwig vehicle – does she ever play other than the lovable not-quite-loser but not exactly Julia Roberts? There are a bundle of pleasantly smile-inducing moments, especially early on before a plot takes over, including a marvelous cameo for Wallace Shawn. Ethan Hawke is convincing as a charmer whose narcissism is overlooked but always present. My main problem was the Julianne Moore character: why did she have to have her hair pulled up to look so unattractive and speak with a Danish (?) accent to sound so unattractive? There needed to be some reason John would want to go back to her, and it wasn’t there.