Review of Lamb (2021) by Charlesm — 09 Oct 2021

Lamb is to Animal Farm as Elephant (2003) is to Elephant (1989). It is a story of our times told through allegory. Despite the low budget and minimal cast and filming location, it has a lot to offer in narrative and cinematography. I highly recommend this film to anyone who is a fan of symbolism, Russian literature, and/or precision storytelling. I do not recommend this film to literally anyone else. You will not enjoy it, you will think it is slow, you will think nothing happens, you will think the "twist" is underdone, etc. Honestly can say, Lamb is my new favorite film, and I eagerly await Valdimar Jóhannsson's next project.

(SPOILERS AHEAD).

In most basic terms, Lamb, to me (I will only emphasize this once, this is my opinion, I do not pretend there is an exact takeaway from any work of art, as art is subjective) is about the struggle between old and new, framed in the trope of man vs nature. I do not think this film was exactly political, but I will use the terms conservative and liberal in reference to their respective philosophies. Conservative being the will to remain true to tradition, the way things have always been. Liberal being the will to bring about change at any cost. I think each character represents a specific point on the spectrum between neo-conservative and neo-liberal. The mother lamb being neo-conservative, the brother being conservative, the dog being neutral, the father being liberal, and the mother being neo-liberal. The lamb itself is not a character, but an idea. A third party ("the twist", or "the monster", or "the naked sheep man") conceived this idea. The idea was born, and the neo-liberal hijacked it and raised it as her own. The neo-conservative objected and took a stand against the perversion. The neo-liberal, unconfident in her actions against nature (the conservative ideal), silenced the neo-conservative (the only thing standing in her way of change) with a weapon. The conservative literally drops into the story. He initially objects to the perversion, but is too distracted by consumerism (cigarettes, sports, alcohol) to become uncomfortable enough to take action. In fact, when he does muster the strength to use the weapon against the idea, he eventually concedes. He is all talk, no game (see Facebook boomers). I have more to say on the mid portion of the movie, but I will leave that up to you to determine. The ending, though, is brilliant. Eventually, he who conceived the idea comes to take the idea back. In this struggle, the neutral party is killed in the crossfire, leaving only the extremes to duke it out. Using the same weapon used to silence the neo-conservative, the new conservative force silences the liberal, leaving only two polar opposites. Old vs new. But now, both sides are moved to physical action against each other in pursuit of their ideal world. This is the paradigm shift. In my opinion this is telling us that without balance in the progression of society, the liberal philosophy will always prevail. For a conservative force to meet the liberal, though, would be as impossible as the mythical goat man that represented it. This is just my take, though.

I've heard many critiques of the film. None of them attempted to interpret it at any more than face value. Walking out of the theater, I spoke with a man claiming to have a master's in English writing. He said the movie was horrible. I pleaded with him to the contrary, describing the symbolism. He simply didn't see it. If the Russian revolution never occurred, yet Animal Farm was still written verbatim, would it still be an allegory? In the same vein, if you weren't aware of the tides that move us today, would you realize that a story was calling it to your attention? I don't think his master's degree in English failed him, no, I think the true horror of the movie lies in the ignorance of the masses, the sheep, to the greater meaning of our world.