Review of The Lobster (2015) by Sujit O — 19 Aug 2016

The Art of Minimalism in cinema is here. The style is very interesting to say the least. Much like a gourmet chef, Yorgos Lanthimas packs as much of information by fleshing out the characters through the most subtle actions and reactions. For the casual viewer its very easy to slip by these moments which explain so much about the characters feelings and personality. The film takes its time with each sequence holding it for as long as possible. As much as it succeeds on many instances in moving the film forward and learning new character traits, two issues stopped me from loving it. One, once you've set a tone for a film it is mandatory to stay true to it. A very complex tone is set in the beginning of the film and sadly at certain sequences, the same punch of complexity is lost.

Two, the style being a minimalistic style often denies the actors to show powerful emotions or feeling which to me is the core of good storytelling. As interesting as this was to watch, I wouldn't want art movies to go completely in this direction. Story will always be king. We don't need a revolution but instead strong evolution.