Saw The Lobster, a film from the guy who directed Dogtooth, a similarly straight-faced absurdist take on contemporary life. In this film, we're in some extremely formal alternate universe where single people are so despised that they're sent to a hotel to pair up and hunt run-away singles with tranq darts. If the good, hotel-dwelling singles cannot find a mate, they are turned into an animal of their choosing. The hotel is an extremely unpleasant place, full of desperate people and hilariously awful and ham-fisted propaganda extolling the virtues of couple-hood. At a shooting range a waiter leans in to tell the protagonist "It's no coincidence that the targets are shaped like single people, and not couples."
The film's characters have the overly-formal that Wes Anderson's characters do. They say incomprehensible things with completely straight faces. Unlike Wes Anderson however, this is less tightly-shot and far less twee. I loved the iciness of it. The film also has something on its mind about modern romance. The singles constantly refer to some unimportant quirk of theirs such as shortsightedness or a limp and only look for others with the same quirk. I was reminded of the questions on OkCupid or something , determining your selection of future mates from essentially unimportant questions about books and music. On the flip-side are the run-away singles who are just as rigorously controlled. They may never flirt or get romantically involved. The whole thing is so fascinatingly clinical.
Like Dogtooth, I really liked this film. Also like Dogtooth, I wouldn't recommend it for everyone. It's very strange. Fascinating, but unrewarding in a conventional sense. The ending, which is essentially just a giant question mark, I think will especially annoy people. However I also think most people would find it funnier than I did. The film is funny in a way that you don't know how serious it expects you to take it. A compelling and interesting film anyway. As an aside, I really wish they'd shown the hotel for gay people. The opening bit where they inform the protagonist that "bisexual" is not an option at this time is a perfect encapsulation of the film. Funny, heartbreaking, arbitrary, but with an echo of reality.
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