I’ve been going to the NZIFF for about two decades now. I have always loved the range and quirk of films that would never get a broad enough audience because they don’t have enough robots and or Marvel Characters.
This years festival will be no different (TDB’s top 20 must see list will be out next week), but I must say I thought this years choice to open, ‘The Lobster’ fell a tad flat for me.
Don’t get me wrong, this movie has some very funny and brilliant moments. Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, John C. Reilly and Léa Seydoux all manage to do Director Yorgos Lanthimos proud in this bleak comedy where couple hood is enforced and those who can’t find partners hunted down and shot.
As a social satire it is clever, but this is no 1984 dystopia or even a Huger Games, here the desperate loneliness of being a Gen Xer and recently single seems to wallow in its own self importance.
More silly satire than cutting, it was always going to be hard to top last years remarkable Dark Horse, but I think this was a rare swing and a miss for the opening night.
Do see this movie, but not as a festival opener.
3 stars
