The Lobster (2015)

The Lobster is a darkly comic, surreal fable set in a near-future dystopia where being single is a crime. Newly divorced David is sent to a coldly efficient Hotel where residents have 45 days to find a romantic match; failure means being transformed into an animal of their choice and released into the woods. Outside the Hotel, another community of rebels strictly forbids romantic coupling, so David is forced to choose between two equally extreme systems that police intimacy. Watching the film you’ll experience a stubbornly deadpan, off-kilter tone: moments of bleak humor sit beside genuine unease and quiet heartbreak. Dialogue is clipped and literal, the rules and rituals of the world are presented with clinical precision, and the visuals emphasize austerity and control. The pace is deliberate and often unsettling, building an oppressive atmosphere that makes the film’s absurd premise feel eerily plausible. Tonally equal parts satire, romance, and psychological drama, The Lobster probes ideas about conformity, desire, and whether love can be manufactured or must be discovered. Expect to laugh uncomfortably, feel uneasy at the cruelty lurking behind bureaucratic order, and be left thinking about the film’s moral ambiguities and ambiguous, melancholy conclusion long after it ends.

Actors: Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Jessica Barden

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos

Runtime: 119 min

Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance

6.6 /10 82 /100 7.1 /10 7.3 /10