The Lobster

First Hit:  A strange, different and odd film about forced coupledom.

This film is set in the near future and everyone in society must be coupled or face going to an oddly sterile hotel where they have 45 days to find a mate. If they don’t find a mate they will be turned into the animal of their choice. They can extend their time by hunting down and shooting and tranquilizing others who are escaping. If they are lucky enough to find a mate they can live in a couple’s room, then a yacht for a couple weeks, and if successful they can return to the city as a couple.

Upon entering the hotel, they are given a strict protocol to live by, including no masturbation, along with deciding the animal they want to be turned into if they don’t find a mate; hence the film’s title “The Lobster”. This is the type of animal David (Colin Farrell) selects.

There are some macabre scenes (like the punishment for masturbating), amazingly darkly funny scenes (shooting range practice scene), and simply weird scenes (how do the loners survive in the forest day after day). One of the traits in choosing their possible partner is the sharing physical or mental aspects like; shortsightedness, or limps, or lisps, or cold-heartedness, or the love of biscuits.

Another odd part about this film is that it portrays everyone being so subservient to people who’ve placed themselves in authority. How everyone minds the hotel managers (Olivia Colman and Garry Mountaine) is really bizarre because I would have probably rebelled.

Even more perplexing was how the escapees (“Loners”) minded the direction and instructions of Loner Leader (Lea Seydoux). I kept wondering who empowered these people in this way? Why did others follow their instructions?

The cast of characters in this story were really oddly interesting as well:  Nosebleed Woman (Jessica Barden), Biscuit Woman (Ashely Jensen), Lisping Man (John C. Reilly), Short Sighted Woman (Rachel Weisz), Limping Man (Ben Whishaw), and Heartless Woman (Angeliki Papoulia) among others.

Farrell did a terrific job with his character. He gained so much weight for this role which seemed to also affect his natural intensity. Seydoux was clearly strong as the leader of the Loners. She was very commanding. Reilly was funny as the lisping man who got caught masturbating. Weisz was wonderful as the Short Sighted Loner who loved to eat rabbits and was the narrator of this film. Papoulia was very good as the Heartless person. Barden was amazingly sweet as the Nosebleed person. Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippu wrote this strangely effective script even though it was filled with obvious logical holes. Lanthimos did a great job of getting the actors and scenes to coalesce and wonderfully execute this story and idea.

Overall:  The film was very entertaining most of the time, yet the holes in the story kept my mind wandering and asking questions while the celluloid rolled.

Blue Is the Warmest Color

First Hit:  A deep dive into a woman discovering herself through her sexuality.

The opening classroom scene has the instructor talking about a book and its author who’s written about the moment people see each other, having no verbal communication, and the sense or feeling between the two people.

Adele (Adele Exarchopoulos) doesn’t like over explanation of books she’s reading. While walking to meet a boy she's been pressured into meeting, she sees Emma (Lea Seydoux) for the first time and the previous classroom discussion is not lost on her or the audience. The interchange with him, after a couple of meetings, leaves her very dissatisfied physically and emotionally.

One day she is kissed by one of her girl school friends and she experiences feelings she’s not had before. The questions are in constant battle within her and Adele shows all these feelings subtly and obviously with her facial expressions, body movements and tears. She finally meets up with Emma and begins to explore her emotions, feelings and sexuality.

The sexuality is both graphically and beautifully shared on the screen and it must have been difficult to share that much intimacy with a stranger on film. Outside of the sexuality, the film is a study on the evolution of a young woman towards her self-discovery. The parts that didn’t work for me was the passage of time, I don’t think it was done well because I had to figure out how much time had gone by with each major scene change. Sometimes it was weeks, other times it was months and then years. 

There were a couple of scenes where I wondered what happened to Adele’s parents, did they now know she was a lesbian?

Exarchopoulos was amazingly transparent and open in this role. Having a camera so close to her throughout this film must have been difficult. She was extraordinary. Seydoux was a great in her role as foil and lover. She was sure and strong in expressing what she wanted while providing glimpse of soft vulnerability. Abdellatif Kechiche and Ghalia Lacroix wrote a great screenplay and Kechiche directed the actors, scenes and situations with sublime exquisiteness.

Overall:  Although long, this film was an amazing study of discovery.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

First Hit: Whatever one might say about Tom Cruise or this franchise of films, this film was entertaining.

Improbable would be a word that would fit but so would entertaining.

Despite all the odd dialogue and character development, this film is entertaining. OK, enough already about how entertaining it was.

This highly improbable story comes together because the actors make it work. Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is one of the government’s leading IMS agents. He commands the storyline and the sequences as a lead agent needs to.

William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) is the “Analyst” who has a story to tell. Benji Dunn (played by Simon Pegg) is the techno-nerd of the group. The last member of this team is Jane Carter (played by Paula Patton) is the other hands-on physically skilled team member.

The story is simple, someone wants to start a nuclear war between the Russians and Americans. The protagonist Kurt Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist) is a brilliant but slightly insane man who wants to be seen and counted on the world stage. Therefore he obtains the launch codes to Russian missiles and proceeds to make it the launching of a missile a retaliatory event.

This film is filled with great chase scenes and my favorite was the multi-story parking garage. This story also features the tallest building in the world and some of the shots brought up my, once thought gone, fear of heights feelings.

Cruise, despite what one thinks of him, has the ability to charm with good looks and be part of a chase scene and make it work well. Renner gives a strong performance as the Analyst with a story to hide. He's great in this role and provides added intelligence. Pegg is perfect as the odd-ball side kick with blather and brains. Patton is very good as a skilled fighter and her looks, as her character is required to be, fit the part well. Nyqvist is good as the steely man who wants to be seen. I liked Lea Seydoux as Sabine the assassin. Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec did a great job of coming up with a story line that works and is entertaining. Brad Bird did an excellent job of keeping the film, light, active, engaging, and without waste.

Overall: I enjoyed this 4th film in this franchise and would watch a fifth.