• It works as both an excellent slow-burn art-house horror film and as a pitch black comedy- Lanthimos’ fifth feature has elements of Bunuel and elements of Kubrick but holds true to his sharp, unique voice
  • Gorgeous reoccurring visual—the walking down the corridor and hallways— Gus Van Sant’s Elephant married to Kubrick’s Paths of Glory and The Shining. Lanthimos, like Kubrick (and Roy Andersson) has a talent for shooting hallways—exacting—geometrical.

    Gorgeous reoccurring visual—the walking down the corridor and hallways— Gus Van Sant’s Elephant married to Kubrick’s Paths of Glory and The Shining

    Lanthimos, like Kubrick (and Roy Andersson) has a talent for shooting hallways—exacting—geometrical.

  • Lanthimos continues to experiment visually—love the wide angle shots used again and again to capture the entire room—one example is the big ballroom for Farrell’s speech

    Lanthimos continues to experiment visually—love the wide angle shots used again and again to capture the entire room—one example is the big ballroom for Farrell’s speech

  • Opens with two doctors pacing down the hall and the painful banality of them talking about expensive water-resistant watches

    Opens with two doctors pacing down the hall and the painful banality of them talking about expensive water-resistant watches

  • An odd, uptight, bourgeois family—Bunuel—blurts out his daughter started menstruating recently after bragging about his son’s piano lessons. Haha
  • Very stylized performances- deadpan and purposefully lifeless
  • Two pairings of Kidman and Farrell in 2017 with The Beguiled
  • Not only does Kidman’s casting (she’s very good) remind me of von Trier’s Dogville but playing the rich doctor’s wife has to remind you of Eyes Wide Shut as well
  • It is scored like a horror film, but Lanthimos is largely setting the trap in the first 45 minutes- deadpan delivery like Roy Andersson or Wes- insulated stranded worlds. Subtle eerie zooms. At 44 minutes the great overhead shot and collapse with the unexplainable illness.

    At 44 minutes the great overhead shot and collapse with the unexplainable illness

  • 45 minutes (repeated at 71 mins) the extreme-wide angle at the hospital waiting room- Lanthimos would repeat it later- this is very close to his next step- the fisheye lens in The Favourite

    45 minutes (repeated at 71 mins) the extreme-wide angle at the hospital waiting room- Lanthimos would repeat it later- this is very close to his next step- the fisheye lens in The Favourite

  • Peculiar rules to adhere to in this world — this is definitely a Lanthimos film. The sins of the father—biblical plague-like illness with eyes bleeding- first born son. Bunuel has the rule where the bourgeois can’t leave the party in The Exterminating Angel

    Peculiar rules to adhere to in this world — this is definitely a Lanthimos film. The sins of the father—biblical plague-like illness with eyes bleeding- first born son. Bunuel has the rule where the bourgeois can’t leave the party in The Exterminating Angel

  • Farrell is very good here playing the loathsomely cold and arrogant Steven Murphy—“a surgeon can never kill a patient”
  • Lanthimos’ narrative construction here isn’t as strong as Dogtooth or The Lobster but he hasn’t changed his colors by any stretch and seems to be getting bolder and more ambitious visually- he’s a master of absurdism and discomfort.

    seems to be getting bolder and more ambitious visually- he’s a master of absurdism and discomfort.

  • Haneke (Funny Games) comes to mind as well
  • The screenplay lets Lanthimos down a few times- as does the co-lead performance of Barry Keoghan. There’s a lot asked of Keoghan in the role and he’s not amazing here. He doesn’t fair as well as his scenes in Dunkirk– I’d like to see this role with another actor
  • I could do with a lot less of Keoghan’s speech while eating spaghetti. The film excels in Lanthimos’ visuals and the physical comedy (like Farrell trying to force his kids to walk and dropping them or the kids crawling around on their hands- which is straight out of Dogtooth)
  • Not a completely satisfying finale—Lanthimos is an almost peerlessly talented filmmaker, and this film feels like a film that’s almost there- it makes 2018’s The Favourite seem almost predictably brilliant in retrospect.
  • Highly Recommend – top 10 of the year quality film—ambitious auteur filmmaking that does not always land- but still- the highs are high enough to maybe lean HR/MS