The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)

My immediate response as soon as this finished was "MASTERPIECE." Lanthimos is back to _Dogtooth_-level craziness with this film and I couldn't be happier. _The Lobster_ was a favourite of mine in 2016, but something about this one's hopelessness drew me in more - odd, I know. Lanthimos' films have characters stuck in dead end situations where they are able to make a choice, but the results of the options are bad and worse. It's a dour story and the film is relentlessly unsettling, but this is what I've come to expect and want out of this Greek maestro. Sacred Deer is a suburban Greek trage…

Gimly

5.0

Dec 10, 2017

I am a big fan of some of Yorgos Lanthimos' earlier work, so _The Killing of a Sacred Deer_, which I had been told in no uncertain terms would be a straight up horror movie, was well and truly on the agenda for 2017. Unfortunately, I found that not only was _Sacred Deer_ not at all a horror, but more importantly that it lacked the dark whimsy of something truly odd, like the director's previous film, _Lobster_. Instead it opts for an outright uncomfortable tone. The world is real, boringly so, and it is only the characters who seem unbelievable. Which is a 180 on the sort of absurdism I usuall…

Finally got the chance to see this via Amazon. Dogtooth and The Lobster (from the same Greek director, who I must admit has a keen sense of storytelling) did not impress me at all. Very interesting ideas; atrocious presentations. Dogtooth was indecipherable and The Lobster is cruel, ugly, and not humorous in any fashion (I've no idea why it's billed as a black comedy.) However, this latest film is entertaining to me despite it's grim and inky-black nature (based on the ancient Greek play, which is where the title is loosely derived from.) Perhaps it's a bit more straight-forward despite its…