Studio: Searchlight Pictures
Release Date: 10/8/2024
Rating: R
Film Grade: B
The Story: Robert is an ordinary office worker who follows his boss’s orders without question, usually. What happens when he decides to take a stand for himself?
Daniel’s wife has gone missing while doing field research. When almost all hope has been lost, he’s alerted that Liz has been rescued. After a short stay in the hospital, she returns home, but why does she seem so different?
Emily and Sam are agents of a cult seeking a very specific woman who may be able to revive the dead. Emily may have left behind her prior life for this new pursuit, but it still tugs at her. What happens when her old life encroaches on her new one?
My Take: Like all of Yorgos Lanthimos’ films, you’ll probably either love his latest movie or hate it. Known for The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Favorite, and Poor Things (which sounded a little too weird, even for me), his films are odd, but also fascinating. Filled with absurd situations and strange characters, he writes some of the most unusual dialog of any writer/director. It often feels as if and alien has technically analyzed films and plays from the past 100 years, and written a script without any actual understanding of how humans actually communicate. As strange as that sounds, it all adds up to something that is incredibly unusual and compelling, with the specific word choices matching the unpredictable events in the script.
His latest film is composed of three different and distinct stories, with the same actors filling unique roles. Primarily, they’re played by Jesse Plemons, Emma Stone, and Willem Dafoe, each of them immersing themselves into the varied characters of with differing prominence. You can tell that they fully inhabit each of their characters, embracing the off-kilter world that Lanthimos has created. Everyone involved manages to give perfect line-readings to his script, keeping them grounded in that peculiar universe, where lesser actors might stumble at that risk, and fall back into more conventional deliveries.
Like his other works, the plot is filled with the bizarre mixed with the mundane. But don’t look for events that corelate to ordinary lives, as circumstance mutate, and consequences escalate beyond what is anticipated. This is clearly closer to the Twilight Zone than real life, even if the physical surroundings are perfectly relatable. Add in some dark humor, and you have a fun, if disarming, experience.
The movie is rich in themes, however, and gives the viewer plenty to think about once you understand the off-kilter characters and events. Never pedantic, it invites the audience to contemplate notions of free will, identity, and drive on their own, and reminds us to be cautious of those things we might blindly wish for.
Visuals: Captured on 35mm film, this is a lovingly shot movie with loads of natural light. Colors pop, blacks are deep and inky, sunlight is used to bathe certain scenes. There are occasional moments of glare, but it doesn’t detract from the story. The richness of the picture both grounds the audience to the film’s world and creates contrast to some of the ugliness it contains.
Audio: The 5.1 DTS-HD MA mix falls mostly on the simple side. There isn’t an abundance of sound effects, but it still manages to place the listener inside of the world. The unusual cadence of the film’s dialog is well-captured, and clearly understandable even in the briskest of deliveries.
In just his second film score, after receiving an Oscar nomination for Poor Things, Jerskin Fendrix has composed a variety of pieces to fit the moods, tempos, and settings of each of the three stories. The piano is prominently featured, offering contrasting pieces from melodic to dissonate unease to anxiety-building repetition. Choral works range from contemplative to haunting, occasionally verging on what might even feel profane. Pop music adds occasional flavor to some sections. In total, he’s created a fantastic companion piece to the visuals.
Special Features: I enjoyed the behind-the-scenes features, but don't look for any deep insight to the story, that is clearly left for the audience to discover. The two deleted scenes are so short that I'm not even sure why they bothered to include them.
- It Takes All Kinds: The Vision of Kinds of Kindness
- Two Deleted Scenes
Final Verdict: Lanthimos is among that group of filmmakers whose work isn’t directly comparable to anyone else’s. One might be tempted to lump him in with David Lynch, for both put their oddball characters in oddball worlds, often speaking in unusual speech patterns, but it would be a disservice to both. They both may create alternate universes of weirdness, but they’re distinct enough to not overlap in anything other than not being of this earth.
It's fair to say if you’ve hated Lanthimos’ other films, you’ll hate this one as well, finding it more frustrating that rewarding.
But, if you’ve found any of his prior movies to be captivating, this one works in that same way, and provides three completely different playgrounds to explore. Highly recommended for his fans and anyone looking to revel in the unpredictable and absurd, but a cautious recommendation to anyone unfamiliar with his work, unless they’re feeling up to the challenge of stepping into his warped version of reality.
Fun Fact: Composer Fendrix show up in a cameo as a bar’s piano player.
[This has been edited from the original post, to remove an incorrect cameo.]Warning: The trailer includes a couple of (unnecessary) instances of
profanity, so use discretion when viewing.
My Review System:JVC DLA-RS3100 4K Ultra High-Definition Front Projector
Elite Screens Sable Frame B2 117” Width with Infinitely Variable Height
Monolith by Monoprice HTP-1 16 Channel Processor with Dirac Live
Monolith by Monoprice 7x200 Watts Amp
Monolith by Monoprice 3x200 Watts + 6x100 Watts Amp
JBL Studio 590 for Left, Center, Right, Wides, and Rears
JBL Studio 580 for Side Surrounds
JBL Studio SCS 8 for Tops
JTR Captivator 1400 Subwoofer X 4
Panasonic DP-UB420 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Player
Oppo BDP-93
NVIDIA Shield Android TV - 4K
Xbox One X
HTPC Running madVR (work in progress)
Remote: URC MX-780
Mini DSP 2X4 HD controlling all subwoofers
APC S15 Power Conditioner with Battery Backup