The Lobster (15A) ****
Ireland has rarely looked better on the big screen than in Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos's darkly funny movie, The Lobster.
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Its absurdist, surreal take on our couple-centred society will be too strange for some tastes, as those who've seen the director's previous film, Dogtooth, will be aware.
While that was much more troubling than this, his English-language debut, there are plenty of dark shadows among the offbeat laughs.
Set in a dystopian near future, our own Colin Farrell dons a paunch and a moustache to play David, a newly single man who finds himself in a society where single people are not tolerated.
He's brought to a place known as The Hotel - where he joins others who have just 45 days to find and woo a suitable mate, failing which he will be turned into an animal of his choosing - in his case, a lobster - and released into the wild.
He and his fellow residents have the option of buying more time by helping capture The Loners - individuals who embrace and adhere to the single life and hide out in the woods. One of these is an unnamed woman played by Rachel Weisz, who narrates the film before becoming part of the story,
As Farrell himself describes it: "The decision we should have complete autonomy over - who we spend our lives with - has been removed, so it’s a very patriarchal system that they live under, and they’re all unfunny formed."
A lively supporting cast including John C Reilly and Lea Seydoux head a movie filled with universally strong performances.
Though it wobbles in the final half hour, The Lobster is a bleakly funny delight - inventive, original, with some brilliant dialogue and surreal set ups. Whether or not it's to your taste - and not everyone will buy into this odd little film - we should be excited that movies like this are being made in Ireland.
Crimson Peak (15A) **
the face of it, Crimson Peak has all the elements to make a great scary movie. Hot and talented cast - check. Monster-sized budget - check. Elaborate and sufficiently spooky sets - check.
Part of the problem is that Del Toro spends so much bloody time setting out his stall, when the first frights arrive they’ll be waking you rather than frightening you.
Set during the turn of the 19th-20th century, the story centres on a beautiful but naive young woman, Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska), who - against the better judgement of her father, falls for the charms of a playful young Englishman.
To be fair to her, he does take the form of Tom Hiddleston, and it’s not long before they’re living in marital bliss in his gothic, rundown family home in a remote part of northern England.
There’s a snag - there seems to be ghostly, mysterious goings on in this eerie house, and that’s even before you get to meet her new sister-in-law, the creepy Lucille (Jessica Chastain)
The ‘Crimson Peak’ of the title refers to the topsoil of the region’s red earth that Hiddleston’s character is trying to mine to make his fortune.
There are very obvious arrows that fans of horror and fantasy movies will spot early on, yet Del Toro takes his sweet time in building what is an insubstantial story.
The luscious sets, beautiful production design and camerawork help disguise this for a time, but Crimson Peak’s shortcomings quickly become apparent. It's a beauty to behold, but has no frights or substance.
