A sharply absurd, bleakly funny dystopian romance that turns dating, conformity, and emotional survival into deadpan satire. It’s cold on the surface but surprisingly tender underneath, with a singular comic voice and strong visual control.
The Lobster
Where to watch: Buy
Movie · Comedy · Drama
Thu · 1h 59m
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Starring: Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Olivia Colman
Overview
In a dystopian near future, single people, according to the laws of The City, are taken to The Hotel, where they are obliged to find a romantic partner in forty-five days or are transformed into animals and sent off into The Woods.
Director
Yorgos Lanthimos
Cast
Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Olivia Colman
Curator Review
Verdict
A sharply absurd, bleakly funny dystopian romance that turns dating, conformity, and emotional survival into deadpan satire. It’s cold on the surface but surprisingly tender underneath, with a singular comic voice and strong visual control.
Best for
viewers who like dark satire and deadpan humor
fans of offbeat romance with existential stakes
people drawn to dystopian social allegories
audiences who enjoy awkward, precise, highly stylized filmmaking
Skip if
you want warm, conventional romance
you dislike cruelty, emotional distance, or absurdist comedy
you prefer fast-paced plotting and clear emotional payoff
you need characters to behave realistically
Overview
The Lobster is one of those rare films that feels both brutally funny and deeply sad at the same time. It takes the social pressure to couple up and turns it into a nightmare bureaucracy, where romance becomes a survival game and loneliness is treated like a crime. The joke is always a little cruel, but the movie understands why the cruelty lands: it’s exposing how absurd our rules about love can be.
Worth noting
Yorgos Lanthimos stages the whole thing with a deadpan, ritualized precision that makes every gesture feel slightly off, as if human behavior has been translated by a machine. That formal stiffness is the point, and it gives the film its strange power. The performances, especially Colin Farrell’s, keep the movie from becoming merely conceptual; they make the emotional damage feel real even when the premise is wildly unreal.
Bottom line
What lingers most is how the film refuses easy answers. It mocks romantic absolutism, but it also sees the loneliness that drives people toward it. By the end, The Lobster has the shape of a joke and the ache of a breakup, which is exactly why it sticks with you.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Tooley I Am King (4★) · 20169 likes
There's a scene where Colin Farrell kicks a little girl and for some reason it's the funniest thing I've seen all year.
cinéfila... 🕯️ (4.5★) · 17340 likes
"is there a bisexual option available?" bitch! me too! the fuck!!!!!
rudi (4.5★) · 14556 likes
love the voguing maid in the forest
hollie amanda (5★) · 13812 likes
fuck your zodiac sign what animal would you want to be turned into
Karsten (4.5★) · 10462 likes
imagine directing this
Themes
dystopian romance, social satire, loneliness, conformity, absurdism, identity, dating culture, emotional repression
Topics
dark comedy, dystopian, satire, absurdist, romantic tragedy, deadpan, existential, art house, black humor, near-future