The Lobster is unlike any movie you will see this year; it’s unlike any movie you have likely ever seen if you don’t watch much art house cinema. For all it’s absurdness and pitch-black dialogue, The Lobster seems to be tackling a modern universal theme: love in the age of social media and online dating – as much as it is just about our fascination with finding the right one.

If it resonates with modern lovers it might make them laugh, make them feel uncomfortable, or perhaps just be too grim at times to bear. In style, its closest relation outside of art house cinema, in terms of its dark, absurd satire, might be that of British satirist Chris Morris and his horror-comedy series Jam. That show was also a little too heavy for many tastes.

Lobster is the first English film by Greek writer-director Yorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth), due to be released in the U.S. March 11^th. The film’s main protagonist is Colin Farrell (David) who, with protruding belly and a painfully ill-fitting moustache, looks as out of place as himself as he’s ever been. In the opening scene David, now a divorcee, checks into a hotel and is soon being interviewed by the manager (Olivia Colman). David has 45 days to find a female companion, otherwise he will be turned into an animal. He chooses a lobster. His brother, who had earlier been in the same position, is at his side – as a dog. “He was here a couple of years ago but he didn’t make it,” David explains to the manager. She responds that most people choose dogs, and that’s why the world is populated with so many of them.

David has few companions at the hotel and seems, like the accompanying soundtrack, devoid of happiness or hope. His companions, whose names we never find out, are notable only by their physical disablements or “defining characteristics”. John C Reilly’s character has a lisp, Ben Whishaw’s (Q in the recent James Bond films) is a limp, and Jessica Barden has uncontrollable nose bleeds. Rachel Weisz’s character has myopia, something David feels he may also suffer from. We soon find out that a shared disability, or even a liking for biscuits, much like walks in the park or working out on the weekends, acts as a kind of personals gambit that will successfully match a couple.

The weather is perpetually dull, the hotel drab, while dirges intermittently play in the background. When the occupants of the hotel are not mingling in an attempt to find the right companion they are out in the forest hunting ‘Loners’, a gang of social escapees led by the uncompromising anarchist Lea Seydoux. The gang of Loners are at least allowed to masturbate (do that in the hotel and the punishment is your hand in a toaster), although flirting will result in having your lips sliced, and lovemaking something similar in a more productive part of the body. Back at the hotel all the men must have their crotches rubbed each day by a lithe maid, but only until they gain an erection. Ejaculation is verboten, at least until the men can leave the hotel as part of a couple and join the normal world inhabited by such couples.

If emoticons could speak…

The Lobster is a futuristic horror-comedy that also seems to serve as an allegory for the sometimes vacuous reality of online dating and social media flirting. The characters throughout, especially David and his myopic friend, vocalize what sounds like comments in social media posts. Even at their most emotional they seem to have a 140-word character limit, while their charm is as flagrantly lazy and noncommittal as an emoji. At the same time the film is a scabrous criticism aimed at society’s obsession with living in pairs, or what someone might be prepared to do to attract, or appease another person. The film tells us this is what sets us apart from being animals, be it a camel or a flamingo – animals that wander around the forest occasionally in the film.

This surreal, at times extreme comedy, won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2015 along with a slew of other awards. In spite of its sometimes shocking violence, that includes an unsettlingly macabre fairytale ending, The Lobster is also very funny. European art house films have traditionally not been great successes in mainstream U.S. cinema, but this one may not follow that trend.

Photo credit: The Lobster Official Facebook