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| Scene from The Lobster |
In case you didn't know, A24 is one of the great purveyors of modern cinema. Since 2013, the studio has found a way to innovate independent cinema by turning each release into an event. As a result, A24 A-to-Z will be an ongoing series that looks at every release from the studio by analyzing its production history, release, criticisms, and any awards attention that it might've received. Join me on a quest to explore the modern heroes of cinema by exploring every hit and miss that comes with that magnificent logo. They may not all be great, but they more than make A24 what it is and what it will hopefully continue to be for ears to come.
Released: May 13, 2016
Release Number: 34
Directed By: Yorgos Lanthimos
Starring: Collin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Jessica Barden
Plot: 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 beasts and sent off into The Woods.
Major Awards:
Oscars
Nominated: 1
-Best Original Screenplay
Golden Globes
Nominated: 1
-Best Actor (Musical or Comedy): Collin Farrell
BAFTAS
Wins: 1
-Best British Film
The idea of an A24 film had evolved over time, but has always shared a nod towards the eccentric. After all, it's the only way that experimental indie films like Under the Skin could get made and create any lasting impact. The same could be said for director Yorgos Lanthimos' The Lobster, which took a novel premise of subverting the romantic comedy and created one of the studio's most unique and exciting films. With a dry sense of humor and great performances, it was another oddity that helped to give A24 its status as the place to go for off-kilter indies from around the world, featuring Oscar-nominated talent and a rather clever marketing campaign. It may have been a film that equated being in love with turning into animals, but it was also one of the realest expressions of human emotion that the studio has ever released. It was also a sizable hit for the studio that helped to establish them as more than just a novelty company. They could also deliver hits.
Lanthimos had a significant impact on Greek cinema prior to The Lobster. His most noteworthy film had been Dogtooth, which also earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film. With his fledgling reputation, there was just one more obstacle to overcome. Greece didn't exactly have a great film community. Lanthimos' films were made cheaply and often with friends being paid very little or nothing at all for their efforts. This logic lead him to believe that if he was to make any sort of cultural impact, he would have to break into English-language cinema, where he could have more of an opportunity to make a dent internationally. He found financiers from around the world and eventually made it a production that he could film in Europe at a decent cost. At $4 million, it wasn't a grand budget, but it was bigger than he was used to.
The story's roots were similarly mundane. Lanthimos and co-writer Efthymis Filippou had a very basic idea to deconstruct the human experience. Having worked together previous on Dogtooth and Alps, they had a connection to each other that made writing easier. They decided to take the idea of looking at how rules are compiled by a society then trying to understand how people exist within them. As far as coming up with the lobster as a central MacGuffin, the answer was that their research was fairly straightforward and was resolved early on. In spite of this, there wasn't an actual lobster in the film. However, there were a variety of animals including dogs and pigs that played supporting roles throughout the film. The lobster is present in the color pallet of the film however, with shades of blue, green, and red symbolically popping up throughout the film.
One of Lanthimos' biggest goals for the film was to work with people that were familiar with his work. Along with viewing old interviews, he felt that having actors who understood his approach to film making would make the job easier. He lucked out, as most of the central cast all were enthusiastic and wanted to work with him. John C. Reilley would compare him to Stanley Kubrick. Collin Farrell, who would gain 40 pounds for the role, saw the film as a chance to challenge himself as an actor after a series of blundering roles, including the notorious second season of True Detective. Of the actors, Lanthimos would admit that he was most impressed by Rachel Weisz, whom he had never seen act that well before. The film was shot predominantly in Dublin and the hotel scenes were shot in Kerry.
The Lobster became the first film by Lanthimos to be nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. It would go on to win the Jury Prize. The film was released predominantly in Europe throughout 2015 through Sony Pictures. Alchemy, who acquired the United States distribution, would suffer financial struggles that lead to A24 acquiring the rights to the film. Among their marketing for the film was The Website That Determines Your Second Chance Animal. The rules were simple, revolving around a quiz that would determine what animal you would be if you weren't to find a partner. It helped to create a social media presence for the film, and began to establish the film's reputation as a quirky take on romantic comedies that just so happened to be very dark and maybe not as whimsical as that would suggest. It would help the film gross $15.7 million at the box office, which was Lanthimos' best performing film as of 2017.
On critics aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, it would receive a rating of 88%. Rafer Guzman of Newsday echoed the general sentiments with "Highly original and mordantly funny. Perfect for fans of Franz Kafka, Charlie Kaufman and other bleak surrealists." Leah Pickett of Chicago Reader also noted that "Lanthimos forgoes easy sentiments about the transformative power of love; this may turn off some viewers, but there's a certain liberation and even some relief in knowing that societal pressure to settle down can be just as cruel as loneliness." There was already the sense that the film would be divisive among audiences because of its esoteric approach. Among the dissenting voices was J. Olson of Cinema Mixtape who claimed that "By the 60-minute mark Lathimos' bag of tricks is empty, kickstarting a long slide into tedium that sinks a project that should have sung." With all of this said, the film managed to be one of A24's bigger awards contenders, earning a Golden Globe nomination for Farrell along with a Best Original Screenplay nomination at the Oscars. It was proof that even if people were mixed on the film, there was still something endearing about how it was written.
The Lobster was a film that proved just how versatile A24's brand was. It could tell a love story while also make it unlike any love story that came before. They knew how to get audiences interested via social media marketing and creating a sense that this was a film for those who have been in love or know what the struggles of being isolated meant. It featured against-type performances by its actors and created a world that was sensationalized while also being almost too human. There would continue to be weird films from A24 as the years lingered on, but The Lobster towered over them because of how strange its focus was. The same couldn't be said for the next film, which saw the studio return to the documentary world with a subject whose work, in another time, could've been released by A24. However, it was more of a love letter to an artist than anything groundbreaking with the Noah Baumbach directed De Palma.
Up Next: De Palma (2016)
Major Awards:
Oscars
Nominated: 1
-Best Original Screenplay
Golden Globes
Nominated: 1
-Best Actor (Musical or Comedy): Collin Farrell
BAFTAS
Wins: 1
-Best British Film
The idea of an A24 film had evolved over time, but has always shared a nod towards the eccentric. After all, it's the only way that experimental indie films like Under the Skin could get made and create any lasting impact. The same could be said for director Yorgos Lanthimos' The Lobster, which took a novel premise of subverting the romantic comedy and created one of the studio's most unique and exciting films. With a dry sense of humor and great performances, it was another oddity that helped to give A24 its status as the place to go for off-kilter indies from around the world, featuring Oscar-nominated talent and a rather clever marketing campaign. It may have been a film that equated being in love with turning into animals, but it was also one of the realest expressions of human emotion that the studio has ever released. It was also a sizable hit for the studio that helped to establish them as more than just a novelty company. They could also deliver hits.
Lanthimos had a significant impact on Greek cinema prior to The Lobster. His most noteworthy film had been Dogtooth, which also earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film. With his fledgling reputation, there was just one more obstacle to overcome. Greece didn't exactly have a great film community. Lanthimos' films were made cheaply and often with friends being paid very little or nothing at all for their efforts. This logic lead him to believe that if he was to make any sort of cultural impact, he would have to break into English-language cinema, where he could have more of an opportunity to make a dent internationally. He found financiers from around the world and eventually made it a production that he could film in Europe at a decent cost. At $4 million, it wasn't a grand budget, but it was bigger than he was used to.
The story's roots were similarly mundane. Lanthimos and co-writer Efthymis Filippou had a very basic idea to deconstruct the human experience. Having worked together previous on Dogtooth and Alps, they had a connection to each other that made writing easier. They decided to take the idea of looking at how rules are compiled by a society then trying to understand how people exist within them. As far as coming up with the lobster as a central MacGuffin, the answer was that their research was fairly straightforward and was resolved early on. In spite of this, there wasn't an actual lobster in the film. However, there were a variety of animals including dogs and pigs that played supporting roles throughout the film. The lobster is present in the color pallet of the film however, with shades of blue, green, and red symbolically popping up throughout the film.
One of Lanthimos' biggest goals for the film was to work with people that were familiar with his work. Along with viewing old interviews, he felt that having actors who understood his approach to film making would make the job easier. He lucked out, as most of the central cast all were enthusiastic and wanted to work with him. John C. Reilley would compare him to Stanley Kubrick. Collin Farrell, who would gain 40 pounds for the role, saw the film as a chance to challenge himself as an actor after a series of blundering roles, including the notorious second season of True Detective. Of the actors, Lanthimos would admit that he was most impressed by Rachel Weisz, whom he had never seen act that well before. The film was shot predominantly in Dublin and the hotel scenes were shot in Kerry.
The Lobster became the first film by Lanthimos to be nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. It would go on to win the Jury Prize. The film was released predominantly in Europe throughout 2015 through Sony Pictures. Alchemy, who acquired the United States distribution, would suffer financial struggles that lead to A24 acquiring the rights to the film. Among their marketing for the film was The Website That Determines Your Second Chance Animal. The rules were simple, revolving around a quiz that would determine what animal you would be if you weren't to find a partner. It helped to create a social media presence for the film, and began to establish the film's reputation as a quirky take on romantic comedies that just so happened to be very dark and maybe not as whimsical as that would suggest. It would help the film gross $15.7 million at the box office, which was Lanthimos' best performing film as of 2017.
On critics aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, it would receive a rating of 88%. Rafer Guzman of Newsday echoed the general sentiments with "Highly original and mordantly funny. Perfect for fans of Franz Kafka, Charlie Kaufman and other bleak surrealists." Leah Pickett of Chicago Reader also noted that "Lanthimos forgoes easy sentiments about the transformative power of love; this may turn off some viewers, but there's a certain liberation and even some relief in knowing that societal pressure to settle down can be just as cruel as loneliness." There was already the sense that the film would be divisive among audiences because of its esoteric approach. Among the dissenting voices was J. Olson of Cinema Mixtape who claimed that "By the 60-minute mark Lathimos' bag of tricks is empty, kickstarting a long slide into tedium that sinks a project that should have sung." With all of this said, the film managed to be one of A24's bigger awards contenders, earning a Golden Globe nomination for Farrell along with a Best Original Screenplay nomination at the Oscars. It was proof that even if people were mixed on the film, there was still something endearing about how it was written.
The Lobster was a film that proved just how versatile A24's brand was. It could tell a love story while also make it unlike any love story that came before. They knew how to get audiences interested via social media marketing and creating a sense that this was a film for those who have been in love or know what the struggles of being isolated meant. It featured against-type performances by its actors and created a world that was sensationalized while also being almost too human. There would continue to be weird films from A24 as the years lingered on, but The Lobster towered over them because of how strange its focus was. The same couldn't be said for the next film, which saw the studio return to the documentary world with a subject whose work, in another time, could've been released by A24. However, it was more of a love letter to an artist than anything groundbreaking with the Noah Baumbach directed De Palma.
Up Next: De Palma (2016)
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