Last night Erin and I watched The Lobster on a semi-whim (not what we were after, but still something we both wanted to see). At the end, Erin felt the movie was ruined and hated it. I couldn't stop smiling and loved it, even though the movie took several surprising turns. Erin, of course, asked me why I loved it, which I couldn't really articulate the reason at the time.
I loved it because it's audacious and original and a complete world unto itself. I loved it because it was macabre and hilarious and violent.
Mostly, I loved it for scenes like this: (spoilers, obviously, because why write about a movie if you can't write about all of it)
David goes to the Limping Man and Nosebleed Woman's yacht test, seemingly to kill them. But -- twist -- all David does is blow up Limping Man's spot: he's faking the nosebleeds. They're not a match!
David proceeds to make a list of all the ways that Limping Man fakes a nosebleed. Then, taking in the blood stains on Limping Man's shirt, David creates a new list of all the products that Limping Man uses to fake blood stains instead of having to bother faking the nosebleed.
David turns back to confirm what a great job he does of eviscerating John's hope of a future, takes in current stain anew, then adds beetroot juice to his list. He turns back to Nosebleed Woman, and he's so damn proud of himself for coming up with beetroot juice.
Everyone is passionless and strange in their interactions for the run of the movie, so it falls to beetroot juice to bring David joy. David thought he had everything figured out. He gets to surprise himself instead. No one else is particularly surprised or happy, but, hey. It was nice moment for David.
Beetroot juice is why I love this movie.
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