The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
I have not seen The Lobster; I have not seen Dogtooth . The off-kilter world of The Killing of a Sacred Deer served as my complete introduction to the work of Yorgos Lanthimos, and to say I was hesitant would be an understatement. Nicole Kidman has called this one of her strangest projects yet, and I sat through Strangerland . I had read the spoiler-free reviews that critiqued Lanthimos' employment of a singular acting style, wherein every character is emotionless and near-robotic, and that the allegories were a little far reaching with too little grounding. I think that there is merit to those ideas - and would have to have more experience with the Lanthimos canon to make my own judgement - but on a personal level, this movie really clicked. The Killing of a Sacred Deer , a reference to the myth of Iphigenia which I was in no way familiar with but that does illuminate a whole lot, starts off with an extended shot of close up open heart surgery set to a near-deafening operatic so...