"The Killing of a Sacred Deer" Review
You'd probably go into a Yorgos Lanthimos movie expecting it to be bleak, nihilistic with a gentle sprinkle of dark humour. "The Killing of a Sacred Deer" is no exception. The humour part is a bit subjective but I think it somehow was able to succeed to mixing complete utter hopelessness with pitch dark comedy delivered with such factuality that at times reminded me of something from a Wes Anderson film. If it was blended with Kubrick's The Shining. But wasn't Grand Budapest Hotel.
Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman are absolutely perfect in conveying extreme emotions with extreme constraint. Barry Keoghan (Dunkirk) steals the show as a strange and disturbing teenager and I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like him. Seriously, you just have to see to understand what I mean.
The story takes a bit of time to get going but when it gets going, it's excruciating to sit through waiting for all the house of cards to come toppling down. It takes its sweet time doing it via its pants shitting tension. One part that kind of disappointed me was the big climax which itself is rich in narrative consequences but would've been more interesting if another route had been taken, in my opinion.
Lanthimos seems to be channeling the atmosphere of The Shining with its warped, agoraphobic yet highly intimate cinematography via Thimios Bakatakis who's collaborated with Lanthimos many times before. The story is chilling, up for a wide range of interpretation, pushes people's buttons and is accompanied by a killer classical soundtrack. If you're into some weird ass misanthropic psychological shit, you'll probably want to check this one out.