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    Skip TMNT and Popstar, Watch The Lobster and Bleak Street

    What utter randomness in theaters this weekend! Popstar disappoints, Turtles 2 stinks, but the Wexner Center opens a great Spanish film, Film Festival of Columbus kicks off at Gateway Film Center, and an utterly brilliant new film corners the market on trippy, darkly romantic comedies.

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    The Lobster

    It is nearly impossible to aptly describe The Lobster, director Yorgos Lanthimos’s darkly comic trip to a future where it’s a crime to be single.

    Singles are sent to The Hotel, where they have 45 days to find a partner or be turned into the animal of their choosing, thus giving them a second chance to find a companion.

    These are the big decisions weighing on David (Colin Farrell). After his wife leaves him for another man, David checks in, declares a lobster as his preference for a possible second life, and begins the search for a new mate.

    Lanthimos, who also co-wrote the screenplay, crafts a film which ends up feeling like a minor miracle. The Lobster builds on themes we’ve seen before (most recently in Charlie Kaufman’s Anomalisa) but bursts with originality.

    It’s a captivating experience full of humor, tenderness, and longing, even before Lathimos starts to bring a subversive beauty into soft focus. The Lobster pokes wicked fun at the rules of attraction, but finds its lasting power in asking disquieting questions about the very nature of our motives when following them.

    Grade: A-

    Me Before You

    A textbook tear jerker/romance that somehow manages to miss both of those targets, Me Before You is a pretty, brightly lit, well-meaning effort that lacks courage.

    Lou (Emilia Clarke) – a working girl from a small British town – takes a job as companion to recent quadriplegic Will Traynor (Sam Claflin). Once a wealthy, live-life-on-the-edge playboy, Will now haunts a wing of his parents’ castle.

    It turns out, all it takes to melt Will Traynor’s cold, cold heart is a wildly mismatched yet huggably bold outfit and some dimples.

    Eventually Lou realizes that Will intends to end his life in a Swiss “death with dignity” clinic in six months, and good for everyone involved for addressing a difficult issue. Too bad they treat the end of life question the same way they treat Will’s suffering, his medical needs, and every other messy element in the film – which is to say, they keep it offscreen.

    Blandly inoffensive and colorful are not the kind of adjectives you use to describe a tear jerking romance that stays with you. Me Before You warms an icy heart before succumbing to terminal adorableness.

    Grade: C-

    Bleak Street

    The destinies of two undersized twin wrestlers and a pair of aging prostitutes braid in Arturo Ripstein’s grimly surreal Bleak Street (La Calle de la Amargura).

    Filmed in stylized black and white and set in a maze of back alleys in Mexico City, Bleak Street begins with off-kilter vignettes that provide glimpses into the dreary lives of the film’s four primary figures before pulling the strands together to depict the true crime that inspired the effort.

    Characters have workplace struggles and disrespect in common, though this hardly binds them. While Ripstein never misses a chance to showcase the humanity of each of his characters, transcending their destiny is not his aim, nor theirs.

    Respectful but absolutely never preachy, Bleak Street holds itself and its audience at a distance from the characters onscreen. While that disconnect feels intentional, Ripstein misses an opportunity for lasting relevance because he doesn’t generate deeper emotional connection with the tragic, true events unfolding.

    Grade: B

    Also opening in Columbus this weekend:

    • ALMOST HOLY (R)
    • THE CONGRESSMAN (R)
    • POPSTAR: NEVER STOP NEVER STOPPING (R)
    • TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES 2: OUT OF THE SHADOWS (PG-13)

    Reviews with help from George Wolf.

    Read more from Hope at MADDWOLF and listen to her weekly horror movie podcast, FRIGHT CLUB.

    Looking for more film events in Columbus? CLICK HERE to visit our Events Calendar.

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    Hope Madden
    Hope Maddenhttps://columbusunderground.com
    Hope Madden is a freelance contributor on Columbus Underground who covers the independent film scene, writes film reviews and previews film events.
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