I don't want to write any criticism for the movie. Most good reviews have done it better than me. What I would like to write has to do with basic understanding of a particular kind of movies.
There are movies which are self-explanatory and there are movies like this one. I find it sad that a lot of critics have the words "obtuse, weird, no meaning, garbage, etc ". I am Greek so I am familiar with the context and the generic idea behind the movie but even in other complicated movies (directors like Aronofsky, Bunuel, etc have created movies like this one (and because i want to avoid haters, i am NOT making a comparison between Lanthimos and those guys)), I always, ALWAYS think and read before I judge.
It's one of those movies that you need to think and even by thinking you may still not be able to understand it. You may need to read before passing any judgment. But for me at least this is the beautiful thing with these kind of movies. They educate you. You evolve as a personality because of them. To rephrase it, you may evolve as a personality because of them if you let yourself open. If you baptize the movie as crap just because you found the acting "weird" or "empty" without thinking why the director choose this approach(?), then you have barricaded yourself under the safety of your own little world.
Of course if you believe that a movie is good only if you are able to understand it without the need of any reading, considerable thinking etc. then of course this is not a movie for you and you have excluded yourself from a vast collection of amazing directors and movies but that's just personal preference. There is always a new Saw movie coming along :) !
There are movies which are self-explanatory and there are movies like this one. I find it sad that a lot of critics have the words "obtuse, weird, no meaning, garbage, etc ". I am Greek so I am familiar with the context and the generic idea behind the movie but even in other complicated movies (directors like Aronofsky, Bunuel, etc have created movies like this one (and because i want to avoid haters, i am NOT making a comparison between Lanthimos and those guys)), I always, ALWAYS think and read before I judge.
It's one of those movies that you need to think and even by thinking you may still not be able to understand it. You may need to read before passing any judgment. But for me at least this is the beautiful thing with these kind of movies. They educate you. You evolve as a personality because of them. To rephrase it, you may evolve as a personality because of them if you let yourself open. If you baptize the movie as crap just because you found the acting "weird" or "empty" without thinking why the director choose this approach(?), then you have barricaded yourself under the safety of your own little world.
Of course if you believe that a movie is good only if you are able to understand it without the need of any reading, considerable thinking etc. then of course this is not a movie for you and you have excluded yourself from a vast collection of amazing directors and movies but that's just personal preference. There is always a new Saw movie coming along :) !