THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER (2017)

When I started this blog, I assumed I would only be writing about films that had had an impact on me which were released, at the very leastm a year or two before the present day. But, having just seen Yorgos Lanthimos' The Killing of a Sacred Deer, I can't think of a film released recently that has stayed with me so much.

I'll do my best to keep major plotpoints out of this write-up and focus on how the film made me feel and what I gleaned from it. For the sake of context, though, the film is essentially a revenge story involving Colin Farrell, his family, and a teenaged boy played by Barry Koeghan. Part tragedy, part thriller and part black comedy, The Killing of a Sacred Deer is impossible to pin down into one genre as it drifts between all three of these, sometimes invoking all of them at the same time.

Lanthimos's idisyncratic dialogue is like an alien's impression of what humans sound like. Often it's hilarious. Similar to his previous films, Dogtooth and The Lobster, this is a world without emotional guilt or many social boundaries. People do what is most logical, even if it is in stark contrast with what they want. 

The world of Sacred Deer, begs to be explored further. Not that it is undereveloped, but there is clearly a major societal difference between this world and our own with an undoudbetly fascinating backstory. It's refreshing to see such a wildly unique take on societal norms. It's an example of world-building without unnecessary flash.  

Lanthimos's work isn't afraid to embrace tragedy and let things end on a dower, uncertain note. Where most films use tragedy to motivate characters and plot points, Lanthimos' characters are perfectly (mostly?) happy and it is the result of both their choices and fate that bring them to an ultimately tragic climax.

I genuinely laughed harder during this film than any comedy released in recent memory. It's an odd film and I quite loved it.