Pitched somewhere between Lars Von Trier and The Village, Giorgos Lanthimos’ dark, deadpan comedy is a coolly cruel dissection of power gone crackers.
A Greek patriarch and his wife confine their three grown-up kids within home boundaries, teaching them nonsense vocab (“A motorway is a very strong wind”) and issuing silly warnings (cats are lethal) to allay interest in the outside world.
But when dad pays a co-worker to satisfy his son’s desires, the latent lunacy in this familial enclave overflows.
Overstated violence aside, this is assured and low-key, drawing on dead-eyed performances to create a controlled, neatly absurdist allegory.
