The Lobster

These comedies are so funny ... and so squirmy.

True Detective didn’t exactly pan out for Colin Farrell, but Amazon might welcome him back to TV. The Lobster star is re-teaming with director Yorgos Lanthimos for a new Amazon limited series about the Iran-Contra affair, with Farrell portraying Oliver North.

According to most people (on the internet, which is where most people live now), 2016 was horrific. It was a year in which we lost some of our best and brightest artists, a year in which we elected a president who will, according to Kate McKinnon’s Hilary Clinton, “kill us all,” and it was a year in which many blockbusters fulfilled the “bust” end of that promise. Despite all of this, 2016 delivered some truly remarkable films; because of all of this, we needed them.

How you define the “best” of something varies from one person to the next. The “best” movies can be the ones crafted with the most artistry, the ones that feel particularly culturally significant, the ones you can’t shake hours, days, or months after seeing them. Or perhaps the best films are the ones you simply love the most and are eager returning to again and again.

ScreenCrush Editor-in-Chief Matt Singer handpicks three new titles you can watch at home this August from Movies on Demand.

There are four seasons to a year, but only two seasons to a movie year: Summer, which now starts around late February, and Awards.

It’s the near-distant future and your husband or wife has left you. Instead of making a Tinder profile or joining OKCupid, you check into The Hotel. There you have 45 days to find a new partner, and if you fail you’re transformed into the animal of your choosing, then released into The Forest to live out your days. Is this a foreshadowing of our future? Maybe, but it’s also the plot of Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest film, ‘The Lobster.’

In 2013, Spike Jonze delivered one of the most poignant and thoughtful meditations on the complexities of relationships and humanity with Her. Two years later and Yorgos Lanthimos has given us what is perhaps the most definitive relationship film in years with The Lobster, a movie that explores the full spectrum of relationships with impeccable wit, delightfully dark humor and insights so sharp they verge on deadly.

Today, a small development that may have major ramifications down the line: Deadline reports that yesterday, fledgling film distributor A24 quietly struck the March 11 release date of The Lobster from their schedule, with plans to announce a new release date ‘shortly.’ (A24 recently took over distribution of the film from another company, Alchemy.) The Deadline item also takes care to note that the relatively young distribution outfit waltzed away from the Oscars on Sunday night with three key wins — Ex Machina picked up the Best Visual Effects prize, Amy Winehouse chronicle Amy snagged the Best Documentary Feature award, and their adaptation of Emma Donoghue’s novel Room earned Brie Larson the Best Actress Oscar. Though we’ll find out shortly, it smells a bit like A24 may be considering a release later in the year, to pose The Lobster as a possible awards contender.

Yorgos Lanthimos is responsible for such darkly satirical films as Dogtooth and Alps, but his latest might be his most heartfelt, perceptive and hilarious film yet. The trailer for The Lobster asks you to envision a world in which Colin Farrell is a mustached, lonely schlub faced with a rather alarming predicament: he has 45 days to find a mate, or he'll be transformed into an animal — at least he gets to choose the animal.