The Lobster (15)

four stars

Dir: Yorgos Lanthimos

With: Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz

Runtime: 118 minutes

THOSE who have seen Yorgos Lanthimos’s Dogtooth and Alps know to expect the brilliantly twisted from the Greek auteur. Welcome, then, to The Lobster, a future set drama where it is against the law to be single. Loners are hunted, and getting caught means being turned into an animal that has two choices - eat or be eaten. The Lobster stays in the pot for too long, but an all star cast, including Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, and Scotland’s Ashley Jensen, plus a surreally funny screenplay mining all the madness of the concept, makes this a Lanthimos collectors’ item. Winner of the jury prize at Cannes, with another award, the Palm Dog, for a certain charismatic Collie.

Crimson Peak (15)

three stars

Dir: Guillermo del Toro

With: Tom Hiddleston, Mia Wasikowska

Runtime: 119 minutes

HEADING your way for Halloween is Guillermo del Toro’s period chiller, a film that is not so much Hammer than out and out hammy, but enjoyably so. Opening in frontiers America, Mia Wasikowska plays a young lady with a fortune who comes to the attention of creepy English siblings Thomas and Lucille Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston and Jessica Chastain). Why are they so interested in this fair damsel? Screamingly over the top, with del Toro’s trademark sumptuous visuals to the fore.

x-ref: Tom Hiddleston interview - page xx

Hotel Transylvania 2 (U)

three stars

Dir: Genndy Tartakovsky

Voices: Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez

Runtime: 89 minutes

ADAM Sandler, Steve Buscemi and pals return for more animated movie fun set around the home from home for monsters (and a few humans) in spooky old Transylvania. It’s three years on, the Count’s daughter Mavis is hitched to a mortal, and the patter of tiny feet is about to interrupt proceedings. What will it be, a boy or a girl, a vamp or a human? Genndy Tartakovsky’s caper is nicely left field, with sly humour and enough silliness for all ages.