Lamb - Movie Review

Critics Score - 8 of 10

General Audience Score - 6 of 10

A24 is a film production and distribution company that makes great smaller films, they also acquire distribution rights to some fantastic foreign films so lovers of cinema here in the U.S. can can go crazy over them. They’ve brought us a slew of truly wonderful movies over the almost ten years they’ve been in existence, including the Best Picture winner of 2016, Moonlight. The latest film they’ve brought to theatres a couple weeks ago is a foreign film from Iceland called Lamb. If you haven’t watched the trailer for this film yet, don’t, it has the biggest impact on those that know the least about it. I’ll not only steer clear of spoilers but stay as vague as possible. It’s a wild ride, like most A24 films, and although it’s not the greatest movie of the year, it’s fascinating, it’s weird and when held up against most other new releases, proves to be a lion of a film amongst Lambs.

SYNOPSIS - This story of what everyday life on a sheep farm is like begins with some scenes of a couple doing their daily routine of chores around the farmyard. Before too long we see the husband Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Guonason) and his wife Maria (Noomi Rapace) feeding and handling sheep right before we see what I have to believe is a live lamb birth scene. I mean, these actors got their hands dirty. But soon they come in to deliver a baby and after pulling it out discover there’s something different about this one. They bring it inside, feed it, get a baby crib out for it to sleep in and eventually begin to clothe it. Before long Ingvar’s brother Pétur (Björn Hlynur Haraldsson) comes around to visit and help them on the farm only to find them playing mom and dad to this sheep-child they call Ava. He doesn’t understand their fascination with the animal, tries to convince them that this needs to stop but is only met with resistance and the explanation that having Ava as a daughter brings them happiness. Although right off the get go it’s apparent the crazy train has left the station, but we’re along for this ride and need to find out what happens when this train inevitably derails.

After the sequel to the Nicolas cage film Pig from earlier this year wraps up, most audiences will be left wondering what in the hell they just watched. Some will be on the very positive side of the spectrum with appreciation for new, inventive and original ideas portrayed on the screen in a incredibly cinematic way with some absolutely stunning cinematography. Others will definitely feel this films hour and forty-five minute runtime drag out, it’s relatively slow moving and methodical in it’s pacing, and by the end feel the film just didn’t pay off in terms of being a satisfying and enjoyable experience. Interesting sure, creepy a little, but not fun. There’s a lot Lamb is doing well, like it’s tone and visual effects, but in some aspects it requires an eye for it, just like a fine wine may require a trained palette to enjoy fully. But it’s doing a lot with very little, as if Nomadland and The Witch got together and had a child, lots of contemplative silence and mood setting to take us to an alternate reality on a farm in Iceland.

SUMMARY - This foreign film is not for everyone, but it’s very visual based storytelling, very little Icelandic dialogue equals very little reading for those that dislike that aspect of films in other languages. But some audiences, especially cinephiles, will be able to get on this film’s wavelength and enjoy the art and craft on display because in some of the aspects of this piece of cinema, Lamb has some serious chops.