Alps (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2012)

I greatly enjoyed Yorgos Lanthimos' breakthrough feature Dogtooth, even if its nastiness was just a bit too much at times. Alps is no less sardonic, but it refines the director's comic edge, reducing the collateral damage and skewering the subject of identity with greater precision. Lanthimos himself has copped to the film being an inversion of Dogtooth, of people escaping into fantasy rather than from it, but they share insights into social integration and the way in which the self is defined, sometimes horribly, by the Other. Featuring beautiful cinematography and bleak humor, Alps is as troubling as it is intoxicating and hilarious. Highly recommended.

My full review is up now at Spectrum Culture.

Dogtooth

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