Yorgos Lanthimos has showcased his talents for absurdity, and the different ways in which it can be approached, in several of his previous films, most notably in Dogtooth and The Lobster. The Killing of a Sacred Deer, does however still manage to feel like new territory for the filmmaker, and it comes as no surprise that the film was one of two winners of the Best Screenplay award at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.
This thriller/black comedy/horror film approaches a family, headed by Steven (Colin Farrell playing a Cardiothoracic Surgeon father), and Anna (Nicole Kidman as an Ophthalmologist mother and Farrell’s wife) and their two children. The film focuses primarily on the consequences faced by the family because of Steven’s alcohol-enabled surgical error that led to the death of one of his patients, resulting in slow and unforeseen violent consequences from the patient’s teenage son (played by the particularly brilliant Barry Keoghan).
Partially based on the Greek myth of Agamemnon and Iphigenia, and is in conversation with the Greek playwright, Aesychlus’s Oresteia [link], The Killing… approaches the ways in which the violences wrought by one man, are often all-encompassing and not self-contained. The film’s heavily choral musical score, its visceral imagery, and its ability to be hilarious at extremely tense moments makes it a simultaneously enjoyable and discomfiting viewing experience, and Lanthimos plays with the audience’s desires and revulsions in ways that makes them complicit in the violences on screen. Equal parts drama and thriller, The Killing of a Sacred Deer is by far the most riveting film I’ve seen in years. You should see it too. 4.5/5.
The Killing of a Sacred Deer screened at the 36th Vancouver International Film Festival as part of its Special Presentations Series.
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