MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER REVIEW
Comedy Theatre, August 12 and 14
For the first 15 minutes or so of Yorgos Lanthimos' latest film, it feels very much like we're still in the territory of his last, The Lobster (2015): the same deadpan exchanges and the same flat line-readings, from Colin Farrell in particular.
But it doesn't take long for the relationship between surgeon Steven Murphy (Farrell) and Martin (Barry Keoghan), the very embodiment of teenage awkwardness, to move from vaguely uncomfortable to clearly threatening – and it's the kid who wields the power.
Initially welcomed into the idyllic but oddly chilly Murphy residence by Steven's wife Anna (Nicole Kidman), Martin soon becomes a malevolent presence that cannot be exorcised.
Alicia Silverstone pops up in a wildly funny cameo as Martin's mother, but the uneasy humour soon gives way to utter darkness as Lanthimos reworks the ancient Greek myth of Iphigenia into a modern fable about accountability and vengeance.
Bleakly brilliant.
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