The Other Lamb: A Beautifully Filmed Snooze
Acclaimed Polish director Małgorzata Szumowska makes her English-language debut with The Other Lamb, a feminist leaning cult-drama with spats of surrealism and violence. Working from a script from Catherine S. McMullen that somehow wound up on The Black List in 2017, the film is breathtakingly photographed but doesn’t crackle with much catharsis or say anything we haven’t already heard before.
The cult was all Selah (Raffey Cassidy) knew—until one day she begins to question its leader (Michiel Huisman) and the insular world she was born into in this haunting vision of a nightmarish awakening.
The first thing anyone will notice about The Other Lamb is how undeniably gorgeous its cinematography by Michał Englert is. Englert, who has collaborated with director Małgorzata c for the better part of two decades, certainly has a firm grasp on how to bring her vision to life, a vision which is both striking and hollow. Full of lush landscapes, natural light, and soft focus, the images themselves are beautiful and haunting; however, as the film progresses, another thing becomes very clear: the filmmakers got too caught up in the visuals and forgot to tell a compelling story.
There’s definitely something here to this feminist cult-drama, but it’s not executed in a way that feels all too resonate or profound. And the little that’s there is admittedly hard to follow at times. It kind of feels like they knew the story they were telling wasn’t all too interesting, so they made it as convoluted as possible to build intrigue, but it’s a thin veneer of a device that a lot of folks will see right through. It’s a story we’re all pretty familiar with at this point (females being oppressed by a domineering male overlord that must be dethroned), and it goes exactly where you think it’ll go but takes the long, slow path getting there, arriving at a climax that seems better suited as an inciting incident or 2nd act twist.
The viewer is plunged right into the day-to-day of the cult’s life without any real inclination as to its formation, the kind of world it resides in, or how its followers came to be there. Some these things are revealed later or gleaned in context, but it’s information that seems better revealed up front instead of withheld. For instance, we learn Selah was brought to the cult by her mother, but we have no idea how her mother heard about the cult or found her way there. We also see a few cops in the film, which lets the viewer know the world is modern; although, that’s the only evidence we have of that. When the cop tells the cult they gotta be moving on, they venture out in search of a new place to call home, but they never once come across any semblance of humanity outside of the cop; aside from being a somewhat weak narrative crutch, the cop’s presence provokes more questions than it does answers.
It’s basically The Handmaid’s Tale with elements of Midsommar and The VVitch, which sounds a lot cooler than it actually is. Had the film come out in 2015-2017, it’d probably feel a bit more fresh, but it kinda plays like a cash-grab on the burgeoning female-centric times we live in. There’s a Malick-like quality to the nature elements coupled with some Lynchian moments of surrealism and the pregnant pauses and slow zooms of Nicolas Winding Refn, making Szumowska’s vision feel very derivative and not entirely coherent. Much like its title (which signifies Selah’s evitable rebellion), a lot of the meaning and symbolism of its imagery are very unsubtle, like Selah’s continuous vision of a ram, and overall, the film doesn’t have much to say other than men are trash and the patriarchy’s a drag.
Unsettling and tedious, The Other Lamb offers little nuance to a familiar story. Without a compelling narrative, it’s just a film full of pretty pictures. There’s something Szumowska and McMullen are trying to say about womanhood, our modern times, and the power of the cult mind, but it’s all a little too washed out to really land with the powerful punch that it ought to, but, hey, it sure looks good.
Recommendation: Unless you want some beautiful images and not much else, don’t feel like you need to “flock” to see this one.
Rating: 2 silent screams outta 5.
Wanna learn a bit more?! Check out the director’s official statement on the film here.
What do you think? We want to know. Share your thoughts and feelings in the comment section below, and as always, remember to viddy well!