X
- 2016
- R
- The Orchard
- 1 h 37 m
- 2016
- R
- The Orchard
- 1 h 37 m
Summary When a man meets a young girl in a parking lot, he attempts to help her avoid a bleak destiny by initiating her into the beauty of the outside world. The journey shakes them in ways neither expects.
Directed By: Ross Partridge
Written By: Bonnie Nadzam, Ross Partridge
- 2016
- R
- The Orchard
- 1 h 37 m
- 2016
- R
- The Orchard
- 1 h 37 m
Lamb
62
6.2
Where to Watch
Summary When a man meets a young girl in a parking lot, he attempts to help her avoid a bleak destiny by initiating her into the beauty of the outside world. The journey shakes them in ways neither expects.
Directed By: Ross Partridge
Written By: Bonnie Nadzam, Ross Partridge
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 12 Critic Reviews
62
67% Positive
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
25% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
8% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 12 Critic Reviews
62
67% Positive
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
25% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
8% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Partridge navigates risky material with assurance, delicacy and a deepening sense of intimacy that can turn, without warning, into complicity: The more at ease we feel in the characters’ company, the more disturbingly questionable the situation becomes.
The movie holds no clear answers. Every time you think you know where it’s going, it veers. And at the end, I’m pretty sure even Tommie and Lamb – who alternately thinks he’s enriching her life or ruining it – don’t quite know what they’ve been through. But the journey seems to have been worthwhile for them and us.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 13 User Ratings
6.2
62% Positive
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
15% Mixed
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
23% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 13 User Ratings
6.2
62% Positive
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
15% Mixed
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
23% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
I found this a surprisingly moving and mysterious film. While it does sound like and kind of is a bit of a Lolita type tale, it's not entirely sexually provocative or explicitly graphic.tacky. I thought the young child actor, Oona Laurence, gave a very good performance, she's certainly very emotive and there's some good dialogue present definitely. There's also some pretty good cinematography present, with nice sweeping landscapes depicted. The context of what happens isn't clear for quite a while and it's all a bit strange but slowly we start to get an idea of why he's doing what he does. This is a quirky, intriguing watch - a somewhat random but a good watch certainly, yes, so I'd recommend it, yes, for Oona's performance if not for anything else. It may stay with you for a while.
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An amazing film, and a great way to be welcomed back to seeing serious movies again. The best way to describe it, I guess, is as a preternatural film – a thoroughly believable film which initially seems unnatural, until the very end where one final image explains everything.
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Throughout Lamb, Laurence makes sure that every one of the character’s bad choices makes sense. That’s what makes the movie so sad.
Lamb proves itself a deeply intriguing psychological drama that should inspire much spirited debate. Let the controversy begin.
Lamb is empathetic and untrustworthy, haunting but often unpersuasive. In the end it's hard to say what the film's point is. But it lingers in the mind.
This film doesn’t know exactly what it wants to say.
Ross Partridge seems flatly fascinated by Lamb’s pathology without trying to understand its formation from environmental factors.
A simple story about a man and a kid. Nothing really exciting happens but it keeps me engaged throughout, constantly wondering about the tense yet affectionate relationship between these two characters. Beautiful music and scenery helps convey the kind of mood in the film. I like it. I can't understand the motive of trip, but the strong bonding between them feels real; after a week travelling together. Ending was rather sad.
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Lamb's fun to watch and enjoy. Lamb exactly tell a simple story about a man and a girl. Eye-seeking moments should keep you from staying on your seat to enjoy this movie.
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I hate to generalize about a movie studio, but A24 certainly tends to present films that have no problems with the "slow burn". MIDSOMMAR springs instantly to mind. The recent C'MON, C'MON. Many others, including LAMB. If you don't have the patience for atmosphere, a slow-build and (in this film) large chunks of relative silence...keep looking for something else to watch. On the other hand, if you can give yourself over to the mood of a film and trust the artists involved to take you on a worthwhile **** ready for a deeply strange and captivating story.
LAMB is set on a very isolated farm somewhere in Iceland. I don't know my Icelandic geography very well, but the farm really seems to be almost literally cut off from the world, as though the couple that lives there must somehow be totally self-sufficient. Certainly they are forced to get by with each other's company (and that of their farm animals, primarily sheep) for a really long time. The long, silent opening sequence focuses on the sheep...just showing them sort of going about their business but then freaking out by SOMETHING that has come into their midst. It's a wholly disturbing sequence and gets you into a creepy, chilly mood right out of the gate. A mood that never entirely dissipates. We then meet the lonely couple that owns the farm and lives in the modest farmhouse. Both are likeable but it's clear their relationship isn't all it could be. Later hints give as an idea of some of the big issues that have come between these quiet, gentle people.
At the risk of sharing ruining too much, I'll only go as far as the trailers for the film take us...a sheep soon gives birth to a rather extraordinary lamb. And the lamb becomes a replacement child for the couple. Later, the husband's ne'er-do-well brother stops by for a visit, and now events begin to proceed at a brisker pace.
There are horror elements in LAMB, some overt, but most merely hints. But my takeaway from the film was one of having seen an Icelandic folktale, perhaps updated to our time, but a folktale nonetheless. I have no idea if there is in fact such a tale out **** when I think of how strangely people in the film react to certain outrageous events, this is the conclusion I draw (along with my own feeling while watching the film). Weird stuff happens, but no one questions it. This extraordinary lamb is never questioned. No one asks "how did this happen" or "what is going on?!?!?" Think back on the fairy tales Americans are most exposed to...PRINCESS AND THE FROG for example. No one ever says "wait, what, a frog is actually a prince?" No, the big question lies around whether the princess will let the frog live with her! In LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD, it's taken for granted that a wolf could swallow a grandma and a little girl and that they could be cut out unharmed. Those wild and crazy portions of the story are just about incidental to other themes being explored. LAMB has that "things like this happen in this world" vibe.
Once you sort of get that mindset, the bulk of LAMB plays out like a sad, tender, (sometimes funny), completely understandable domestic drama. Man, woman, brother & lamb interact in a world only slightly off-kilter from ours. One we can understand and empathize with.
It's a gorgeous film, with amazing landscapes providing a harsh backdrop to everything. It's well-acted and confidently directed. I found it to be one of the great treats of my 2021 movie-going experiences.
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Production Company
Silent Helicopter,
The Shot Clock
Release Date Jan 8, 2016
Duration 1 h 37 m
Rating R
Genres
Tagline Innocence walks a fine line
Awards
Hell's Half Mile Film and Music Festival
• 1 Win & 3 Nominations
Woodstock Film Festival
• 2 Wins & 2 Nominations
Sarasota Film Festival
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
