First-time director Valdimar Jóhannsson has created something strikingly odd with his auspicious debut feature, Lamb, a part-creature feature, part-ruminant relationship drama about a pair of grieving parents who adopt a half-lamb, half-human baby. At times darkly funny – the human-lamb hybrid child has that effect – but played throughout as deadpan serious by its minimalist cast (led by the always impressive Noomi Rapace of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo acclaim), Lamb is a thought-provoking curio that begs questions about humankind’s need to command the natural world and their own lesser urges – and their inability to do so. Jóhannsson’s vision is strange but singular, adopted in kind by the exact studio that genre-defying fare like this ought to be adopted by, A24, though I remain unconvinced that it necessarily adds up to the kind of menacing profundity intended. Read More