The Lighthouse - Review Thread

I was gonna see this on Wednesday but had to push a week. Blast!

Ye landlubber best get back to task.

Loved it.

Watch ‘dees scallywags spill they beans

The Lighthouse(10/24/2019)
I’ve spent a lot of time in recent years talking about a trend of elevated horror movies. Granted, calling this a trend is a little nebulous as the movies don’t have that much in common aside from being horror movies that are more artisitic than what Hollywood makes and there’s no real evidence that they’re really influencing one another, but they’ve become part of the film discourse just the same. 2019 is in many ways the year where the whole “movement” really pays off because we’ve gotten follow-up films from most of the directors that have defined it. We’ve gotten new films from the directors of The Babadook (Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale), Hereditary (Ari Astor’s Midsommar), It Follows (David Robert Mitchell’s Under the Silver Lake), and It Comes at Night (Trey Edward Shults’s upcoming Waves). Some of these follow-ups were really solid and suggested more good things to come, some suggested that their filmmakers maybe weren’t as good as their debuts promised. Some suggested a doubling down on horror as their filmmaker’s genre of choice, and some didn’t. But the film that I’ve personally been waiting on the most was The Lighthouse, the sophomore effort of Robert Eggers, director of the amazing 2015 film The Witch which is probably the very best of all of them.

After the release of The Witch there were rumors that Eggers was working on some sort of new version of Nosferatu and I’m not sure if he’s still working on that or not but clearly he transitioned into making another film that harkens back to the early days of cinema called The Lighthouse. That film is set in an unclear time and place but it appears to be at an island somewhere in the vicinity of New England at some point in the late 19th or early 20th century. On that island is a tall lighthouse along with some lodgings and a little bit of space. As the film begins a man named Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson) is boated over to this island having gotten a four week contract to act as a worker at the lighthouse which is otherwise overseen by an old former sailor Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe). Wake proves to be a rather bossy and uncompromising man with a strange habit of going up to the top of the lighthouse and bathing in its light. Winslow also proves not to be a prime example of mental health either as he’s having odd visions of mermaids and other nautical horrors and soon after arriving starts to think that the island’s seagulls are stalking him. Over the course of these four plus weeks of work the two start to antagonize each other and a deranged war of wills commences.

The Lighthouse was shot in black and white and in 1.19:1, which is a very narrow aspect ratio associated with the very earliest days of sound filmmaking. These choices seem to have been made partly to give the film a certain sense of unreality. You could say that this gives the film a certain dream/nightmare quality, I’d even compare it to Eraserhead to some extent but it doesn’t get completely weird right away. I think there also might be something to be said for the tall aspect ratio mirroring the verticality of the lighthouse and for the black and white just generally selling some of the period details a bit better. This is not, however, a film that is strictly impressive on a visual level. Eggers’ writing is also quite a thing to behold as he has once again opted to really lean in to the unique dialect of the period he’s set his film in. Dafoe’s character in particular finds himself using an old fashioned seafaring slang and adopts an accent which is not unlike the captain from “The Simpsons.” Occasionally the character will start reciting long passages of nautical invective that was almost certainly an ordeal to write and even harder to recite. The film is well aware of how close this character comes to self-parody, and even comments on this at one point, but it still manages to make it work. It also does a great job of making the Pattinson character very different from Dafoe’s despite still largely being a product of his time.

But what does all of this mean? I don’t know… does it need to mean something? My running theory while watching it is that the island is functioning as a sort of purgatory for the Pattinson character. Over the course of the film he’s constantly being tested in various ways, has a variety of temptations placed before him, and is also sort of forced to face some sort of incident from his past that he feels guilty about. This is not necessarily a Christian purgatory however and a lot of the film’s imagery (especially the final shot) is strongly rooted in older mythology, and alternatively the whole thing could be thought of less as a literal purgatory and more as a sort of manifestation of this character’s guilt through a sort of nightmare. Having said all that I wouldn’t recommend getting to bent out of shape trying to “solve” this movie, not on a first viewing anyway. Instead I’d recommend going with the flow and taking the movie in as a sensory experience and as an almost theatrical exercise in two characters kind of dueling it out for two hours.
****1/2 out of Five

Count me among those who thoroughly enjoyed the directorial debut of Robert Eggers' film The Witch, which chronicled a Puritan family that fights among themselves while succumbing to the supernatural powers within the woods that their small home borders. It was filled with period detail, knowledge of folklore, and some terrific performances all around that immediately made Eggers a filmmaker to watch moving forward. His latest work, The Lighthouse, is an even stronger followup film, also set in an older America and featuring characters unraveling in isolation, this time on a desolate rock while maintaining a lighthouse which no ships ever seem to pass. Eggers is clearly a studious filmmaker, accentuated by his idea to shoot the film in black-and-white and go with a very rare 1.19:1 aspect ratio, which only heightened the claustrophobic mindset of the characters and their embattling isolation. He's a filmmaker that clearly makes very calculated decisions, and it pays off resulting in perhaps the most absorbing and mystifying movie experience of 2019.

In the 1890s, two lighthouse workers (or wickies), arrive for their two-fortnight stay maintaining a lighthouse on a desolate piece of rock. The elder wickie is Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe), a grumbly old sea dog who isn't much for people or land and elects to speak in long-winded sermons pertaining to endless tall tales. The younger is Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson), who was a timber worker up in Canada but has decided to change professions, a decision he may regret as he endures the brunt of grunt work on the island and is subjected to Wake's constant badgering and lectures. The only time when the men seem to tolerate one another's company are their nightly drinking binges, where secrets are revealed and each man's vulnerabilities and paranoias become displayed. Winslow finds himself fascinated with Wake's other nightly routine where he sneaks up to the lighthouse and indulges in sitting naked in front of the light. Wake won't allow Winslow entry to the light, which only infuriates Winslow more. To make matters worse, Winslow begins to see things, such as a woman washed up on shore who turns out to be a mermaid (Valeriia Karaman), and also has frequent battles with a one-eyed seagull, who Wake of course instructs not to harm because it will bring bad luck. As the storm on the island intensifies, the two men's drunken binges become fervently hostile, and it becomes clear that only one or none of them will survive in the battle for supremacy of the power the lighthouse grants.

Eggers can pull out all the aesthetic tricks he wants to set the tone, but this ultimately comes down to being a surrealistic chamber piece and even more operates as an incredibly entertaining pissing contest between the two leads. The performances by Dafoe and Pattinson are excellent, with each thrusting themselves into their characters and thrillingly delivering exuberant characterizations of two men running from their past and seeing those demons manifest themselves on the island. The Lighthouse is able to switch tones so well due to their work, moving effortlessly from chilling to hilarious. Dafoe and Pattinson are one of the great onscreen dynamics ever for a two man show, and should both receive serious awards consideration for their work.

An impressive feat that Eggers is able to achieve is making a sort of grounded surrealism, which I felt he did with The Witch as well. The hallucinatory aspect never feels out of place or takes the viewer from the island, but rather does an excellent job of heightening both of the men's paranoid psyches and literal representations of their dueling masculinities. It's a balancing act that's tougher than it looks, one that would make Ingmar Bergman proud, and the black-and-white compositions used to pull them off are strikingly beautiful. Not to say that things don't get exceptionally weird, especially by the film's enigmatic ending, but once again Eggers' attention to period detail and folklore pays off tremendously with the film feeling more like a delightfully hallucinatory tall tale of the seven seas than an actual nightmare. Despite the film's many complexities, in the end this is a folktale of greed, guilt, and jealous paranoia that fits in perfectly with the stories of old that Eggers has certainly studied over and over. The Lighthouse is a movie that not only showcases the talents of Eggers, Dafoe, and Pattinson (who has really become an A24 darling in the best of ways) but offers the rare blend of being an arthouse film with arthouse tendencies that will appeal to broader audiences looking for a unique and entertaining taste of something different.

8/10 

He should have filmed it all in portrait. In for a penny, in for a pound.

You smell of shit.

After the monumental debut of The Witch back in 2016 I've been eagerly awaiting Robert Eggers' sophomore effort. Well, The Lighthouse is finally here and it's further proof that Eggers is one of the most interesting and exceptionally skilled filmmakers to emerge in recent memory. Set at a remote lighthouse in the late 19th or early 20th century (I think), The Lighthouse follows Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson) as he takes a job working for former sailor Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe) as the two work together to maintain the lighthouse. The film plays sort of like a gender flipped Persona, with two entities (who in many ways represent two sides of the same coin) in an isolated seaside environment who slowly crash as both are pushed to extreme psychological ends. I don't bring this comparison up haphazardly, as I do think that reference point is meaningful. Where the more feminine Persona is intimate and sensitive, The Lighthouse is much more violent and brutal, with Winslow and Thomas engaging in all manner of macho posturing and competition. Of course, this level of posturing is something of a facade, as both men do show a layer of sensitivity and intimacy in the midst of their big chested showdowns. It's kind of like the drunken boat scene in Jaws, only on a longer timeline.

Eggers gets a lot of tension out of how the relationship between the two men ebbs and flows and I do think The Lighthouse offers an interesting exploration of masculinity. The film can also be seen as a story of attempting to escape one's guilt and being trapped in a hell of one's own making. I love how endlessly analyzable The Lighthouse is, but one certainly doesn't need to get up on thematic meaning to enjoy the film. On a strictly narrative level, this is an enthralling story of two fascinating men trapped in a sort of war of wills in an isolated environment. Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe both give incredibly performances which are big without feeling inappropriately over the top. Dafoe in particular is just mesmerizing here, equal parts menacing, funny, strangely sympathetic, and never totally trustworthy. In a legacy of unique performances, I'd argue it's one of Dafoe's best. The dialogue the men have to work with his also sparkling. Eggers, co-writing here with his brother Max, has once again opted for period realistic dialogue that feels highly specific to the milieu the characters are within. The writing is just so unique and Pattinson and Dafoe deliver it brilliantly.

On a visual level, The Lighthouse is a full-blown masterpiece. Eggers shoots the film in the highly narrow 1.19 :1 aspect ratio which both hearkens back to an earlier era in cinema history, but also traps the characters yet tighter with the frame. I love the claustrophobia this narrow ratio adds, but I also think the old school ratio adds a sort of folk tale vibe to the movie that aids this story nicely. Eggers also shoots the film in very stark black and white and captures some of the most haunting imagery in recent memory. The Lighthouse isn't quite a horror movie, but the visuals are deeply unsettling and there is an undercurrent of violence and forbidden terror which really lingers. It's ugly stuff, but there's a vivid beauty to how Eggers, cinematographer Jarin Blaschke, and production designer Craig Lathrop bring it all to life. Oh and Mark Korven's score is haunting and fantastic.

All told, The Lighthouse is something of a gem in modern cinema. I can see some cinematic reference points, but the film is a true original which is completely unique from anything else playing in theaters. The story is a fascinating exploration of masculinity and guilt told with aplomb and a pair of fantastic performances from two actors leaving it all on the screen. On a purely cinematic level, I was enthralled from start to finish. This shit is awesome.

A+

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