The Lighthouse (Robert Eggers)

[Ivan Drago]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZmE0MGJhNmYtOWNjYi00Njc5LW E2YjEtMWMxZTVmODUwMmMxXkEyXkFq cGdeQXVyMTkxNjUyNQ@@._V1_SY100 0_CR0,0,675,1000_AL_.jpg

IMDB (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7984734/) / Wiki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lighthouse_(2019_film))


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaR8q7DW9u8

[Ivan Drago]

I thought this was great, too! (http://www.foxforcefivenews.com/the-lighthouse-is-a-magnetic-mind-bending-horror-film-with-artistic-flair-review/)

[Milky Joe]

Yeah this was freakin' phenomenal.

[Wryan]

This is a fantastic exercise, although it doesn't really develop much. It quickly reaches and then holds that one glorious note of MADNESS for the running time, and I very much enjoyed myself. The visuals shimmer and ripple, the score is a dark entrancement, and the performances are as invigorating as you expect. But The Witch is a fuller, more complete film. I lost some of the dialogue in the accent mud and gristle. That one shot of Dafoe, you know the one, is a striking tableau worthy of Dore. In fact, I was reminded of Dore's Rime of the Ancient Mariner engravings a few times, tho most of those are at sea while this is more earthbound. This was ripping fun, but I think more could have been done after all.

[TGM]

I was inspired to make a thing. :p

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[Ezee E]

I respect it, but I didn't really like it.

Robert Eggers directs the heck out of this. You can smell the salt from the ocean, and Dafoe/Pattinson certainly keep it interesting the whole way through.
But I'll admit that I couldn't wait for it to end, and gets pretty ridiculous in the end, and not in a good way. It just feels like ideas were thought about and put together as they came.

[transmogrifier]

I think The Witch is one of the most overrated films of the last few years, so I'm kind of dreading this. But I'll watch it to be a good cinephile. Better to support this than live action Disney remakes.

[TGM]

I respect it, but I didn't really like it.

Robert Eggers directs the heck out of this. You can smell the salt from the ocean, and Dafoe/Pattinson certainly keep it interesting the whole way through.
But I'll admit that I couldn't wait for it to end, and gets pretty ridiculous in the end, and not in a good way. It just feels like ideas were thought about and put together as they came.

I’m pretty much in the exact same boat. I appreciate the performances here, but it reaches a point where it sorta just meanders, and I spent the entire last third thinking, alright, let’s move it along, take us home already. And once we finally got to where we were going, yeah, it wasn’t exactly worth all that time it took getting us there. *shrug*

[Irish]

I think The Witch is one of the most overrated films of the last few years, so I'm kind of dreading this. But I'll watch it to be a good cinephile. Better to support this than live action Disney remakes.

I heard Dafoe does some weird, old-timey pirate voice so it might be worth it just for that.

[transmogrifier]

I heard Dafoe does some weird, old-timey pirate voice so it might be worth it just for that.

I'll definitely watch it in the theatres if it ever makes it to Korea. Otherwise it's another trip to the high seas for me as there would be no other way to see it.

On the plus side, Korean cinemas are showing The Irishman at the end of this month, so that's pleasant.

[Ezee E]

I heard Dafoe does some weird, old-timey pirate voice so it might be worth it just for that.

I mean, that, him and Pattinson dancing around like drunken sailors, and some weird naked mermaid/merman (?) stuff... But it's not really worth it.

Someone write Eggers a script.

[TGM]

I mean, that, him and Pattinson dancing around like drunken sailors, and some weird naked mermaid/merman (?) stuff...


I was inspired to make a thing. :p

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;) .

[Milky Joe]

This is probably on my top 10 of the decade.

[MadMan]

I think The Witch is one of the most overrated films of the last few years, so I'm kind of dreading this. But I'll watch it to be a good cinephile. Better to support this than live action Disney remakes.

I didn't care for The Witch and I loved this. It's crazy, weird and intense. I'm a sucker for black and white cinematography. Also two great performances, too.

[MadMan]

I was inspired to make a thing. :p

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The drunk scenes and Dafoe's angry curse monologue were my favorite parts. Not sure what the ending means or how it went down but I'm fine with that.

[Mal]

Robert Eggers grew up four miles from me in the town next door and I'm kicking myself that I never ran into the guy. I was perplexed when this was over, but the next morning, I found myself wanting to see it again immediately. There is such a sick pleasure in watching these men suffer in this setting- it is a darkly beautiful, haunting film that leans joyfully into the grotesque. Dafoe is giving a goddamn miracle of a performance here. Just wonderful all around, no matter how perverse and painful it may be.

[Pop Trash]

I didn't care for The Witch and I loved this. It's crazy, weird and intense. I'm a sucker for black and white cinematography. Also two great performances, too.

I'm agnostic about The Witch, like it but don't love it. I think there's too much slow build up to the horror stuff, which would be fine if the film was interesting outside of the horror elements, but I was a little bored.

I totally love this one. It's a weird, self contained descent into madness. I love how self conscious it is about Dafoe's wannabe Captain Ahab shtick and that RPatz calls him out on it. It's such a darkly funny, darkly weird commentary on a shitty roommate situation, a shitty job situation, and a shitty sexual frustration situation. I think a lot of people can relate.

[Pop Trash]

I just realized that Willem Dafoe STILL hasn't won a fucking Academy Award. Maybe this film will change that, but I wouldn't count on it.

[MadMan]

I'm agnostic about The Witch, like it but don't love it. I think there's too much slow build up to the horror stuff, which would be fine if the film was interesting outside of the horror elements, but I was a little bored. I gave it a 50 something out of a 100 because yeah I was a little bored and the movie is slow burn without the burn.


I totally love this one. It's a weird, self contained descent into madness. I love how self conscious it is about Dafoe's wannabe Captain Ahab shtick and that RPatz calls him out on it. It's such a darkly funny, darkly weird commentary on a shitty roommate situation, a shitty job situation, and a shitty sexual frustration situation. I think a lot of people can relate.Hah, yeah, especially with the roommate situation. The "but you liked me lobster" line is funny because it's Dafoe expressing the sadness of someone who tries and fails at something. This movie keeps growing on me.

[MadMan]

I just realized that Willem Dafoe STILL hasn't won a fucking Academy Award. Maybe this film will change that, but I wouldn't count on it.

As much as I was happy for Sam Rockwell, Dafoe should have won for The Florida Project.

[Peng]

A grand technical and actors' exercise in service of one single sustained note. When that note is a gorgeous Maddin/Melville one in which the two excellent actors keep finding many psychosexual black comedy variations on though, that's not much of a problem. Wish it was as complete a film as The Witch, but this is still frequently a hoot. 7.5/10

[Irish]

Self indulgent by all a parties --- an actor's exercise gone horribly wrong, with nonsense talk and big, loud, chewy monologues in every other scene. (And Jesus, for all the gab nobody says one thing worth hearing.)

The script needed more structure and more sense. There wasn't enough story here to sustain a single episode of television, much less a feature film. The more dreamlike ideas seemed like a desperate play to insert meaning where there otherwise would be none.

Loved the photography, tho. This is one of the few contemporary black and white films that just looks right, as if it could have been shot 60 or 70 years ago.

[Ezee E]

Loved the photography, tho. This is one of the few contemporary black and white films that just looks right, as if it could have been shot 60 or 70 years ago.

Dafoe's performance, with certain parts through the movie, makes me think it could've almost played as a silent film.

But yeah, you pretty much nailed it with the structure of the movie.

[Wryan]

The more dreamlike ideas seemed like a desperate play to insert meaning where there otherwise would be none.

Excuse you. Mermaid fanny is a brilliant metaphor for our age's worst excesses and sins.

[Milky Joe]

One of the best films I've ever seen.

[Grouchy]

Wow, this was something else, eh? Pattinson continues to grow as a performer, taking on roles that are significant challenges (Cosmopolis, Good Time) or just plain juicy fun to play (The King, The Lost City of Z) and Dafoe is just an actor's actor, a living legend at this point. They are both at their best here, creating magic out of language and expressions and playing off each other's skills and strenghts. I see what Ezee and TGM are saying - Lighthouse is psychological Horror that doesn't really have a lot of meat to its bones, and if one spends the movie waiting for a great fantasy pay-off or a huge plot twist he's bound to be disappointed. But the great achievement of the movie is its unique atmosphere and look and the primal fear and paranoia it successfully evokes. I disagree with Irish that the movie looks like it could have been made decades ago because I don't think it's meant to look like that despite the aspect ratio - I stand closer to Wryan who saw a cinematic interpretation of Doré's old engravings or that type of literary illustration in general.

[baby doll]

Eggers and his collaborators do a fair job of approximating the look of Béla Tarr's films but this lacks the terrifying conviction of The Turin Horse. As a mannerist exercise in style, this is never less than watchable but it's also never very good.

[Pop Trash]

Eggers and his collaborators do a fair job of approximating the look of Béla Tarr's films but this lacks the terrifying conviction of The Turin Horse. As a mannerist exercise in style, this is never less than watchable but it's also never very good.

Why?

[baby doll]

Why?I just didn't believe in the characters. In the scene where Pattison complains about the cooking, since the film has not up till this point established either that Pattison was dissatisfied with the food or that Dafoe takes any pride in his abilities as a chef, it feels like something the filmmakers put in because they'd thought it would make a funny scene rather than a conversation I could believe these characters would actually have. As a result, the film's escalating reliance on horror movie clichés (e.g., the corpse that wouldn't die) and the overbearing sound mix begin to feel like desperate, hard-sell tactics designed to create an artificial sense of dread. Thus, while the film is always pleasant to look it, it's never anything more than that.

[Dukefrukem]

Wow, this was something else, eh? Pattinson continues to grow as a performer, taking on roles that are significant challenges (Cosmopolis, Good Time) or just plain juicy fun to play (The King, The Lost City of Z) and Dafoe is just an actor's actor, a living legend at this point. They are both at their best here, creating magic out of language and expressions and playing off each other's skills and strenghts. I see what Ezee and TGM are saying - Lighthouse is psychological Horror that doesn't really have a lot of meat to its bones, and if one spends the movie waiting for a great fantasy pay-off or a huge plot twist he's bound to be disappointed. But the great achievement of the movie is its unique atmosphere and look and the primal fear and paranoia it successfully evokes. I disagree with Irish that the movie looks like it could have been made decades ago because I don't think it's meant to look like that despite the aspect ratio - I stand closer to Wryan who saw a cinematic interpretation of Doré's old engravings or that type of literary illustration in general.

Totally! 10 years ago, would anyone think that Pattinson would be at this level? Makes me more excited for Tenet and Batman after watching this.

[Peng]

Willem Dafoe by way of Junji Ito is *chef's kiss*

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[Skitch]

Interesting as an anomaly of cinema, but not all that entertaining.

[megladon8]

This was fantastic. Both actors blow it away, but it was Dafoe who really dazzled me.

His heartbreak at Pattinson saying he didn't like his cooking is such a humanizing moment for a character who had been an absolute rat bastard previously.

Visually stunning, incredible performances, an unending sense of dress throughout.

Eggers' Nosferatu has jumped to the top of my most anticipated films.

Both of his films are near masterpieces.

[StanleyK]

I didn't get anything out of The Witch and I didn't get anything out of this either, so the issue must be that my sensibilities are different from Robert Eggers'. I can tell that he's a skilled filmmaker because this film has great cinematography, attention to detail, authenticity, but there's nothing in it that held my interest, apart from Willem Dafoe being great as usual. I disliked in particular the score, which kept blaring over everything as if to say "look, this is really spooky. Are you spooked yet?"