The Lighthouse 2019
The Lighthouse is a blend of classic art house film and psychological horror movie. The look is unique: very textured black and white with an old fashioned narrow 1.2:1 aspect ratio (1.33 was for old TV shows, 1.78 for widescreen, but movies often go even wider). Also the movie is mostly about these two characters only and could almost be a stage play except for the really harsh weather. Willem Dafoe plays a veteran lighthouse tender going on a 4-week assignment to a very isolated New England lighthouse with a new guy, played by Robert Pattinson. Dafoe’s character is partly disabled and makes Pattinson do all the drudge work while taking the only interesting part of the job, tending the lighthouse at night, for himself. He is authoritarian, an alcoholic, and is crazy. But pretty quickly Pattinson has issues too. So the movie is about these two crazy guys stuck together even though they might kill each other, plus some supernatural stuff involving sailors’ superstitions and mermaids. It is mostly grim, with a few moments so grim or odd they are kind of funny. Then every now and then it isn’t grim and the two seem more normal and get along? It has some literary and psychological flourishes, and mostly the two leads are great as they lose it and spar with each other (and themselves), with lots of extreme close-ups and a spooky lighthouse in glorious black and white. The horror aspect is maybe similar to The Shining. I can see how certain audiences would go crazy for this movie, but most people would be turned off by how grim and crazy it is. I am somewhere in between, seeing it as an interesting piece of art, but for me not much fun to watch.
Written: 12 Dec 2020
Owned on: Digital