“Cool” is probably not the descriptor writer/director, Robert Eggers, intended when he crafted his new film, The Lighthouse, which has stuck out amongst the crowd due to its (very, very) old school aesthetics, complete with shooting on black-and-white film stock and in the Academy aspect ratio, which is brilliantly executed curtesy cinematographer, Jarin Blaschke. However, that fearlessness in diving into all his weird impulses makes for an experience that is very cool, and unlike anything you’ll see this year. Even at my most bewildered and confused, I was utterly mesmerized by it. It’s not only a great follow up to The Witch, a film I loved, it very much establishes Eggers as someone who is guaranteed to bring something new to whatever he does, and that is simply exhilarating.
In The Lighthouse, Eggers once again taps into the rhythms and tones of the kind of ye olde folklore that he executed brilliantly with The Witch. This time around, we follow two men, Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson) and Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe). It’s sometime in the late 19th century, and the two men are put in charge of taking care of a lighthouse that sits alone on a remote island off the shores of New England. As the days and weeks pass, a potentially otherworldly presence begins to take hold on them, making the two question their sanity.
The way the film plays out on the page, as written by Robert Eggers and his brother, Max, is largely intimate and claustrophobic in its construction. Yet, there’s also a certain bombastic theatricality to it. It could almost be envisioned as a play with very little tinkering since the film utilizes minimal locations and only two characters who are often bantering in dark rooms. The film itself doesn’t feel that way as Eggers’ stylistic touches from the aesthetics that I brought up, combined with Mark Korven’s booming and dread inducing score, brings a stark, dirty, and bleak vision of this island to life.
As engrossing as the details and the filmmaking are, it is the two central performances that keep you interested and engaged. Dafoe and Pattinson are electric together, each taking bold swings and making the best use of their transformative physicality. Dafoe’s Wake is essentially a slightly more sinister take on Captain Horatio McCallister from The Simpsons, complete with an occasionally incomprehensible dialect that even Winslow at one point refers to as “Captain Ahab horseshit.” It’s showy, but so damn impressive nonetheless, and if this doesn’t serve as yet another example that Dafoe is one of the all-time greats than I don’t know what will. Pattinson’s work is where the film finds some resemblance of emotional grounding within the madness that ensues, and he does a fantastic job at being the character we experience the film through. At least, up until he starts to lose his marbles as well.
If this all sounds super intimidating for anyone who wouldn’t normally watch a movie like this, that might be the case. It is chaotic by design, and that obviously won’t appeal to everyone, which is totally understandable. But I think this is something everyone should at least consider seeing because even if you end up hating it, I can’t fathom anyone saying it’s forgettable or unmemorable. It’s a wild ride that is not only haunting, but surprisingly funny and oddly kinky at times, with moments and imagery that will stick in your head long after the film is over. It’s bold, audacious, features two of the best performances you’ll see this year. It’s an experience I can’t wait to revisit, preferably with subtitles though. And also, there’s a ton of fart jokes, and a seagull that’s a total asshole to Robert Pattinson, what more do you want?