The Lighthouse

Just like in his The Witch, the director relishes creating the right atmosphere, but his film is very inapproachable; he makes every effort to spoil your viewing experience. The actors in the leading roles (Dafoe and Pattison) deliver superb performances, moreover in black and white, in a spooky, morbid environment with a hidden evil like from Lovecraft. I like all of this, but the inapproachability of the film makes it hard to give it better than average rating. It is, however, definitely a unique experience. (01/30/2020)

A sea the color of crude oil and the light of the lighthouse like the Divine Light. A crushing atmosphere of bullying, lies and madness. A great screenplay with psychologically unstable characters in the main roles, who move the action along with drunken spouting and gradual confiding in each other as they come face to face with starving to death. Teh farting Dafoe delivers an acting masterclass and the masturbating Pattinson is his star pupil who isn’t afraid of taking things to extremes. The mermaid hallucinations and being buried alive are moments of the year. Aye, lad! (12/30/2019)

This is a visually and masterfully enchanting and outrageously impressive psychological drama, with great acting and with horror elements, inspired by naval stories, the works of Herman Melville and ancient mythology. It is impossible not to admire the film’s depressing claustrophobic atmosphere, elaborate mise-en-scène, unreal camera, work with sound and meaningful lighting, and the acting of both protagonists, to whom the script gives a fair share of space (apart from a number of significant scenes together, they both shine in their own long monologues). This is a realistically raw and uncompromisingly unique work, in which, surprisingly, there is also humour. The film excels in pictorial intoxication and maximum directorial precision, and fortunately, unlike the Witch, it is not at all cumbersome, overstretched or unintentionally ridiculous. (10/08/2019)

In its reconstruction of 19th-century life and visual style of old films, The Lighthouse is an unprecedented curiosity made with great care and, in one view, makes perhaps as much sense (and is thus as carelessly blind) as a drunken sailor who has read Moby Dick and a few paragraphs of Greek mythology (particularly the story of Prometheus) and psychoanalysis (you reach the id only after pacification of the controlling superego). The plot stands on water, the relationship between the two men on alcohol. Instead of drama or any character development, there is only the building of an atmosphere which, in the end, leads to nowhere and serves no purpose; it is not legitimised by any unifying theme to which the film would adhere. It simply just is. The vagueness, eccentricity and signs of cognisance of the film’s pulpiness give the impression of being an intentional act on the part of the screenwriter, an attempt to sell a simple, self-regarding horror story to dramaturgs of A-list festivals. When everyone finds something in a film, that does not necessarily mean that there is actually something to be found in it. Due to the degree to which it depends on its two actors and sound effects, I would rather see The Lighthouse in the form of an absurdist stage play in which the riveting acting performances could overcome the terrible repetitiveness, predictableness and utter lack of flow. 55% (01/03/2020)

After The Witch, Robert Eggers directs another period and psychologically challenging piece, this time in black and white and square format, making it feel like it was made in 1910. that initially repulsed me, but eventually I found myself immersed in the plot and enjoying the nightmare driven to madness. Both Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson give great performances, the dialogue is impressive, the atmosphere thickens and there are a few disturbing scenes (a seagull being bludgeoned to death, a live burial, masturbation over a mermaid and the final scene is very raw). Here I can understand 10 stars and 0, so it depends on you, but I was not bored. 7/10. (01/08/2020)