The Lighthouse (2019)

[ER]

No spoilers....wouldn't be nice.

The Lighthouse is a strangely refreshing, refreshingly strange movie with more twists than a Chubby Checker concert. It's a little bit Lovecraft, a bit Bradbury, a dash of Poe, and even some Hitchcockian angles added into an original piece of psychological horror, all set in a claustrophobic, rain-lashed lighthouse with what I thought was sound acting by a minimal cast.

I enjoyed it!

[Rev. Powell]

Been waiting on this one all year, it's still not playing here. Louisville is usually gets these indie films last.

[Olivia Bauer]

I've been super hyped for this movie. Sadly it's not playing at the theater my sister works at so we can't get discounted tickets.
We have to wait until she gets paid.

[BoyScoutKevin]

Typical response. These type of films, which do play in the city east of where I live, don't play in the city in which I live neither. While most of these type of films are not anything I want to see, there have been films that I wanted to see, that I could not see in the theater, because they did not play in a local theater.

[Rev. Powell]

OK, saw it, it was good. 4.5/5 stars. But I'm sort of confused about the audience. A packed house, mostly young folk, for a movie that's

*In B&W
*Slow-paced
*Arty
*Full of Shakespearean (well, Melvillian) dialogue in archaic accents that are hard to understand
*Weird

Yeah, it's exactly up my alley... but usually, everyone else hates this stuff. Not sure why this one would be a crossover hit into the relative mainstream. (I mean, Robert Pattinson's not still popular with young people, is he?) Still, I'm thrilled about its success, because it means the director will get to make more of these.

[BoyScoutKevin]

Location. Limited cast. I was going to ask whether there were any females in it, but, looking it up on the internet, I see there is a female mermaid in it. The subject of all one or the other casts has always interested me. For all-male casts, the only 2 films that I could think of were Lord of the Flies, the 1963 British version, and the 1990 American remake. Having seen both (IMHO) the British one is the superior, but looking up the subject on the internet, there are far more or 432 films with no females in them. As for all female casts, the only one I could think of, which I have never seen, is The Women, the 1939 original. Where even all the books seen in the film were supposedly written by women. Though, the dog in the film, may have been male, but, there again, even more to my surprise, the number of all-female films even outnumbers the number of all-male films at 1504 all-female films. The things you learn by browsing this website.

As for Robert Pattinson, let us hope he is still popular with audiences, as he the newest Batman, whose film is now in pre-production for a 2021 release.

[Olivia Bauer]

Saw it earlier today. Absolutely fantastic. The cinematography, acting, lighting, writing, just everything was fantastic.

It's definitely my favorite Dafoe role. The same goes for Pattinson, but that's not saying much since I have only seen ONE other good Pattinson in Good Time.

His performance here really made me frustrated with his reputation as "the guy from Twilight". There are petitions to get him removed from his role as the next Batman because of that s**t. Pattinson's acting was absolutely electrifying in every way. He did a beyond fantastic job.

The expressions Dafoe made were absolutely insane. He almost looked like a monster with the lighting sometimes. Absolutely wonderful.

So far it's my favorite movie of the year. I can't decide who deserves best actor more, Joaquin Phoenix in Joker or Robert Pattinson. But I can say for certain at the very least Dafoe deserves best supporting.

Brilliant.

10/10

[Rev. Powell]

Wikipedia thinks the story of Smalls Lighthouse may have inspired the script:

"The old lighthouse brought about a change in lighthouse policy in 1801 after a gruesome episode. The two-man team, Thomas Howell and Thomas Griffith, were known to quarrel, so when Griffith died in a freak accident, Howell feared that he might be suspected of murder if he discarded the body into the sea.[9] As the body began to decompose, Howell built a makeshift coffin for the corpse and lashed it to an outside shelf. Stiff winds blew the box apart, though, and the body's arm fell within view of the hut's window and caused the wind to catch it in such a way that it seemed as though it was beckoning. Working alone and with the decaying corpse of his former colleague outside Howell managed to keep the lamp lit. When Howell was finally relieved from the lighthouse the effect the situation had had on him was said to be so extreme that some of his friends did not recognise him."

[Olivia Bauer]

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