This film seems not to have made much of an impact on awards season, but there are so many ways in which it's a tour-de-force.
The sound design, the photography, and of course, the writing and acting. It's a film full of beautiful dialogue, with references to sea lore - "Old" reprimands "Young" for killing a gull, telling him that it's bad luck to kill a sea bird.
It's a psychological thriller, and I found it difficult to watch. I found that surprising, in a way. I've never really been a fan of horror, whether it's novels or films. But I really liked Hereditary and Get Out and I thought I should have felt the same way about The Lighthouse. The sense of claustrophobia induced by the film made me feel squeezed.
But the acting was so wonderful. In one of the features, the director said that Robert Pattinson said to him that he really only wanted to do really strange stories, and on that basis, Eggers offered the role of "Young" to him. Willem Dafoe said that the theatre shaped him, and the skills he developed there he was able to use here. And there was a perfect seamlessness to their performances. They really committed; it all seemed very real. This felt experimental, in the sense that the dialogue, the cinematography all contribute to an unreal, dreamlike feeling.
The sound design, the photography, and of course, the writing and acting. It's a film full of beautiful dialogue, with references to sea lore - "Old" reprimands "Young" for killing a gull, telling him that it's bad luck to kill a sea bird.
It's a psychological thriller, and I found it difficult to watch. I found that surprising, in a way. I've never really been a fan of horror, whether it's novels or films. But I really liked Hereditary and Get Out and I thought I should have felt the same way about The Lighthouse. The sense of claustrophobia induced by the film made me feel squeezed.
But the acting was so wonderful. In one of the features, the director said that Robert Pattinson said to him that he really only wanted to do really strange stories, and on that basis, Eggers offered the role of "Young" to him. Willem Dafoe said that the theatre shaped him, and the skills he developed there he was able to use here. And there was a perfect seamlessness to their performances. They really committed; it all seemed very real. This felt experimental, in the sense that the dialogue, the cinematography all contribute to an unreal, dreamlike feeling.
