The Lighthouse

I don't even know where to try to begin with this review. First off, from the moment I saw The Witch for the first time a couple months ago, I knew that Robert Eggers was a talented guy who really knew how to and enjoyed doing his research. In that film there is so much attention to detail and so much heart and thought put into every decision made throughout the film. This movie is no exception, and I'll get into that a bit more in a moment.  Something else that I feel is of note, for my experience of the film at least, was the process of actually going to attend a showing of it at the Arclight Cinema in Hollywood. I had purchased my ticket for the film about a week and a half before the actual showing, set a reminder in my phone on when to leave to get there and such, and was extremely excited. In fact, I had been excited for this film ever since hearing about its reception at Cannes several months ago. However, when I found myself leaving to go see the movie, I had to go headfirst into LA traffic, which was about ten minutes worse than had been projected when I mapped it out initially. Then, when I finally arrived, it took another ten minutes to find parking in the parking complex, as there were several events happening at the same time, and I ended up with a parking spot on the sixth level of the complex, with the actual theater being on the second. By the time I got to the box office (I wanted to print my ticket to add to my collection) I was already about fifteen minutes late for my showing. The cashier was nice enough to understand my situation, and scanned my ticket to switch it to the show that started in fifteen minutes, and I gratefully went to hang out in the theater until the film started. Now normally, I would have played a little game on my phone or listened to music or something like that, but I hadn't charged my phone before leaving the house, and getting to the theater took up 25% of the 26% of my phone's battery that I had had initially, so that was a no go. So I was sitting in my seat, leaning my head back and just closing my eyes and thinking, thinking about how bad the traffic and parking were, thinking about how I should've left the house earlier, thinking about how the trailers were going to be annoying, thinking about how I was probably expecting too much of the film, and simultaneously not thinking at all. And then, the film began, and I was immediately swept into it. From the second that the film begins I was immediately hooked, with all of the worries and stresses forgotten, as all I was thinking about was what I was witnessing in front of me. Now, mark my words, this film will go down as one of the great films of the 2010's, if not of all time. The acting was above and beyond what I was prepared for, being at once frightening, hilarious, crazy, honest, reserved, two-faced, and a hundred other things. Both Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson give some of my favorite performances of all time, bringing out the best of their abilities from themselves and each other. They perfectly balance all of the incredible events of the movie and the insane interactions of the characters in such a way that feels like it would be impossible with anyone else.  The writing brings the same care and attention to detail that Robert Eggers brought to The Witch, being incredibly period appropriate, incredibly sharp, layered, and incredibly engrossing to listen to. It felt as if these were absolutely real people, no matter how insane they might be, and that was due in no small part to how incredible the writing is. The cinematography felt incredibly claustrophobic, dark, and atmospheric, which made the film feel a lot like The Witch and The Shining in a way. There were a lot of really interesting framing choices that added a lot of depth to the story being told on screen and that were also just beautiful to watch.  The way that the film was edited was incredibly intelligent, tight, and shocking, while never feeling too exploitative, with maybe one exception that I won't get into because, ya know, spoilers. The way that several scenes, and one in particular actually, were edited added a lot of depth and meaning to them, which was really incredible to see.  The sound in this movie is absolutely to die for, being unbelievably iconic and transportative while never feeling like it panders or gets too blunt and obvious. I can still imagine basically all of the sounds of the film perfectly as well as how they were used and how they tied into the story. While we're on sound as well, I want to touch briefly on the score, which was used in a few scenes to great effect, making you feel incredibly unnerved when you need to and overall helping immensely to give this film the atmosphere that it has.  The unsung hero of this film however has to be the production design. I had no idea watching this film, but they actually BUILT A FUNCTIONING LIGHTHOUSE to make this film happen. That is beyond insane to me. Every building and structure in the film is built from scratch to be period accurate and give the exact feeling needed to evoke a sense of dread and, in a fantastic kind of way, fear and wonder, as well as the practical reason that they couldn't find a real lighthouse that they liked enough that they could use so they just built it themselves.  Now, beyond the technical achievements of this film and the actual story, I can't speak too much on the themes, possible deeper meanings or allegories, or anything like that quite yet. What I will say, is that if that's something that you look for in a film, you will 100% find it in this one. There's so much care put into the characters and the world and the script that I can't imagine being unable to find a deeper meaning somewhere in this film. I've only seen it the once so far and I can still think of several ideas, themes, etc. that can be seen throughout this film.  Overall, for sure a masterpiece, and a film that I'm going to watch again as soon as possible and buy the Blu Ray of as soon as it's released. There is no doubt in my mind that this is a 10/10 film. TL;DR - "Alright, have it your way. I like your cooking."