Something Cult, Foreign-Language or Indie #305: The Lighthouse (2019).

 

In New England in the 1890s, Ephraim Winslow (Willem Dafoe) accepts a job as a "wickie," or a lighthouse keeper, with the island's longtime keeper Thomas Wake (Robert Pattinson) as his supervisor. Ephraim is contracted for a month, and the job entails more than just operating the controls. The lighthouse will be his home, with Wake, for the month and so in that time they will need to bond. But as the month progresses, and a massive storm seals them inside, Winslow and Wake each come to harbour very uncertain, even suspicious feelings about the other man.

This 2019 black-and-white sophomore feature from Robert Eggers, who co-wrote the screenplay with his brother Max, was one I was keen to see after his latest movie The Northman absolutely blew my mind, and I was correct to be interested in it. Eggers is quite obviously an art house filmmaker and he frequently incorporates German expressionistic motifs and natural atmospheres, but he seems to know those touches are (at least, I think) suitable and effective for storytelling reasons instead of aesthetic ones. He invokes those stylings merely to put viewers in the mood and mindset of the movie and its characters, and in this case that's why the expressionistic inflections (if that's the right word) work so well. Winslow and Wake are both increasingly unhinged, isolated and untrusting of each other and we won't feel any tension from the film if the specifics of their shared situation aren't driven home to us. Eggers drives this home to us with a consistently firm grip on the steering wheel.

But this effect isn't all Eggers' responsibility. His regular cinematographer Jarin Blaschke's unsettling photography was deservedly nominated for an Oscar and a BAFTA, the production design is realistically intimate yet striking in details and Mark Korven contributes a chillingly minimalist score. The only flaw I noticed here was what I considered Dafoe's almost too hammy performance in one scene; by contrast Pattinson stays in control of his turn throughout. It didn't impress me quite as much as The Northman did, but The Lighthouse still stands as a disturbing, but shining beacon. 9/10.