The Lighthouse - Glorious Insanity

so i woke up the other day on a bleak desolate windswept island somewhere off the west coast of scotland with an empty bottle of whiskey in one hand and a bloodstained shovel in the other and it got me to thinking man it's about time i did another movie review and what could be more appropriate than the lighthouse a 2019 psychological thriller starring willem defoe and robert pattinson as two lighthouse keepers they get stranded on a remote island and gradually go nuts from a combination of isolation alcohol abuse and [ __ ] turpentine the lighthouse is a complex ambiguous and challenging kind of movie that inspires questions rather than providing answers the kind of film where you're not entirely sure what the [ __ ] you just witnessed but you know it was entertaining like watching a [ __ ] stripper riding a greased up hog now this is where i'm gonna do my best to break the plot down which is easier said than done because a lot of what actually happens in this movie is questionable at best so allow me to illuminate you the film kicks off with a pair of lighthouse keepers getting deposited on a remote island to start their month-long tour first of all there's winslow played by robert pattinson he's young and inexperienced and not altogether enthusiastic about being here and who can blame him really it's not exactly [ __ ] party time here and it's made even worse by the presence of wake played by willem dafoe and his epic beard damn this guy could give kurt russell a run for his money wake is a crotchety old bastard that talks like he just walked off the set of pirates of the caribbean and he soon proves to be a demanding taskmaster giving winslow all the shitty jobs literally berating him for the slightest mistake and threatening to have him fired if he doesn't obey it's enough to make his posting here a real pain in the arse but things take a darker turn when winslow spots him standing naked in the lantern room one night whatsoever could he be doing up there he keeps the place locked up and gets extremely defensive whenever winslow asks him about it and to make things even worse he also reveals that his previous assistant went mad and killed himself damn the tripadvisor reviews for this place must be awesome anyway the atmosphere between the two men gets increasingly tense and paranoid as time passes and it becomes increasingly clear that they're both hiding things from each other the only light at the end of the tunnel is the prospect of being picked up but that gets snuffed out when a storm blows up and cuts them off from the outside world to make matters worse their rations get spoiled by the bad weather and their emergency supplies turn out to be bottles of whiskey [Music] oh no what a horrifying situation to be in winslow's sanity gradually begins to crumble as starvation and alcohol abuse takes its toll he starts having weird visions of mermaids and dead bodies washed up on the beach and even imagines [ __ ] one of them how exactly do you [ __ ] a mermaid you might ask right here i've done it as the storm rages on the relationship between the two men alternates between frantic drunken revelry violent confrontations and moments of strangely gentle intimacy basically every night out in scotland ever then at one point winslow even tries to escape the island on a lifeboat but wick comes in and smashes it up with an axe and then claims it was winslow who did it which of them is actually telling the truth well it's kind of hard to know because neither of these guys are exactly reliable witnesses by this point matters finally come to a head when the storm floods the lighthouse and winslow discovers wake's logbook which basically blames him for everything that's happened and threatens to ruin him their confrontation soon turns violent leading winslow to beat wake on conscience and bury the man alive that's when he's able to gain access to the lighthouse what's actually inside it you ask don't know but it doesn't end well for winslow that's for sure the movie ends with him lying on a beach being eaten alive by seagulls before fading to black now reviewing a movie like the lighthouse is a tricky prospect but also a really interesting one for me because it's a great example of a film that defies any kind of objective analysis looking for logical flaws in this plot is a waste of time because for a start there basically isn't a plot to analyze you can pretty much boil the entire story down to two men getting stranded on an island and gradually going nuts and the events that do take place are so heavy on symbolism and open to interpretation that a dozen different people could watch this and comfortably draw a dozen different conclusions from it did winslow really do all the things we see him doing or did he imagine it if so how much of it was real and how much of it was just a crazy hallucination was wake really an abusive tyrant who worked him to the bone and pushed him to breaking point or was he a compassionate man trying to reach out to him as his sanity crumbled away is this whole thing just a fever dream concocted by winslow's ailing mind as he lies dying on a beach being slowly torn apart by seagulls there's no way to know for sure and i'm totally fine with that to be honest i've never particularly understood the need to nail down exactly what's real and what isn't in movies like this sometimes it's enough to accept that characters and events can be purposefully ambiguous because they were written to provoke questions instead of spoon food you with easy answers likewise it's tough to break down the characters in terms of consistent writing because they're basically two men slowly losing their minds logic and consistent behavior are not high on the list of priorities for these two now all of this probably makes the lighthouse sound like an incoherent mess that you should avoid in the same way that a gender studies graduate avoids hard work scientific reality and personal accountability but honestly i had an absolute blast watching this movie i was captivated from the first scene to the final frame and it wasn't until i had a chance to step back and think about it that i understood why this is the kind of film that you can happily lose yourself in and allow it to wash over you a film that relies on its heavy and claustrophobic atmosphere slowly building tension and intense performances from its two main stars to keep you invested and believe me it does all of these things brilliantly the cinematography is perfectly done i'm not exactly a fanboy when it comes to framing and shot composition but even i can recognize when a director has done something visually interesting that actually serves a purpose in case you haven't noticed the film shot in black and white with the square aspect ratio that you normally get on all tvs and while i'm often wary of movies that try to do wanky straight out of experimental film school stuff like this it actually feels totally appropriate here the camera is usually tight in on the two men especially during their awkward dinner scenes and the narrow screen area means that no space is wasted on anything except them the effect is to create a dark oppressive claustrophobic kind of feel that's absolutely perfect for a film like this even the dialogue is kept to a minimum and there's long stretches where nobody is talking at all and all you can hear is the roaring of the storm or the drone of the soundtrack see when you strip away all the flashy visual distractions it's a bit like being in a sensory deprivation tank your other senses become more intense to compensate so you tend to home in on exactly what the film wants you to see which in this case is the two main characters wake and winslow and the conflicted relationship between these two men are the heart of what makes this movie so compelling and if it hadn't been so well written and performed by two actors at the top of their game then this would have all been for nothing winslow starts out as a pretty sympathetic character struggling through the drudgery of his demanding work routine and the abuse of his domineering boss he doesn't drink alcohol which immediately causes a rift between them and for the most part he just wants to keep his head down and see out his tour but as their situation deteriorates he starts to open up and express himself more he drinks more heavily and starts having increasingly disturbing visions and fantasies as well as violent clashes with wake late in the movie he even admits that he stole the identity of his previous employer after he allowed the man to die in a login accident because of a personal grudge between them wake on the other hand starts out as your stereotypical old sea dog hurling abuse and lord in it over his subordinate during the day and spinning tall tales about his past exploits at night but the more winslow talks to him the more he begins to pick holes in the man's story leading you to question whether anything the guy says is even true and if he's lying about his own past what if he's also lying about the fate of his previous assistance the point is that neither man is quite what he seems to be and lying about their true nature is a common theme in this movie the balance of power between them also shifts as the film unfolds at first winslow is frightened and intimidated by the older man and tries to please him like a son looking for his father's approval but as the layers of their personalities get stripped away they form a bond that verges are romantic at times any port in a storm and all that by the end winslow's clearly taking on the dominant role and even humiliates wake by beating him making him crawl on his hands and knees before burying the man alive and all of this is made possible by a pair of powerhouse performances by the two leading men robert pattinson has spent most of his career trying to escape the shadow of the god-awful twilight movies and i have to be honest even i've been guilty of dismissing him as a lightweight pretty boy with pretensions of being a serious dramatic actor but the lighthouse really proves what he can do when he's properly invested in a part and honestly i can't fault the guy here his acting is honest and raw and emotional and it just plays great on the other hand willem dafoe's always been an intense kind of performer anyway and definitely not afraid to take on challenging roles but his work here is just simply mesmerizing you can't take your eyes off the guy whether he's berating winslow for insubordination or delivering some epic monologue about his life or even getting [ __ ] buried alive the dude's just perfect in every scene he's in and the chemistry between them is some of the best i've ever seen overall then the lighthouse is a challenging but ultimately rewarding movie it's definitely not a film that provides easy answers or ties everything up in neat dramatic fashion but the tense atmosphere the slow-paced direction the captivating performances and the intriguing premise should be enough to keep you engaged until the credits roll then if you're looking for something a little less conventional to while away the long winter nights well you can definitely do a lot worse than this anyway that's all i've got for today go away now

Channel: The Critical Drinker

Views: 700,765

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Id: b1s-7EuKvn4

Length: 10min 46sec (646 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 30 2020