The Lighthouse: 2019’s Biggest Snub
2019 feels ages ago, and I remember it as this distant wonderland filled with lots of good movies and free from a global pandemic. Nonetheless, my long quarantine gave me plenty of time to catch up on the plethora of fantastic movies released last year.
Many of the masterpieces of last year received tons of media buzz and attention at awards ceremonies. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was a fun, light, yet well written take on the highs and lows of in 1950s L.A., and an exciting and less sardonic film to add to the Tarantino Catalog. Films like The Irishman and Marriage Story proved that Netflix serves as a viable medium for releasing great pieces of art. Parasite brought films outside of the English language into the forefront of movie culture here in the states, on top of crafting one of the most unique and intelligent thrillers ever made. However, for my money, the best film of 2019 was Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse.
The Lighthouse sees Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe working at a lighthouse on a lonely island off the coast of New England. After a nasty storm hits and leaves them alone and without hope of rescue indefinitely, the film sees our two leads driven to madness by loneliness, fear, and alcohol. We witness the deterioration of our protagonists for increasingly dull and grim work at the lighthouse, as well as conversations that slowly reveal how damaged these characters are internally, made worse by the desolate setting and grim circumstances.
The film has only two characters, limited setting and scoop, and effectively no plot, and yet it still delivers one of the most captivating and unsettling stories ever crafted. It’s hard to classify the film, though most describe it as a thriller/psychological horror. However, that terror is delivered not through disturbing imagery or jump scares; instead, the audience is invited to go mad through clever camerawork and brilliant performances, particularly from Dafoe.
The film was universally adored by critics, and many (myself included) believed that Dafoe, Pattinson, and Eggers were obviously going to be nominated for Academy Awards. However, just like with Eggers’s last film, The Witch (2014), the Academy overlooked the film, with only a pity nomination for Best Cinematography.
It’s admittedly not an easy watch. The film is on the slower side for those with less patience. Additionally, the film’s dialogue is written to match that of the period in which it takes place, so while it’s technically in English, subtitles are almost essential. Despite all that, I would recommend it to everyone, particularly right now, when cabin fever is at an all time high. With a pandemic this isolating, watching a film exploring characters lose it in a thematically similar storm was oddly comforting.