The Lighthouse (Film Review)

2019 A24
Directed by: Robert Eggers; Written by: Robert and Max Eggers
Starring: Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson
MPAA Rating: R; Running Time: 100 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 8/10

I'll never forget watching the Ren and Stimpy episode "Space Madness" with my old man. As the titular characters face the prospect of years upon years with nothing but the company of one another, Ren quickly grows irritable, and the pair's relationship goes off the rails. Before you know it, Ren is calling a bar of soap his "Chocolate Ice Cream Bar," and accusing Stimpy of wanting to take it. That's not too far off from Robert Eggers' The Lighthouse.
Young job-hopper, Ephraim Winslow, played with a sullen quietude by Robert Pattinson, is looking for a change from the endless trees he's seen logging America's great forests. A month tending a lighthouse on a tiny, remote island off the coast of New England seems about as big a 180 as possible. There, he's paired up with lighthouse-keeper veteran, Thomas Wake, played by a salty Willem Dafoe.
Winslow just seems to want to follow the rules, do his time on the lighthouse, and get out. Wake, though, seems to relish putting Winslow through the paces, forcing the younger man to do extra work, and continually pressuring Winslow to drink, when Winslow insists boozing is against guidelines.
When the duo's shift on the island is up, and no boat arrives to pick them up, their relationship goes off the rails. A storm comes, the food rations are ruined, and it seems the only thing that's been preserved is the alcohol. To make matters worse, Winslow's seeing visions of mermaids, tentacles...and severed heads. Plus, he's getting antagonized by a one-eyed seagull. Also, Wake won't let him go to the top of the lighthouse...a mysterious place where Wake seems to be engaging in some type of carnal activity with the light. And all this before Winslow's even started drinking heavily.
While Robert Eggers debut, The Witch, had a few select moments of pitch dark laughs for those with a very specific sense of humor, that movie was a mostly bleak and serious affair, full of dread and mounting horror. While The Lighthouse does contain a bit of dread and a small semblance of horror, it's more of an opportunity for Eggers to spread his black comedy wings, and for Dafoe and Pattinson to show off both their dramatic and comedic chops.
As Winslow and Wake become more and more drunk, secrets spill out and tension rises higher. This gives a bit more space for drama, but a lot more space for the two to act ridiculous--if you've ever wanted to see Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson alternate between madly dancing with one another, and jovially embracing under a table because they can't stand any longer, The Lighthouse is your film. Eggers is also coy about all of the strange stuff going on--is there something mystical in the ocean around the lighthouse or in the lighthouse itself that's heightening the men's madness? Much is left to the viewer's interpretation...and imagination. Eggers does give his creation a definite sense of style, though, shooting in a foggy, grainy black-and-white, in a weird 1.19:1 aspect ration that seems to stretch more vertical than horizontal...like a lighthouse.
The result is a weird film, that often feels weird for the sake of weird, but not inconsequentially. There are some great themes here about secrecy, and even generational division of labor, with Dafoe's Winslow as the ultimate "OK Boomer." Indeed, if my thematic reading of the film is correct, its haunting final image is one I'll be turning over for quite a while. Not bad for a movie full of semen and seagull shit.