arr it be The Lighthouse (Eggers, 2019) - Pattinson, Dafoe, sea shanties

this was pretty funny

fave bits:
* the two monologues where they go off on each other and their respective laconic responses
* r-patt's super-intense drunken jig dancing
* the distorted screams at the climax

Fun, not weird enough. I just read moby-dick like last year and I actually want to pick it up again, ffs.

so when a man gaslights another man I guess it's called lighthousing him

Masterpiece imo. what could've been gimmicky cinematography is completely necessary. for once, form enhances content. You could take a still of this and a still from the Cohen restoration of The Old Dark House, or Dreyer's Joan of Arc, and it would look like the same movie. The only thing separating it is the modern sound equipment. Stunning sound design also, that fuzzed out scream when he finally touches the light was incredible. And the foghorn itself. But also, there are phenomenally executed tracking shots and some crucial camera moves during their dinners. I wasn't that hot on The Witch so this really surprised me. Safdies put it best:

The light in the lighthouse was that chapter in Moby Dick just about the color white.

— SAFDIE (@JOSH_BENNY) October 21, 2019

yeah certainly can't complain about the sound and light, the look of the thing. It left me (uncharacteristically?) wanting more psychology and less word salad.

Expect this to grow in estimation in my memory though.

An intermittently fun Dumb and Dumber.

it's a good question about Moby Dick and the Ahab reference. the movie takes place in the 1890s, around Melville's death. before 1891, there were 3,215 copies of Moby Dick sold. between 1892-98, it sold another 1,800 copies. idk, maybe sea captains were hip to Melville. I think it's a stretch but not impossible.

xp that's exactly why I loved it, the look & sound enhanced the story. it's a simple story, just cabin fever. and I felt like I was inside that cabin, and eventually, in their delusions. it's remarkably well paced. I like that their pasts are kept ambiguous. I didn't mind the monologues because they were never spelling something out, there's no Paris Texas style expository monologue about Pattinson's past. he mumbles, covets the mermaid, pulverizes a bird. this, I think, is enough

Really enjoyed this :)

oof that bird pulverization

pattinson's howling shaking gaping maw my favorite movie moment of the past year at least

deeply satisfying, i can't imagine not being into this at least on a purely audio/visual level

An intermittently fun Dumb and Dumber.

― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, October 31, 2019 4:33 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Or a gender-flipped What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

before 1891, there were 3,215 copies of Moby Dick sold. between 1892-98, it sold another 1,800 copies. idk, maybe sea captains were hip to Melville. I think it's a stretch but not impossible

Plus then, as now, you don’t need to have actually read moby dick to pull out a reference to captain ahab being a crazy sea guy. So I can roll with it.

Don’t really know what this added up to after all the sound and fury, but it was fun. thought the final shot was wayyy too on the nose, while also not really explicating that much thematically. Alfred otm abt it being another in a long line of “this crazy place made this guy go crazy” films, but it was still a good ride.

This movie about two men drinking and masturbating in a lighthouse does NOT pass the Bechdel Test

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3-mjqQ6BIc

Me da just dropped this on me:

So Andrew tell me: why would there even be an ax at that lighthouse????

For chopping firewood?

All the stoves I saw were burning coal ...

duh for chopping up old salts

axes are standard equipment for firefighting on ships, and presumably in lighthouses too

* the two monologues where they go off on each other and their respective laconic responses

I'm not sure I can pin down exactly why, but I think this was my least favourite part. The sarcastic reactions, that is. The monologues are funny on their own, without the movie doing the job of demolishing them for us. Maybe it was the repetition of the same beat that made it stick out and feel hackneyed.

agreed, I too saw those coming a mile away, should have left them out

That style of gag is so overdone in the 2010s, I’m always annoyed to see ppl still deploying it, espec in period stuff bc it takes me out of it

Also an axe would totally be an essential tool for daily use with them building and repairing stuff, working with big heavy ropes & lines, etc

Dumb-smart fun for smart-dumb people (me). As much as I have grown to hate how handy #OnePerfectShot is as a slam, Nick P. is so not off the mark deploying it here. I definitely felt the spell it had over me evaporate when Pattinson started flailing his limbs around and swilling ambergris, or whatever. And it never actually hands over subjectivity from the director's head to Pattinson's. But I tilt slightly toward the "pro" camp and all my reservations will probably melt away with time.

ty for dn

re: ahab -- what if ahab is an actual famous captain in this story?
what if this... is in the moby cinematic dickaverse?

i haven't seen this, but i have to say that all the professional movie reviewers on here make me want to just love every single movie that you hate. talk about fucking snobbery.

and that's how we got Trump!

Upside is you’re going to love every single movie ever going forward.

lol, that's the dumbest response I've ever heard, Alfred.

poptimism disappears when it comes to films, for some reason that i can't fathom.

oh, you were serious? I thought we were joshing.

poptimism disappears when it comes to films, for some reason that i can't fathom.

I've no idea what this means. Anyway, this is a message board. If you wanna discuss the movie, by all means, but don't be catty.

i mean, i'm only sort of joshing.

it's just that for films, there always seems to be a pile-on here (and elsewhere) of very snotty critics pooh-poohing the latest "arthouse" thing that popular audiences are excited about. of course, some of these movies might actually suck, but the tone that Morbz (and let's say KJB, for example) takes is just awash in utter snobbery that makes it seem like there are no good movies left. i don't think i've read something from Morbz *liking* a movie since i've been on this site, tbh.

it means that in a lot of film threads that i lurk on, there seems to be universal disdain for a lot of "popular" films, whereas the same disdain isn't directed at "popular" music in the same manner. i just don't get it.

anyway, sorry, i actually really like reading yr opinions on many things, not trying to be a turdmuffin, though obviously am, so i step away.

Actually, he liked Marriage Story and The Irishman iirc, but he can defend himself.

With all due respect, tabes, you're not around much anymore. KJB is gone. Most film discussions these days (when they happen) tend to be pretty good.

I get where tabes is coming from tho.

I wished I hadn't stayed up late to watch this rubbish. If the non-comedy captain birdseye accent and ropy improvised dialogue + gratuitous masturbation aren't embarrassing enough, it's just a nothing movie - both the horror and the psychodrama elements are piss weak and go nowhere. All involved should feel embarrassed.

I think there there was another so so Lighthouse movie from a few years ago that was still better than this shite.

spilling beans itt

lol... and that capt ahab reference didn't quite glisten like the pecker of a sperm whale.. who get's paid for doing this stuff?

hahaha fuck this was so fucking good. It's been a while since I've seen a good midnight cult movie ala Eraserhead. This will stick with me for a long time. I hope either of these guys gets an Oscar nom.

Looked good, was tedious. Eggers has yet to "wow" me. His films seem to be reaching for some sort of thing - primal horror? - that I just don't think he's able to deliver.

I'll take Ben Wheatley in horror-mode over this guy any day.

I like some Wheatley, but hasn't captured the horror of awaiting the winter with a failed crop.

The Witch is doing a lot of things that haven't been as well done in the horror genre before. Most notably in period production design, but also in period daily concerns. Your 17th and 18th century farming ancestors had a very real chance of slowly starving to death, and by the end of harvest they'd know whether they'd survive the next 6 months or be reduced to beggars.

Yet to see The Lighthouse, but if Eggers ouvre remains period films with slowly growing dread, leading to his characters finally cracking, that's something new.

... and also timely. We're all watching the same news of the collapsing world, and some days its all I can do to stop myself screaming naked down the street. We're surrounded by others pacified with political propaganda, like having credulous neighbors in Jonestown (now there's a film I'd love to see a docu-psychological horror). A horror cinema of this sense of glacially encroaching dread, that its all falling apart and we're doubtless doomed, but which focuses on the psychological tension of the struggle to stay presentable... that's something I can identify with.

I liked The Witch quite a lot. I think its stature will only grow.

I was expecting something more tepid reading takes on this here. This was convincingly possessed and demented. Loved it.

I'll take Ben Wheatley in horror-mode over this guy any day.

I’m more of an Amy Jump fan

when the two actors started autocritiquing the movie via each other's performances {You're a PARODY of an old salt!) i lost all hope

basically a Corman movie with drunken comedy and Prometheus baggage; nice-looking tho

i'll send tabes a list of the many movies i liked this year btw