Movies Anyone seen trailers for The Lighthouse (releases this Friday)?

[SaysWho?]

 

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_lighthouse_2019

 

8.66 avg rating

 

My coworker just told me about the film. The director is up-and-comer Robert Eggers.

[IdeaOfEvil]

He's not so up and coming if you've been a fan of VVitch for all these years

 

I'm trying to convince my friend and his wife to go see this with me, and if they don't want to then I might skip this in theaters. I really want to see it, but I'm getting too lazy to go out on my own these days, lol

[Keyser_Soze]

35 minutes ago, SaysWho? said:

My coworker just told me about the film. The director is up-and-comer Robert Eggers.

You’ve got a lot of work to do if you want to reach @Greatoneshere hype skill level 

[EternallDarkness]

Yep, was posted a while ago. https://www.dayonepatch.com/topic/6229-the-lighthouse-robert-eggersthe-witch-official-a24-trailer/?tab=comments#comment-143731

 

definitely looks interesting

[EternallDarkness]

and this Friday has so much coming out I want to see. Lighthouse, Zombieland 2, JoJo Rabbit, plus Jay and Silent Bob drops Wednesday. 

[SaysWho?]

1 hour ago, IdeaOfEvil said:

He's not so up and coming if you've been a fan of VVitch for all these years

 

I'm trying to convince my friend and his wife to go see this with me, and if they don't want to then I might skip this in theaters. I really want to see it, but I'm getting too lazy to go out on my own these days, lol

 

Haha, well, it's more that The Witch came out this decade and he doesn't have a long resume, so he continues to look promising.

 

1 hour ago, Keyser_Soze said:

You’ve got a lot of work to do if you want to reach @Greatoneshere hype skill level 

 

 

[TwinIon]

AMC hasn't yet decided when they're going to show it. I wouldn't be surprised if it's a slow rollout to only a few theaters.

[IdeaOfEvil]

5 hours ago, TwinIon said:

AMC hasn't yet decided when they're going to show it. I wouldn't be surprised if it's a slow rollout to only a few theaters.

Yea, only 1 theater in all of the SF/Bay Area is playing this, and there's only about 4-5 showings throughout the day... It's weird because it's playing in one of the major theaters in the city, but it's only getting one screen.

[johnny]

10 hours ago, IdeaOfEvil said:

He's not so up and coming if you've been a fan of VVitch for all these years

 

I'm trying to convince my friend and his wife to go see this with me, and if they don't want to then I might skip this in theaters. I really want to see it, but I'm getting too lazy to go out on my own these days, lol

This is only his second feature film so I’d still consider him an up and comer 

[TheLeon]

This happens throughout the year, but it's really noticeable during "awards season". All of these movie have a release date, but it's for just a couple cities. I get all excited, then remember that I live in flyover country, so I've got to wait a couple weeks. 

[Mercury33]

On 10/14/2019 at 5:25 PM, IdeaOfEvil said:

Yea, only 1 theater in all of the SF/Bay Area is playing this, and there's only about 4-5 showings throughout the day... It's weird because it's playing in one of the major theaters in the city, but it's only getting one screen.

 
only 4-5 a day? How many is normal? I always assumed 4/5 is about normal for the number of showings on a screen in one day. 

[Bloodporne]

I really wanted to see this on release day at the Angelika or some shit but alas, my plans have been thwarted and instead I have chores to take care of. 

 

Not cool.

[IdeaOfEvil]

9 hours ago, Mercury33 said:

 
only 4-5 a day? How many is normal? I always assumed 4/5 is about normal for the number of showings on a screen in one day. 

This theater in particular starts some shows as early as 8am and ends as late as 1am at times. It's not a huge difference, but they coulda squeezed 6-7 showings in a day if they wanted to. And especially considering the one screen they're putting this on only seats maybe 100 people, they should have done more showings.

 

  And actually, looking at Fandango now it looks like they just opened up a second screen, so it's getting a good 9 showings a day atm...

[Mercury33]

Oh wow that’s early. I’d love if my theaters started movies that early. 

[johnny]

Of course not being shown near me

[SoberChef]

5/5 Skulls via Bloody-Disgusting.com

 

https://bloody-disgusting.com/reviews/3564819/cannes-review-lighthouse-nightmare-sea/

[TheLeon]

It's coming to about 500 theaters this weekend, so you might be able to see it soon. I'm definitely going tomorrow night. 

[TheLeon]

I’m really glad that I went out to the theater on “opening night” for this one. It was showing in one of the smaller screens at my AMC, but it was packed. People were dead quiet for most of it, and when the credits rolled there was this wave of relieved/exhausted laughter. It was like everyone had been holding their breath for the last hour and were finally able to let it all out. 

[IdeaOfEvil]

I just got back from this tonight...

 

It's a fantastic movie that demands you have patience and a willingness to immerse yourself in sound. The story is your standard fare of madness and isolation. But even still, it distinguishes itself from the status quo by being filled with lots of old time ocean superstitions and lore that the film uses as the groundwork for the two character's motivations throughout its run time.

 

At first, there's a structure and order to how these two men live their lives - the youth must always obey their superior commander while the elders know when to break certain rules to better ease themselves in their jobs (the rule of not drinking, the rule of who does what chore, a common notion of never knowing personal details about one another, etc). But gradually it moves on to the relationship these two carve out with one another, where time eventually breaks down their walls of silence with each other when they offer up "the beans" of their past lives. Still, the hardest part to understand about this movie are the old seafaring traditions and science of the time that are lost to most audience members. Certain mechanics of being a lighthouse keeper aren't known to casual viewers, and if there was an explanation given by these characters, their grammar and slang for the era were hard to keep up with to figure out. What I thought was oil for the lighthouse was mixed with some powder, but that ended up being their drinking water(?). There's a loud foghorn noise that the lighthouse powerfully emits, but it only runs at certain times and not all the time? These might sound like nitpicking quibbles, but because both of these elements come in to play with certain plot points of the movie, they become crucial details that one dwells on since it's not common knowledge in knowing exactly what they are and how they work.

 

There's also a lot of crude scenes of what it means to be alone that you'll have to stomach - masturbation, pissing, and bodily needs that are there to remind you of the raw work life they're living in. If your feint of heart or have a weak stomach for such things, this movie might be a rough ride for some. There's nothing here that's obscene, but it is unapologetically the focus of a few scenes. Plus, there's nothing pretty here. Being shot in gloriously high contrasted black and white made everything look inky and dirty - from the cracks in their faces, to the dirt of the powdered coal on their bodies, to the sweat and body hair on their physiques. It's actually rather beautiful in it's ugliness. Also, this being filmed in a 4:3 aspect ratio (4:3? It's a nitpick if it isn't) kept everything on screen tight and in a specific focus - there was no escaping the lives they were living. You weren't ever able to admire the scenery or backdrops that were around them because it had nothing to do with them. The world was out of frame both physically on screen and in the mind of the movie.

 

Surprisingly, I found the sound to be the most important element of this movie. The most terrifying moments came when scenes of soft noises were que'd up, as if the normal chaos around them was about to be interrupted by something even more sinister. The crashing of the ocean waves, the heavy bass of the foghorn, the crackle of thunder, the rapid tapping of rain drops - they were all comforting in knowing that nothing was out of place when they all were booming at your senses. But when watching this in theaters, hearing the audience munching on their popcorn and whispering to each other and laughing at uncomfortable moments in the movie was the biggest drawback I could find. I think the most powerful way to see this movie will be when you can get it at home and be able to get lost in every scene without outside disruptions bringing you back to reality.

 

The actors are amazing in this, and simple gestures of staring at one another, or staring at nothing in the distance, were some of the most tense scenes ever put to film. Dafoe can always produce a great role in any film he ever does. So the standout to me here is Robert Pattinson. Constantly I would think "this is the dude from Twilight?" when he was giving deep methodical performances from scene to scene. One should pay attention not only to the actor that's giving any random monologue, but also to the actor that's simply looking at him. There is high art in the acting all throughout this film, and the viewer would only benefit themselves if they took in the whole package of noticing the action to reaction in this film. A- score!

[fuckle85]

 

[Bloodporne]

I finally saw it last night and I have to say beyond the absolutely masterful aesthetics and sound design, the film left me quite cold, unmoved and sometimes disinterested despite all the obvious madness and absurdity transpiring on screen. Strangely enough, I found it to be a bit...clinical overall, as in, I felt like it missed any sort of emotional impact, gut punch whatever you want to call it. 

 

I'm not sure what I was expecting overall but I also found the whole climax vaguely unsatisfying. It checked the boxes of arthouse cinema in that it was typically weird, obtuse and all but again, it just felt like not enough for me and I can't pinpoint why. For all the sexual frustration and masturbation, it felt like the movie just never came (they should totally hire me at rogerebert.com for this line). It felt "predictably weird" to me and that's not to imply I needed some sort of twists & turns type flick. 

 

However, I do think it's worth seeing for the performances and fucking amazingly mystical aesthetics alone. I love the idea of the eerie, old seas and the mysticism that comes with it, lighthouses and all, so just for that alone, I'd give it a 7/10 overall if I had to rate it.

 

I may change my mind on a second viewing but ultimately I felt curiously uninvested in the whole affair beyond marveling at the beautiful images which warrants my score alone like I said.  

 

Edit: And I'll freely acknowledge that some of my lack of investment may be due to the often difficult to grasp dialogue. Between the heavy sound design, thick-as-fuck accents and language in itself, I sometimes had a hard time grasping the full impact of conversations.

 

 

[TwinIon]

1 hour ago, Bloodporne said:

Edit: And I'll freely acknowledge that some of my lack of investment may be due to the often difficult to grasp dialogue. Between the heavy sound design, thick-as-fuck accents and language in itself, I sometimes had a hard time grasping the full impact of conversations.

One of my friends said they wished they'd seen it with subtitles because it was so often hard to hear or understand.

 

I didn't want subtitles, but I do think that muddiness was purposeful, if not necessarily effective.

[Bloodporne]

3 minutes ago, TwinIon said:

One of my friends said they wished they'd seen it with subtitles because it was so often hard to hear or understand.

 

I didn't want subtitles, but I do think that muddiness was purposeful, if not necessarily effective.

My problem is that I have a hard time with any sort of "old timey" English dialects and accents on account of English being technically my second language. I don't really have an accent or an issue with English per say but when it comes to old shit like this, it gets dicey! I think it's more their actual dialog and dialects than the sound mix really for me. 

 

The basic gist of it all seems to me to be the following, if you've seen it, do you agree?

 

Spoiler

Old man is a power-trip liar who loves to hear himself talk and young guy killed a guy while logging up in Canada potentially due to carelessness/laziness on the job? I kind of lost the thread on what the movie was trying to get at after all the boozing started. I know old man claimed weeks had gone by after he woke up the first time on the floor and missed his departure day...after that, I have no idea what it was implying beyond that they're drinking themselves insane with all the name switching and all.

 

[TwinIon]

23 minutes ago, Bloodporne said:

My problem is that I have a hard time with any sort of "old timey" English dialects and accents on account of English being technically my second language. I don't really have an accent or an issue with English per say but when it comes to old shit like this, it gets dicey! I think it's more their actual dialog and dialects than the sound mix really for me. 

 

The basic gist of it all seems to me to be the following, if you've seen it, do you agree?

 

  Hide contents

Old man is a power-trip liar who loves to hear himself talk and young guy killed a guy while logging up in Canada potentially due to carelessness/laziness on the job? I kind of lost the thread on what the movie was trying to get at after all the boozing started. I know old man claimed weeks had gone by after he woke up the first time on the floor and missed his departure day...after that, I have no idea what it was implying beyond that they're drinking themselves insane with all the name switching and all.

 

 

Spoiler

 

I think you're right as to what we're supposed to think the history is there. Ephraim probably got someone killed while logging. I'm not clear on how logging works exactly, but the impression I got was that he probably could have saved the guy, but he didn't, so he ran away.

 

As to what was happening between the two men, I think the film is purposefully unclear as to what was actually going on. There are some small instances at the beginning where old man Dafoe is probably, ball busting, pulling rank, senile, or just doesn't care. Things like cleaning the floor where we're not really sure what the truth of the matter is. Later though, what Dafoe says is directly contrary to  what we just saw on screen. Maybe he's gaslighting Ephraim, maybe what we saw was Ephraim's hallucination (or otherwise not real), or maybe Dafoe is just that out of it. I don't think the audience is meant to know the answer.

 

 

[Bloodporne]

20 minutes ago, TwinIon said:

 

  Hide contents

 

I think you're right as to what we're supposed to think the history is there. Ephraim probably got someone killed while logging. I'm not clear on how logging works exactly, but the impression I got was that he probably could have saved the guy, but he didn't, so he ran away.

 

As to what was happening between the two men, I think the film is purposefully unclear as to what was actually going on. There are some small instances at the beginning where old man Dafoe is probably, ball busting, pulling rank, senile, or just doesn't care. Things like cleaning the floor where we're not really sure what the truth of the matter is. Later though, what Dafoe says is directly contrary to  what we just saw on screen. Maybe he's gaslighting Ephraim, maybe what we saw was Ephraim's hallucination (or otherwise not real), or maybe Dafoe is just that out of it. I don't think the audience is meant to know the answer.

 

 

Spoiler

So the way I remember it from my childhood, and what I believe he alluded to, is that the logs are pushed into the river and people kind of "guide" them in some fashion. I know this is a common danger I heard about in regards to old logging as well is that people wall fall into the water and the logs going with the current would crush them kind of between another log. Check out this picture:

 

 

I took the conversation as him just simply freezing and not helping the guy and watching him die and all he thought after was "I could use me a smoke" instead of feeling pity or horror. Basically, the implication is that he's "off" to begin with. The white haired person we saw several times was the dead logger. 

 

I took the whole name switching and other shenanigans once shit hit the fan as simply...they go crazy and drink themselves into hallucinations and further insanity. I mean, they start drinking fuel at one point. I personally didn't think there was a whole lot more to it which is part of my disappointment. The visions and supernatural allusions didn't amount to much but visual window dressing ultimately the way I see it. 

 

[Greatoneshere]

I mean - The Witch absolutely required subtitles. If you saw this movie without subtitles, yes, I think that would absolutely hamper the enjoyment of the film. Hence why I'm waiting for home. But I watch everything with subtitles so I never miss a thing, and it's made everything I watch better and more understandable.

[Joe]

7 hours ago, Greatoneshere said:

I mean - The Witch absolutely required subtitles. If you saw this movie without subtitles, yes, I think that would absolutely hamper the enjoyment of the film. Hence why I'm waiting for home. But I watch everything with subtitles so I never miss a thing, and it's made everything I watch better and more understandable.

 

My brother made me paranoid once when I told him that I watch everything with subtitles because I missed words every now and then and it drove me crazy. I even went to get my hearing checked and everything in case I was suffering from hearing problems. But I think it turns out some people are just more sensitive to not wanting to miss any word or phrase uttered during a movie. I am definitely one of those people.

[TwinIon]

11 hours ago, Jose said:

My brother made me paranoid once when I told him that I watch everything with subtitles because I missed words every now and then and it drove me crazy. I even went to get my hearing checked and everything in case I was suffering from hearing problems. But I think it turns out some people are just more sensitive to not wanting to miss any word or phrase uttered during a movie. I am definitely one of those people.

I am the absolute opposite. I hate subtitles because I can't help but read them when I'd rather be watching what is on screen. I feel like a few lost words are a small price to pay for not missing anything on screen.

[Joe]

12 minutes ago, TwinIon said:

I am the absolute opposite. I hate subtitles because I can't help but read them when I'd rather be watching what is on screen. I feel like a few lost words are a small price to pay for not missing anything on screen.

 

The frustrating thing is I am that way as well, but the other part takes over most of the times. Getting a sound bar has really helped though. I was told a surround sound system makes dialogue sound perfect, so I need to invest in one of those eventually. 

[TwinIon]

4 minutes ago, Jose said:

The frustrating thing is I am that way as well, but the other part takes over most of the times. Getting a sound bar has really helped though. I was told a surround sound system makes dialogue sound perfect, so I need to invest in one of those eventually. 

Yeah, a real surround sound system helps. I also boost the center channel a bit for dialog.

[Bloodporne]

1 hour ago, TwinIon said:

I am the absolute opposite. I hate subtitles because I can't help but read them when I'd rather be watching what is on screen. I feel like a few lost words are a small price to pay for not missing anything on screen.

That's me and I often kind of 'lose' dialog in the moment. It usually doesn't impact my opinion of a film I think since it isn't much but in the case of The Lighthouse, it might've been more of an impact than usual for sure. I saw it at the cinema and the sound was really good, it's just my English. 

 

At home I also have a sound bar by now and tend to boost the center speaker and go for whatever audio setting supposedly boosts voices. 

[Greatoneshere]

1 hour ago, TwinIon said:

I am the absolute opposite. I hate subtitles because I can't help but read them when I'd rather be watching what is on screen. I feel like a few lost words are a small price to pay for not missing anything on screen.

 

I read it so fast it's not a problem. And over time anyone gets good enough at it that you don't miss anything on screen. 

[TheLeon]

When I'm home, I watch everything with headphones. That helps a ton with making sure I always catch all the dialog, but sometimes I still toggle on the subtitles if there are really thick accents flying around. 

[sexy_shapiro]

On 10/14/2019 at 8:07 AM, IdeaOfEvil said:

He's not so up and coming if you've been a fan of VVitch for all these years

 

Just because fans of a niche art house horror movie already know of him doesn’t mean he’s not up and coming. Up and coming simply means his reputation is still growing.

[Moa]

I liked the movie but I have some beef with the ending.

 

Spoiler

The end invokes the Prometheus myth but this doesn't recontextualize anything or contribute much additional meaning to the movie. It just struck me as allegory for allegory's sake.