The Lighthouse is… a weird movie, to say the least. Given the discussion I’ve heard on it, it is proving to be a divisive film.

Robert Eggers gives audiences an artistic tale from the late 1800s of two men who are put in charge of manning a lighthouse on a deserted island and their eventual descent to madness.

Editor in Chief Delaney Reh, who watched the film with me, describes it as, “A movie that can only be enjoyed by the type of person who studies film at NYU. Unless you want to watch Robert Pattinson violently murder a bird and do many other explicit things I can’t mention in a school paper, do not watch this film. It is hipster trash.”

As you can see, our perceptions of this film differ a little bit.

This film is unique in that it has the smallest cast out of any film I’ve seen in 2019.

Willem Defoe and Robert Pattinson give absolutely spectacular performances. The focus of the film is on Pattinson’s character, a younger “know-it-all” introvert with lots of ambition, and his descent to absolute chaos.

Pattinson’s character is perfectly paired by Defoe’s grizzly, old-fashioned sea-captain. The conflicts between the two on fundamental things, down to just raising a toast, give to the tension that ultimately culminates into a satisfyingly bizarre ending.

The Lighthouse is not meant to be filmed as a linear story. As the film is told from the perspective of a descending madman, not everything you see is to be trusted as many scenes were just delusions of Pattinson’s character.

However, Defoe’s character’s constant lying leads to a back-and-forth that has the audience ask: Was that scene real?

For myself, this ambiguity makes the movie-going experience so much more interesting as the film constantly has you asking questions.

My only complaint about this film is that it tries to be “artsy” too often. The fancy scene transitions are cool but after a while, they become tiring.

Overall, I can’t decide between an 8 or a 9 so I’m going with an 8.5/10 for The Lighthouse.

This is a film that was meant to be seen in theaters so make plans to see it before it’s too late.

A final note; this film was very R-rated, so maybe leave the family at home for this one.