Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
Two lighthouse keepers try to maintain their sanity while living on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s.
The Lighthouse is a visually and tonally singular film — shot in a near-square 1.19:1 aspect ratio in stark black-and-white, evoking silent-era expressionism and maritime mythology simultaneously. Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe deliver ferocious, career-best performances, especially Dafoe whose archaic, Melvillean monologues are extraordinary. The cinematography by Jarin Blaschke is genuinely exceptional — every frame feels like a daguerreotype come to life. Novelty is high because Eggers' vision is wholly distinctive and unmistakable. The plot, while atmospherically rich, is intentionally elliptical and can feel deliberately obscure or frustratingly ambiguous in its mythological layering. The ending, while committed and memorably brutal in its Promethean imagery, divides audiences and doesn't fully cohere thematically for all viewers, landing just above average rather than exceptional.