I’m dealing with no screenings. I’m not dealing well. So, why not throw money at streaming services that are showing stuff that was in the theaters before we all went on lockdown? Here’s my brief – because I’m in Home Mode y’all – look at The Lighthouse!

“Tall tales.”

Robert Eggers’ second film is eerie, solemn, and darkly bizarre. Lighthouse has the look and feel of a silent film, full of sharp, angled shadows and Important Gazes.

Harking back in its trippiness to The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, and in it’s suspense to Hitchcock’s The Lodger, this film has been a whole lot going on within its basic story. And, of course, there are art house echoes of modern works, like Cold Skin (two guys bugging out at a remote lighthouse), The Shining (madness, alcoholism, or something else?) and director Eggers’ own The Witch in terms of its haunting yet simplistic visual style.

Let’s not forget magnificent facial hair on display. Dafoe’s lush, crazy beard, and crazier hairPattinson’s magnificent 1800s handlebar by way of 1970s pr0nstache. The fantastic period outfits are terrific too, as was with Witch.

As the two “wickies” spend longer and longer together, things start to unravel. And the story shifts from the strangeness of a new situation to a fever dream. What’s true, what’s fantasy, and who’s gone mad? Like Witch, it’s an odd, leisurely walk through the human mind that won’t be for everyone. But it is fascinating stuff.