The Lighthouse (2019) Review: This Decade’s Best Psychological Horror Film

Writer-director Robert Eggers’ ‘The Lighthouse’ is without a doubt the most perplexing of the 2020 film award contenders, and it’s not due to its black-and-white 1.19:1 aspect ratio too. A simple setup of two lighthouse keepers tasked to maintain a secluded lighthouse – eventually becoming marooned there by a thunderstorm – turns into one of this decade’s most disturbingly macabre viewing experience mixed in with some ghastly Lovecraftian imagery.

As someone who was unimpressed with Eggers’ critically-lauded debut, The Witch, I was pleasantly gripped by The Lighthouse’s sense of foreboding terror the moment the film began. The Witch’s first half was a plodding watch that hardly infused any sense of dread in me as characters go about their chores despite the initial threat being introduced. The Lighthouse, however, punctuates an unnerving air about its characters just from their daily routine alone with no horrific threats in sight yet. Their isolation from civilization already beckons them to a certain feeling of dread that firmly grips your attention too.

This feeling of slowly becoming more psychologically alienated from reality is captured perfectly by Robert Pattinson’s Winslow. The plunge into his mind’s ever-growing abyss – a mind that’s also constantly being perverted by the occasional subterfuge that the often-intoxicated Wake (buoyed by a career-best performance from veteran Willem Dafoe) masterfully employs – is stirring as it is strangely cathartic once it’s fully unraveled.

Combined with beautiful cinematography that brilliantly encapsulates a hauntingly rustic view of the 19^th century, the film delivers on a horror fantasy that delights in its dastardly depiction of the murky fringes of our minds, and how unveiling one’s guilt-ridden secrets ultimately leaves destruction and sorrow in its wake.

‘I Lost My Body’ Review: A Disturbingly Refreshing Take On Human Connections

I know Netflix’s The Irishman is getting all the hype now, but the streaming giant also quietly released another film, I Lost My Body (French: J’ai perdu mon corps), which could very well be one of 2019’s most disturbingly insightful films, alongside Joker of course.

The French animated film directed by Jérémy Clapin is a genuinely interesting cinematic experience that, on the surface, seems too offbeat with a narrative premise that’ll leave heads scratching. However, look beyond that and you’ll hopefully discover a melancholic meditation on the dark, subtle intricacies of human connection – of the selfish ways that sometimes underline an innocent struggle for companionship (all while being elevated by Dan Levy’s masterful soundtrack that I encourage anyone to give a listen).

I especially love the film’s ending because it kind of twists the film’s prevalent theme of connection on its head. It’s a moving revelation the protagonist realises which, at first, might seem to contradict the film’s main themes of discovering solitude in others. However, the final scene compels a different thinking in discovering your personal peace – finding solace in your own loneliness.

Pure happiness doesn’t derive from a perceived soulmate or even your physical being. You need to reconnect yourself to a primal state of being – of living freely and fervently in the twisted beauty of life’s most painful moments. Only then can you possibly unearth a transcendental sense of joy that will never perish by any external and tangible influence.

Put it simply, to truly find your soul, you need to lose your body.

Image Credit: RollingStone.com

Every Grace Kelly Film Performance Reviewed & Ranked

Six years in showbusiness rarely gets you recognised, let alone remembered. But from 1951 to 1956, one actress defied those odds to become a staple of classic Hollywood filmdom. Grace Patricia Kelly a.k.a. Grace Kelly, the Philadelphia native who burst through the Western entertainment sphere like a raging wildfire and oozed such pure talent and arresting beauty which courted the likes of directors John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock to work with her (the latter cast her thrice in a span of 2 years!). However, just when Kelly began to hit her career stride, another courtship – this time of the romantic ilk with Prince Rainier III of Monaco – saw the eponymous actress ascend from newfound Hollywood royalty to actual regal stature in 1956 by virtue of marrying the prince, becoming the Princess of Monaco.

Despite starring in just 11 feature films, Grace Kelly left an indelible mark on classic Hollywood. She’s ranked 13^th among the American Film Institute’s 25 Greatest Female Stars of Classical Hollywood Cinema with her legacy spreading into popular culture through fashion and music. But what truly made her film performances standout among the sea of actresses during her time? In this article I’ll attempt to dissect, review and rank all 11 of Kelly’s performances on the silver screen to unravel the intricacies of what made Kelly truly one of a kind in her field.

 

11. Fourteen Hours (1951)

Often overlooked by many due to her reduced onscreen presence and overall insignificance to the main film’s arc, nevertheless Kelly’s film debut in this classic thriller helped solidify her claim to filmdom (she had previously clocked in several television appearances and plays). Her performance is really nothing to write home about with only one full scene allotted to her, but it’s commendable she puts in a solid turn as distraught wife Louise Anne Fuller who’s on the verge of divorce. It’s funny that besides the suicidal main character played by Richard Basehart, Kelly’s character shows the most intense emotions of any character in the film – her pain somewhat indirectly foreshadowing the inner turmoil of Basehart’s character.