Indie film, The Lighthouse, shines outside film festivals

JOEY FREID

When a trailer movie stands alone by itself as a short film that is better than some movies, you have something special and that’s what the trailer for The Lighthouse is, it’s special.

Movies like this aren’t supposed to be popular outside of film festivals but A24, the film company continues to do things like this, they make movies with a voice, movies that are not supposed to be mainstream and they make them popular.

Some of the best movies from the past couple years have come from A24, every movie is allowed to be itself no matter how different.

The way I would describe the way this trailer makes me feel is that it works, it shouldn’t but it does. The way mustard in mac and cheese works or like french fries in a milkshake, it should not work the way it does, but it just does.

I absolutely despise when filmmakers make black and white movies with no purpose to it being in that format, but here it works, and you know it does because this trailer would not have the same claustrophobic feeling without it. There is a purpose to it.

Willem Defoe and Robert Pattinson play two lighthouse keepers who drive each other mad in a Psycho style manor. And in no way is it cheesy or goofy.

The whole of the trailer is them yelling “what” at each other. That’s it. What. Over and over again.

And there is a sense of mystery as to what is going on sorta like a who done it type of situation, but there are subtle attributes to the feel of the setting that eerily play on familiar uncomfortable situations and settings of real life. It is very off putting and it is great.

The movie will be released on October 17, and though there are currently no showtimes near Roseville you can probably expect it to show up in Sacramento at the Tower Theater.