Beating a dead horse here, but the cinematography is fucking
stunning. Holy shit. On a personal note, I liked this way better than The
VVitch. But that's not saying much. Eggers creates a superbly creepy island and
does well to drive home that creepiness. The constant blaring of the foghorn
throughout the entirety of the film, the hallucinations, the masturbation, the
lunacy, etc. all works together to create and sustain this dystopia.
Unfortunately, Eggers relies too heavily on metaphor,
mythology, and abstraction to drive his points home, making the viewer do more
work than necessary for entertainment purposes. What some see as masterful
directing, I took as lazy; I don't want to do your work for you, Eggers. I'll
happily do some, but not the heavy-lifting.
That's not to say that I didn't find the movie enjoyable. As
the credits rolled, I kind of had a "huh, that was weird" initial
reaction, but as I digested it a bit more, I saw shreds of clever artistry and
more really wonderful camera work, despite not having much to work with on a
small, bleak, island.
One thing I found particularly interesting is the evolution
of Pattinson's accent as the film goes on. At the start when he's not saying
much, it's more on par with Dafoe's, but less pronounced. As the film wears on,
and Pattinson starts slipping further into lunacy, it starts becoming more Bostonian,
ever so gradually until it's full BAHWS-TAHN.
It's a creepy, cool, refreshing film, but eh, not my
favorite.
6/10
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