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The Lighthouse (2019)
The Lighthouse (2019)
2019 | Drama, Horror

"I shamefully saw this study in maritime lunacy on one of those industry links that emit noxious gas from your computer if you dare to forward to anyone. I was about to do a joint interview with Robert Eggers for MovieMaker magazine, hence the link, and was pretty excited given how much I loved “The Witch.” “The Lighthouse” is unlike anything I’ve seen. Willem Dafoe reminded me a lot of a security guard I worked with at Trollope & Colls joinery in Reading many moons ago. It was that look in the eye from someone who saw too much of what was in their head. That’s something I instantly recognized and it brought me right back to the gates of that joinery. There were too many similarities — the pride in the job, the obsessive attention to detail, the authoritarian streak and the delusion. I got to reimagine my days archiving a room of architect’s drawings in a joinery as being stuck in a lighthouse with a flatulent Willem Dafoe. I adored the dialogue and I could listen to Dafoe and Pattinson endlessly if Mr. Eggers ever did any radio play spin-offs. There are elements of Harold Pinter and Herman Melville amongst a host of other touchstones I probably missed, but it’s a film steeped in its own logic. Its saline black & white photography is also moody enough to probably tempt Béla Tarr out of retirement."

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Awix (3310 KP) rated My Octopus Teacher (2020) in Movies

Oct 4, 2020 (Updated Oct 4, 2020)  
My Octopus Teacher (2020)
My Octopus Teacher (2020)
2020 | Documentary
5
6.0 (2 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Netflix sea-life doc that sets out to be moving and inspiring and just ended up making me shout at my laptop a lot. A bloke going through some sort of mid-life crisis does the usual thing and gets involved with a younger female: the twist is that she's an invertebrate. Never mind 'My Octopus Teacher', based on what he says - 'I was overwhelmed by my feelings for her,' etc - 'My Darling Octopus' might have been a better title. Same old story: Man meets octopus, they swim around together for a bit, octopus loses arm in shark attack, he nurses her back to health, she has several hundred thousand children behind his back, etc.

Quite apart from the weirdness of the subject matter - what did the bloke's wife think of all this? what, for the matter, did the octopus think was going on? - there's something very dodgy about the way the film is presented. The story is presented as something that's already happened, so are we watching reconstructions of the events? Is it all a staged or confected narrative? Has someone told the octopus actually appearing in the film it's basically in the role of Kim Novak at the end of Vertigo? Stunning photography and images of sealife, naturally, but rather than informing the viewer about octopuses - which are fascinating creatures - it just unloads a lot of sentimental, anthropomorphised cobblers on them. Best watched with the sound turned down and appropriate sea-life noises playing.
  
    The World of Interiors

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