Mike Goes To Movies

The Lighthouse (2019) Though his style likely isn't for everyone, I must say that to me writer/director, Robert Eggers, is a pretty fucking cool guy. The Lighthouse is Eggers follow up to his fantastic, family-driven, nightmarish folk tale, The Witch (a must-see for all horror fans). In a similar vein, The Lighthouse is another psychological horror/thriller period piece that is about two lighthouse keepers, or wickies , as they're called, who work on an isolated lighthouse that sits atop a rocky outcrop constantly battered by poor conditions and extreme storms. Like the best psychological horror, The Lighthouse is a downward spiral: it starts off normal enough but, like the psyches of our wickies, things slowly begin to derail as forces both natural and unnatural seep into their lives and haunt them from the inside out. Willem Dafoe plays the veteran keeper; the nature of the job has clearly taken its toll over the years and he may be hiding some insider knowledge of the ...

Adaptation (2002) ADMIT ONE to the mind-bending, meta world of Charlie Kaufman's psyche. This film is the epitome of what I will refer to as the intellectual's mindfuck . It is like what Dazed and Confused or Pineapple Express are to stoners, but for the thinkers out there. Adaptation is equally trippy as these films, but in a very different and more cerebral way. I will try to briefly explain what the film is about, however, for those that are unfamiliar with it, I imagine you will quickly think to yourself, "what in the fuck..." Adaptation is stated to be based on the real novel The Orchid Thief by Susan Orleans but the film is really about Charlie Kaufman's struggle to adapt the novel into a complete screenplay. So, yes, the film is about the writing of... the actual film. This film, as such, is one of the most meta stories you will find out there, and that is much of the fun and complexity of it. The audience has to contend with constantly trying t...