Year: 2019

‘The Lighthouse’ is a mesmerizing visual feast…and a rudderless waste of time

Jeff Mitchell

“The Lighthouse” – Robert Eggers’ follow-up to his eerie, creepy horror film “The Witch” (2015) (4/4 stars) is an equally eerie, creepy drama about two weathered men watching over a lonely lighthouse. There’s little doubt that this visual feast sets a disturbing tone, as “The Lighthouse” has an Ingmar Bergman-“Hour of the Wolf”-thing working greatly in its favor.  Filmed entirely in black and white and almost exclusively with a 1:1 aspect ratio (or very close to it), Eggers delivers a horrible sense of doom on a teeny, tiny island near…

Political Thriller Week: ‘Three Days of the Condor’

Jeff Mitchell

“Three Days of the Condor” – Joe Turner (Robert Redford) is a researcher at the American Literary Historical Society, which sounds like the most harmless job on the planet, next to elementary school librarian and feather duster.  Well, on an ordinary day, he leaves for lunch, and when he returns, everyone in the said place of work is dead.  He rightly assumes that he could be next. Oh, Turner, by the way, works for the CIA, and the historical society is simply a cover. Director Sydney Pollack keeps us guessing…

Political Thriller Week: ‘The Lives of Others’

Jeff Mitchell

“The Lives of Others” –  Despite popular belief, the U.S.A. does not corner the market on all political thrillers, and a perfect example is Germany’s absorbing and twisty “The Lives of Others”, which won the 2007 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. The year is 1984, before the Berlin Wall came down, and not only do East Germans feel generally oppressed, but it’s not safe for them to converse freely in the comfort of their homes either.  The government could be listening. This is exactly what playwright Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch)…