Forget VR, pay no mind to 3-D and don’t even think about introducing a new frame rate — the most immersive film experience of the year can be found in Robert Eggers’ “The Lighthouse,” a throwback black-and-white fever dream, shot in boxy 1.33.1 and filled with arcane lingo delivered with demented glee by Robert Pattinson, Willem Dafoe and no one else.
It rocks.
A richly textured portrait of two men on the far edges of society intensifying each other’s descent into madness, “The Lighthouse” lulls like a sea song, knocks like a wave and had an absolutely hypnotic effect on audiences at the Cannes Film Festival, where the film made its world premiere as part of the Director’s Fortnight sidebar.