The Indie Fresh List: A Young Chef, Teen Cliques, and a Darkly Comic Murder Gone Awry

Fresh & Available Now on VOD – Spotlight Pick

The Lighthouse (2019)

90%

Dropping on Amazon Prime Video on Thursday is the Oscar-nominated black & white horror tale The Lighthouse. It hits perhaps a little too close to home given the current situation, but watching Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe go crazy in a remote lighthouse might serve as a reminder of just how bad things could be. Following up his cult smash hit The Witch, Robert Eggers’ sophomore effort is a rain-soaked fever dream in which Pattinson and Dafoe star as two lighthouse keepers – or “wickies” – who are beset and tormented by unseen, or perhaps imaginary, dark forces while cut off from the outside world, with only their uneasy cohabitation to keep them sane. Or not. Heavily influenced by the early 20th-century painter Andrew Wyeth, Eggers (who co-wrote the film with his brother Max Eggers) utilizes 19th-century filming techniques and vintage camera equipment to give the film its distinctive period aesthetic. Lewis Knight of the Daily Mirror describes the film as “[A] gothic, dark fairy-tale, incomprehensible…and incredibly elusive throughout, which only serves to make it more hypnotic as it weaves its dark web before it reaches its chilling climax.”

Available to stream now on Amazon; available to rent or buy on FandangoNow, Google Play, iTunes, and Vudu.

Along with…

• Swallow (2019) 87% , about an affluent housewife who develops a deadly case of pica — the urge to swallow inanimate objects.
• The Wild Goose Lake (2019) 91% , about a Chinese gangster who meets a woman with a deadly secret.
• The Dog Doc (2019) 89% , a documentary about a compassionate vet who tries to save vulnerable animals.
• Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020) 99% , about two women who go on a perilous journey to end an unwanted pregnancy.
• Butt Boy (2019) 71% , about a recovering alcoholic detective whose AA sponsor becomes the main suspect in a murder investigation.
• Invisible Life (2019) 94% , a drama about a pair of sisters who are kept apart in 1950’s Brazil.
• Uncut Gems (2019) 91% , about a fast-talking jeweler who has a couple of days to pay his debt.
• Parasite (2019) 99% , a darkly comedic satire about the terrifying antics that ensue when an underprivileged family latches on to a more affluent one and things go sideways.
• Stray (2018) 100% , about two damaged strangers who meet and fall into a tumultuous relationship.
• EMMA. (2020) 86% , a new adaptation of the Jane Austen novel about a naive, privileged heiress who plays matchmaker to the detriment of her own romantic prospects.
• Banana Split (2018) 89% , about a girl who develops an unlikely friendship with her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend.
• We Summon the Darkness (2019) 68% , about a trio of girls who run into a satanic serial killer after leaving a metal concert.
• Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) 97% , a romance about a painter and her muse who fall in love on borrowed time.
• Jojo Rabbit (2019) 81% , a satire about a naive Hitler youth who discovers his mother is hiding a Jewish girl during World War II.
• Color Out of Space (2019) 86% , a psychedelic horror film about an eerie meteorite that falls in a family’s back yard and wreaks havoc.
• Blow the Man Down (2019) 99% , a mystery about two young women who get caught in a web of murder and mayhem in a quiet seaside town in Maine.
• Come as You Are (2019) 94% , a road trip sex comedy about a group of disabled men to travel to a brothel in Canada that solely caters to disabled people.
• Pain and Glory (2019) 96% , a drama about an aging director who reflects on his films, collaborators, and legacy after he’s sidelined by severe back pain.

Thumbnail images by Arrow Video, Amazon Films, Blue Fox Entertainment