As other people have written "The Lighthouse" isn't your standard film and that's intentional. It's more of a situational mood piece that's taking you to a specific place and time so that you can get inside the head of the characters.

Unfortunately the characters appear to be insane. Or maybe they're not. It's impossible to know because you never really know whether what you're seeing is meant to be real or dreamt or just imagined. Don't expect any exposition either because this isn't that sort of movie.

In many ways I was reminded of "The Shining" and "Apocalypse Now" in that both films explore torments of the mind and tortures of the soul. There's an uncertainty to both films that's turned up to 11 in "The Lighthouse". Partly that was down to the dialogue being unintelligible but mostly I just couldn't fit all the pieces together.

Still it's a striking film and for sure it has real authenticity in portraying how men act in isolation with other men or when they're heavily inebriated. Lots of fighting, disclosure and singing mainly. So it's quite the experience even if "The Lighthouse" is no classic.