With so little information to grasp on to, the viewer truly becomes trapped in Lynch’s nightmare vision. What we often describe as nightmares rarely make sense and the disorienting feeling that accompanies them is often just as frightening. With Inland Empire, Lynch has crafted the closest thing to a nightmare that audiences have seen in some time, if ever. His use of digital video is certainly not the most aesthetically pleasing format for moviegoers, but it’s consistent with the grainy, dreamlike atmosphere he establishes elsewhere.
Aside from the general feeling of uneasiness that I’ve felt since watching it, I have two relatively minor criticisms of Inland Empire. First, I didn’t care for the distracting use of well-known movie stars in a couple of roles of little or no significance. William H. Macy shows up for literally a few seconds in a completely unimportant role and Mary Steenburgen has very little screen time as well. The latter’s role made little sense also, but at least it sort of fit thematically.
Harry Dean Stanton has a tad more time on screen, but also seems useless aside from the laughs his bizarre comments elicit. His part is almost reminiscent of the superior role his Paris, Texas brother Dean Stockwell had in Blue Velvet, not in the two characters’ behavior so much as their strangeness in being there at all. There are a couple of more well-known actresses that pop up seemingly for little reason at the very end as well.
The other thing I found distractingly off in the movie was Lynch’s attempt in the second half to jolt his audience like they were watching a slasher film. I don’t need David Lynch using cheap techniques like sudden screams or flashing lights to startle me. The atmosphere he creates thoughout the film is so perfectly nightmarish that stunts like that are somewhat insulting and unnecessary. The movie is effectively creepy without these little tricks. Lynch has always known the value of off-kilter shocks (such as the “Loco-motion” performance here) so I was disappointed to see him use more conventional horror devices.
Article comments
1 - handyguy
I am envious that you got to see the film with the added 'performance' by Lynch. If this was the screening at Lincoln Center on Saturday, it was sold out before I even heard about it. Even when his movies are a mixed bag of the good, the bad and the incomprehensible [as nearly all are], he is a national treasure.
2 - Christopher Soden
1. I am thrilled as I didn't realize that Lynch had released a new film.
2. I heard in a conversation recently that Mullholland Drive began as a television project that was scrapped. I've got to say I've always had greater appreciation for his films than TWIN PEAKS.
3. I never thought I'd live to see a time when audiences could embrace the associative intuitive logic of a director like David Lynch. It gives me hope for the human race.
4. I think a lot of folks don't realize that many "traditional" films (predicated on linear narrative) have the sort of disturbing subtext that Lynch simply brings to the surface.
5. The first time I watched MULLHOLLAND DRIVE, I'd rented the tape and by the time they got to the heavily made up beehive singing Roy Orbison's CRYING, in Spanish, to a weeping audience, I had to shut it off. It was so profoundly upsetting that I couldn't take anymore. And I couldn't tell you why.
6. I never cut off before the end of a film.
7. David Lynch seems to have discovered a way to fuse the hallucinatory, revelatory, ridiculous, profane, intense and transcendent to a single....what? Tableau? Image? Take? Scene?
8. Consider the bruised brunette, Isabella Rosellini showing up naked in the living room of Hope Lange. Consider Gloria Grahame showing up naked at the home of teresa Wright, say. Or Jean Simmons.
9. Remember "The Cowboy" in Mullholland Drive and how preposterous he seemed? And yet he scared the hell out of me.
10. My friend David and I once made a list of recurring themes and images in David Lynch films:
a. Accidental car collisions that turn into infernos.
b. The grotesque spectacle of grief.
c. The blurred lines between waking and repose.
d. The blurred distinctions between the identities of say, 2 people of the same gender.
e. Roy Orbison songs.
f. Depavity as slapstick.
g. Sorcery.
h. The collision of naivete and despair.
i. Smoking./Matches.
j. amnesia or the loss of identity
k. dance those blues away
l. your subconscious attempting to contact you
11. Some directors' mistakes are far more compelling than other directors' successes.
12. "Here's to your fuck, Frank."
Cheers,
Christopher
3 - steven
If you want to know where David gets his ideas, then check out his new book, Catching the Big Fish. It's an eye-opener and the first time he reveals what the source of his creatvity is. You can get it at Amazon.