Inland Empire (2006): written and directed by David Lynch; starring Laura Dern (Nikki Grace/ Susan Blue), Jeremy Irons (Kingsley Stewart), Justin Theroux (Devon Berk/ Billy Side), Karolina Gruszka (Lost Girl), Grace Zabriskie (Visitor #1), and Harry Dean Stanton (Freddie):
A doomed Polish film adaptation of a creepy, true Polish folk tale inspires an American film directed by Brit Jeremy Irons and starring Laura Dern and Justin Theroux. Real-life events begin to mirror those in the adaptation which mirror those surrounding the original film which mirror those in the folk tale that was inspired by true events.
Also, dance numbers and a surprise cameo from Terry Crews!
Laura Dern's actress begins to be haunted almost immediately by strange characters, events, and an occasional loss of self. And by living out life as her character. Or is the character really a character or the ghost of a person doomed by a curse to relive the events of her death over and over until someone breaks the curse? Good question!
Inland Empire is a disturbing, dazzling descent into horror, madness, and parallel lives and worlds. However, you may have to consult its wikia page to figure out its plot. Or watch it several times.
Even then, this is Lynch prowling the borders between dream and narrative, nightmare and plot. Laura Dern is terrific in a role that requires a lot of heavy lifting in service of a character with more than one character. Cameos come and go. Grace Zabriskie shows up early and late to explain things and terrify Laura Dern's actress. Harry Dean Stanton has a recurring comic bit as a scam-artist assistant to director Jeremy Irons. Mary Steenburgen wanders through.
And there's the rabbits. Or people with rabbit heads. Surreal, menacing WTF mind games from David Lynch. I've come to the opinion that all of Lynch's work takes place in the same universe. Or multiverse. The monster here could just as well have strolled through Twin Peaks: The Return or Eraserhead. Or maybe it did! Highly recommended.
Pi (1998): written by Darren Aronofsky, Sean Gullette, and Eric Watson; directed by Darren Aronofsky; starring Sean Gullette (Max Cohen), Mark Margolis (Sol Robeson), Ben Shenkman (Lenny Meyer), Pamela Hart (Marcy Dawson), and Samia Shoaib (Devi):
Darren Aronofsky's first feature should probably list David Lynch's Eraserhead as an inspiration in the credits, most noticeably in a stylistic sense. Its thematic concerns are different, however -- Pi is a puzzle story about stumbling upon answers to questions that probably should not be asked.
Lead actor Sean Gullette is not the most charismatic actor in the world, which is something of a problem when doing a movie with so few even mildly sympathetic characters (see also Aronofsky's next film, Requiem for a Dream, which is what would happen if Trainspotting were run through a humour-and-sympathy scrubber). It's an enjoyable debut, but certainly not deep in any way unless you've never heard of the Kabbalah. Recommended.
David Lynch: The Art Life (2016): directed by Jon Nguyen, Rick Barnes, and Olivia Neegard-Holm; starring David Lynch (Himself): Born in 1946 in Missoula, Montana, David Lynch would have a semi-peripatetic childhood, living in a couple of places in the Pacific Northwest before his family moved to Virginia when he was in his early teens. In this odd, informative, enjoyable bio-documentary, Lynch rhapsodizes about childhood in the Pacific Northwest while also revealing a couple of sources for one famous movie scene and one enigmatic character.
Lynch isn't here to talk about his work after Eraserhead. The documentary has lengthy interview segments in which Lynch discusses his childhood and young adulthood as a painter who almost stumbled into film-making, only to discover that he loved it. We're shown montages of Lynch's painting and other artwork, early movie work, and some out-takes from Lynch's breakthrough movie, Eraserhead.
If you like Lynch, this movie is about as essential as a movie can get. Lynch moves between frankness and obliqueness in his inimitable, gnomic way. The art is extraordinary. One wishes for more but is grateful for what one gets in these 90 minutes. Long live America's greatest living film-maker. Highly recommended.
Vampyr (1931): Loosely based on J. Sheridan Le Fanu's "The Room In the Dragon Volant" and "Carmilla" by writers Christian Jul and Carl Dreyer; directed by Carl Dreyer; starring Julian West (Allan Grey), Maurice Schutz (Father), Rena Mandel (Gisele), Sybille Schmitz (Leone), Jan Hieronimko (The Doctor), and Henriette Gerard (The Vampyr): Carl (best known as the director of the excruciating classic The Passion of Joan of Arc) Dreyer's intentionally nightmare-like, early sound film remains one of a handful of the most unusual vampire movies ever made. There's a fairly tight, simple plot. But that plot is secondary to the images that come and go, images that often defy the plot.
Does our protagonist have a number of dreams, waking or otherwise, during his pursuit of a vampire? What is up with that creepy doll in the corner of that shot? What the Hell is going on with all the shadows doing weird stuff? And so on, and so forth. It's a languorous movie in the best possible way, best watched late at night. Highly recommended.
Eraserhead (1977): written and directed by David Lynch; starring Jack Nance (Henry Spencer), Charlotte Stewart (Mary X), Allen Joseph (Mr. X), Jeanne Bates (Mrs. X), Judith Roberts (Beautiful Girl Across the Hall), and Laurel Near (Lady In the Radiator): Watching David Lynch's first full-length movie -- filmed over the course of several years! -- is always a disturbing treat, but Twin Peaks: The Return makes it almost mandatory today.
That terrific, innovative, terrifying miniseries (maxiseries?) echoes with the sounds of Eraserhead. Literally, at certain points, given the sound design of the two projects. Eraserhead is a necessity on its own, of course, a masterpiece of horrors cloachal, bodily, existential, and cosmic. It remains as essential now as it was 40 years ago, one of the crowning moments of 'Art Cinema' and cult horror and WTF movie-making. Highly recommended.
