Mulholland Drive

A chipper young woman (Naomi Watts) just arrived in L.A. finds an amnesiac (Laura Elena Harring) just involved in terrible car wreck living at her aunt's home. As unrelated plot developments start to cobble up (including the story of an arrogant director (Justin Theroux) being muscled by the mob), the two women's personas seem to merge or take on entirely different realities. David Lynch's Mulholland Drive is a film that has both baffled and frustrated me the first couple of times through it due to its resistance to reason and obstinance in the face of logic. Revisiting it again, and expecting those same exasperating feelings to return while not trying to find a coherent plotline, I surprisingly found it to be a fascinating, hypnotic, frightening, suspenseful, and still maddeningly frustrating exercise, with Lynch at the apex of both his form and strangeness. Watts is incredible in essentially a dual role.
*** 1/2 out of ****

The Straight Story

Based on a true story, an elderly man from Laurens, Iowa (Richard Farnsworth) learns his estranged brother is sickly and decides to bury the hatchet and visit him in Mt. Zion, Wisconsin. In poor health himself and unable to drive a motor vehicle, he opts to use his trusty John Deere mower as a means of transportation on the nearly 300 mile trek. The Straight Story is old fashioned. beautifully told, sentimental but sincere, and all the more of a wonder considering it is the work of David Lynch, who should be applauded for putting his eccentricities aside and plugging his talents into such a work. Farnsworth is exceptional, usually a memorable character actor, and here finding a genuine and quietly powerful role. The film has great local flavor and many unforgettable sequences, which include one that cannot be forgotten: the old man sharing a beer and his secret war time shame with another WWII veteran.

**** out of ****

Blue Velvet

On a picturesque day in an idealistic suburban setting, a young man (Kyle MacLachlan) returning home from college to visit his hospitalized father discovers a severed ear. After notifying the police and reacquainting himself with the assigned detective's beautiful daughter (Laura Dern) he begins his own investigation which leads him down a nightmarish path to a tormented nightclub singer (Isabella Rossellini) who is being held as a sexual prisoner by a gas huffing psychopath (Dennis Hopper) and his band of underworld miscreants. Blue Velvet, the most famous film from the terminally weird David Lynch, may be the one that first put me off to the cultish director, but watching it again I began to understand its appeal, and appreciate what he is getting at, in depicting the seedy depravity that lurks behind the artifice of our day-to-day lives. The mood and photography are perfect, MacLachlan and Dern are just right as the sunny innocents, and Hopper is unforgettable as the frighteningly maniacal Frank Booth.

The Elephant Man

A surgeon in Victorian London wanders through a freak show at a carnival and stumbles across The Elephant Man, a grotesquely deformed man. Seeing the benefits the man could bring to his career, he begins to lease him from his cruel "partner" for research purposes. As the surgeon begins to fathom the horrendous life the man must have lived, and sees a perceptive and sensitive side to him, he begins to secure a room for him at the hospital and give him some sense of dignity. "The Elephant Man" is David Lynch's sad and noble film on the life of John Merrick. Shot in starkly beautiful black and white, Lynch's second feature has only a few of the asides that we have come to expect from his films, and is a well made and engaging biopic. Anthony Hopkins delivers a fine performance as the decent surgeon and John Hurt's performance as Merrick is both sad and endearing, as he dons extensive makeup and speaks in low guttural sounds. John Gielgud and Anne Bancroft, whose husband Mel Brooks produced, are splendid as well in supporting roles. "The Elephant Man" makes us question our own prejudices by the way we initially react to its protagonist. The film is an example of David Lynch's talents as a director, the wonderful work of cinematographer Freddie Francis, and the great performances of his cast.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Twin Peaks

David Lynch is a director I have never gotten. His films are murky and strange and border on the incomprehensible. However, with television he may have found a medium suited to his sensibilities, one that gives him the freedom and space to experiment. "Twin Peaks" was Lynch and Mark Frost's short-lived, critically acclaimed, cult classic that tells the story of a peculiar yet ingenious FBI agent investigating the murder of a young girl in the title town, which is comprised of equally strange people who are dealing with subversive and possibly supernatural elements. "Twin Peaks" is a superb series (2 seasons) and a wonderful blend of humor, soap opera, and crime. Kyle MacLachlan is phenomenal is the lead role as special agent Dale Cooper and is given great support by those around him. Here are the ones who really stood out for me: Michael Ontkean as the town sheriff, Richard Beymer as the conniving local tycoon, Sherilyn Fenn as his seductive and inquisitive daughter, Lara Flynn Boyle as the victim's best friend. With "Twin Peaks", Lynch has found a big enough canvas to suit his vision and with it he has crafted his masterpiece.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me

"Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me" is a prequel to the acclaimed David Lynch television series and briefly shows the investigation of Teresa Wright before chronicling the last week in the life of Laura Palmer, the series' victim. The movie is an abomination in every way imaginable and does disservice not only to fans of the show but for those not familiar with it as well. For fans, there is no continuity in tone whatsoever. Instead of dark and funny we here just have strange and humorless. The R rated nature of the film is jarring, and much of the cast is missing, including Lara Flynn Boyle who has been replaced! Kyle MacLachlan is in it way too little as well. I liked the early scenes involving Chris Isaak, Kiefer Sutherland, and Harry Dean Stanton, but those are short lived. For non fans, there will be no way to comprehend the film, so I really don't know what Lynch was going for. In my review of the series I said that David Lynch is a director I do not respond to and that he is best perhaps suited for television. After the success of his show in his return to the big screen, he one again gets carried away and makes a movie solely for himself.

Eraserhead

David Lynch is a talented director who makes challenging films, and has a fervent following, as would be indicated by the number of people who follow him on Twitter. He is also an arrogant filmmaker, who makes baffling movies seemingly for himself. Just because a film is original and offbeat does not always mean it is worthwhile. Eraserhead was his premier film. Shot in black and white, it is a technically sound film—even ahead of its time. However, like his subsequent work, it meanders along and is loaded with pretense and supposedly symbolic imagery as we follow a man in a desolate town as he cares for his severely deformed baby amidst a series of extremely odd circumstances. It is undeniably influential and has inspired a generation of independent filmmakers, even if Lynch’s high reputation as a director is undeserved.

 **1/2