INLAND EMPIRE
INLAND EMPIRE
January 22 2011, DVD, home living room, from Netflix
Apologies to the David Lynch fans who hated this movie; I went in with an open mind, and I thought it was really kind of cool. I liked it! I'm not sure I'm eager to see it again, but I think I wouldn't mind. I can't watch LOST HIGHWAY, you know. It's just too fucking unpleasant for the Lynch weirdness/profundity payoff. INLAND EMPIRE has its moments of unpleasantness, but not on the same level; and it's often extremely and explicitly funny. It's an oddity, for sure; it almost seems like it's David Lynch making fun of himself. That wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility, of course. But having really surrendered to the rhythms of the movie, in a transcendental meditation kind of way, I let myself drift through layers of "reality", and didn't resist when suddenly I was jerked onto another layer.
That said I can totally understand why someone would hate this movie. I just didn't. Maybe I'm a sucker, but I am pretty sure I got it. I wouldn't be able to explain it to someone if they asked, though.
The usual suspects - Diane Ladd, Grace Zabriskie, Harry Dean Stanton, Justin Theroux, and Ms. Dern - are joined by delightful cameo/bit role surprises William H. Macy, Jeremy Irons, Julia Ormond, Mary Steenbergen, Terry Crews (!), Nastassia Kinski (!), and a whole lot of random Polish people. Hey, the movie's 3 hours long; there's room for everybody!
I'm still on the David Lynch bus. Sorry.
January 22 2011, DVD, home living room, from Netflix
Apologies to the David Lynch fans who hated this movie; I went in with an open mind, and I thought it was really kind of cool. I liked it! I'm not sure I'm eager to see it again, but I think I wouldn't mind. I can't watch LOST HIGHWAY, you know. It's just too fucking unpleasant for the Lynch weirdness/profundity payoff. INLAND EMPIRE has its moments of unpleasantness, but not on the same level; and it's often extremely and explicitly funny. It's an oddity, for sure; it almost seems like it's David Lynch making fun of himself. That wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility, of course. But having really surrendered to the rhythms of the movie, in a transcendental meditation kind of way, I let myself drift through layers of "reality", and didn't resist when suddenly I was jerked onto another layer.
That said I can totally understand why someone would hate this movie. I just didn't. Maybe I'm a sucker, but I am pretty sure I got it. I wouldn't be able to explain it to someone if they asked, though.
The usual suspects - Diane Ladd, Grace Zabriskie, Harry Dean Stanton, Justin Theroux, and Ms. Dern - are joined by delightful cameo/bit role surprises William H. Macy, Jeremy Irons, Julia Ormond, Mary Steenbergen, Terry Crews (!), Nastassia Kinski (!), and a whole lot of random Polish people. Hey, the movie's 3 hours long; there's room for everybody!
I'm still on the David Lynch bus. Sorry.