David Lynch is one of my favorite directors. I've enjoyed every film he has ever done. "Eraserhead", "Blue Velvet" and "Lost Highway" remain 3 of my favorite works of Lynch. After the excitement of "Muholland Drive", I was anxiously awaiting for "Inland Empire". I must say I felt let down. "Inland Empire" is the story of Nicki Grace (Or at least one character of many stories) played by Laura Dern. Nicki is an actress who just got a role in a big Hollywood production. Little to her knowledge does she realize the film is a remake and the 2 lead actors from the original film were killed due to a Polish Gypsy curse put on the production. The first hour of "Inland Empire" had me glued to the screen. It started out beautifully, but the last 2 were a complete disaster. It had such a great cast, but I felt Juia Ormond, William H. Macy and Jeromy Irons weren't in it enough. So many amazing actors that weren't used to their full potential. There roles felt too brief. I admit, Grace Zebriskie was hilarious as the crazy Polish neighbor. Too bad we didn't see more of her. I enjoyed Laura Dern's outstanding performance and I liked the sitcom with the Rabbit head people. But beyond that, there wasn't much else. Interesting note, the Rabbit sequence was taken from one of Mr. Lynch's short films from his website called "Rabbits". I love surrealist cinema, but similar themes have been done before and much better in films like Luis Bunuel's flawless dark comedy, "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" (1972) and Shuji Terayama's forgotten masterpiece "Pastoral: To Die in the Country" (1974). More recently films like Andrzej Zulawski's "La Fidelite" (2000), and Sion Sono's disturbing "Strange Circus" (2005) remain unseen. Speaking of Polish films, Wojciech Has' multi-layered "The Hourglass Sanitorium" (1973) is an emotional puzzle worth figuring out. I feel these above films mentioned give more food for thought. Digital video usually looks pretty good, but "Inland Empire" is way to dark, sloppy and shaky. It looks like a bad experimental college film. Then again I think he was going for a raw look. I'd recommend the strange and somewhat similar low budget gems "Mad Cowgirl" (2006) or "The Three Trials" (2006) as great examples of what can be done with digital video. I love experimental films, but they either work or they don't. For example Oliver Stone's "Natural Born Killers" (1994) shows that a mainstream director can put together a visually stunning experimental work. The last 2 hours of "Inland Empire" feels like poorly shot random scenes thrown together with no coherent meaning. At least 3 short films were put into "Inland Empire" and it doesn't work. The rest of the movie was made up of things David Lynch wrote quickly before shooting. The outdoor barbecue scene and the prostitutes doing the locomotion were painful to watch. I still think Lynch had good intentions of trying something different, but fell short. If you want to see bizarre surrealist films that are not only visually stunning but with deep religious, philosophical and political meaning; check out the films of Alejendro Jodorowsky. Anchor Bay recently released Jodorowsky's films "El Topo" (1970) and "The Holy Mountain" (1973) in a box-set. I love you David, but please let this be a one time thing. Then again, my opinion could always change in the future?
Review of Inland Empire
