Nobody puts dreams -- or should I say, nightmares -- on screen better than David Lynch, and "Inland Empire" is perhaps the most nightmarish film of his I've seen yet.
Laura Dern tears up the screen in a fierce performance as an actress who loses her identity during the making of a film and gets sucked into a vortex of terrifying imagery and labyrinthine parallels, otherwise known as Hollywood.
We've been here with Lynch before, as recently as his last movie, "Mulholland Drive," which "Inland Empire" is a kissing cousin of. But this film, much more so than "Mulholland," defies categorization or interpretation. It's a movie that forces you to feel its themes rather than process them through any of the normal faculties we use to understand movies. But for all that, and even though it clocks in at three hours, it didn't feel indulgent to me, or pretentious, or like a random series of images that any old hack could throw up on the screen. Even on a first viewing (and I could use many more), I could see how tightly constructed the whole thing was, catch recurring ideas and motifs, recurring patterns, colors and textures. The film looks amazing; Lynch does wonders with digital film. I'm surprised myself that I didn't become frustrated with the movie, but it's so alive, and so purely cinematic, that I instead was completely engrossed by the pictures it had to show me.
Though the movie belongs to Dern, a slew of recognizable actors appear in prominent roles or in cameos: Justin Theroux, Jeremy Irons, Diane Ladd, William H. Macy, Mary Steenburgen. Naomi Watts provides a voice.
This is sensational stuff, extremely well done. A trip into the mind of David Lynch, even if you don't enjoy it, is one trip you will not soon forget.
Grade: A
Laura Dern tears up the screen in a fierce performance as an actress who loses her identity during the making of a film and gets sucked into a vortex of terrifying imagery and labyrinthine parallels, otherwise known as Hollywood.
We've been here with Lynch before, as recently as his last movie, "Mulholland Drive," which "Inland Empire" is a kissing cousin of. But this film, much more so than "Mulholland," defies categorization or interpretation. It's a movie that forces you to feel its themes rather than process them through any of the normal faculties we use to understand movies. But for all that, and even though it clocks in at three hours, it didn't feel indulgent to me, or pretentious, or like a random series of images that any old hack could throw up on the screen. Even on a first viewing (and I could use many more), I could see how tightly constructed the whole thing was, catch recurring ideas and motifs, recurring patterns, colors and textures. The film looks amazing; Lynch does wonders with digital film. I'm surprised myself that I didn't become frustrated with the movie, but it's so alive, and so purely cinematic, that I instead was completely engrossed by the pictures it had to show me.
Though the movie belongs to Dern, a slew of recognizable actors appear in prominent roles or in cameos: Justin Theroux, Jeremy Irons, Diane Ladd, William H. Macy, Mary Steenburgen. Naomi Watts provides a voice.
This is sensational stuff, extremely well done. A trip into the mind of David Lynch, even if you don't enjoy it, is one trip you will not soon forget.
Grade: A