Reviews

Let's start with this; I really love much of Lynch's work. I also deeply study psychology and am very much akin to Jungian themes of the shadow self as well as non linear narratives and open ended pieces of media, specifically film. However if I NEED to watch and consume, 3,4,5 supplementary pieces of work from Lynch (His previous rabbit film, his book, Catching Big Fish, an entirely separate film with deleted 'scenes' from this film and a run time of over 1 hour titled "More Things that Happened", a supplementary anecdote from Lynch himself in a commentary version of a completely different movie where the self proclaimed master of not explaining directly contradicts himself and EXPLAINS his film technique because this was such an implosion) combined with the fact that he himself has only rewatched the film one time because of how dark half of it was making it in his own words "depressing" to watch, all because with a 3 Hour run time he still couldn't figure out what he wanted to say, what he wanted to show, what Should have stayed, what Should have been cut and so on and so forth we have a big fat case of this is a Lynch problem, not a Me (or anyone else that fees similarly) problem.

Maybe firstly we should start with some facts good, bad and neutral: 1. The film is ugly overall. It is dark and hard to hear (I can't imagine watching this when it came out in an already dark theater and with no subtitles for 3 hours straight *shudders*) 2. The script for this, as I'm sure would be shocking to anyone to realize, was uncompleted as he filmed. Couldn't tell.

3. Laura Dern did a career pushing job in the lead role, though (and from what we know most likely due to Lynch's own direction in this case and not the fault of herself) due to her completely blank/slightly confused and passive facial expressions half of her scenes don't (at least in my personal experience of my own dreams, nightmares and astral projections) mirror the state I am in when in other dimensions. I am present and active whether I want to be or not. This could be me but I am personally always quite involved and don't seem to "stare around blankly while life (or dream) moves around me" but hey I'll let everyone have their experience.

Some takeaways:

• Laura and the Polish (prostitute? Actress? Who honestly cares I was never convinced, I'm 3 hours to care about any of these characters) seem to represent each other; they are each other's Jungian shadow.

• There is more commentary mirroring Mulholland Drives themes of the illusion of Hollywood and what affect putting yourself into the life of another, fictional or otherwise, can have on one's own psyche.

There are many recurrent themes and contrasts (the colors red and blue, rape and murder, the abuse of women, lost and dying dreams, poverty specifically in LA, sunshine and snow, lust and infidelity, unfulfillment, and illusion.

Here it is: Lynch didn't really know what he wanted to do here. This isn't something that was fleshed out. He didn't even 1) have the right equipment and 2) know when and how to use what equipment available to him at the time to make something that he himself is proud to look back on years later instead of the latter (using handheld for EVERYTHING is just..lazy. This film was an expirement for him, I have no idea why more people don't realize that as he's said it himself?

Quote: "Lynch originally captured Inland Empire on standard definition with a hand-held Sony PD-150 quality that was up-resed. Lynch was originally attached to using the Sony PD-150 because it opened new doors to the possibilities of filmmaking that he didn't have with regular film cameras.

"The Sony PD-150, number one it gave me some ideas maybe that way because its freedom-freedom. Long, long takes, lightweight, hold it yourself, automatic focus, it was a brand new ballgame," Lynch said.

While the hand-held camera gave Lynch the freedom he needed to navigate the film's production with an uncompleted script, he was unable to capture his vision perfectly."

This was an elementary project for him that didn't quite land that's all. Like a kid in a candy store he was introduced to handheld for the first time and wanted to make a project out of it. This film was created AROUND his discovery of handheld as a medium and not as a solid idea and story he wanted to tell that handheld happened to lend itself best too. This is why the Entire thing is shot handheld even when it many scenes would benefit from a switch off between the two.

That is why he didn't even have a finished script.

That is why it's overall a bit of a hot mess.

I'm glad he got it out of his system though. Tellingly he's never made an all handheld film again..hmm.

If you couldn't allow yourself the thought I'll be the one to help you; you don't Have to like this. Even if you understand its themes. Even if you're a fan of his other work. He's just a man. He's just a human. He's not perfect. It's okay, I promise.

WARNING: No this is not a Marvel or DC movie. This movie was NOT written with the purpose of making you feel warm & fuzzy inside.

I haven't been this impressed by a long form film since There Will Be Blood. I put this film on my watchlist as soon as I saw the trailer because I Knew, I just Knew. I don't really know where to start with this film. It looks STUNNING. It's filmed beautifully. The symbolic use of lighting and colors throughout the film and the composition of the shots is absolutely insane. The attention to detail in the script and subtlety of the acting is just insane. The soundtrack and score is perfect.

First of all the film is split into 3 parts. The exact meaning of those parts does not become clear until the 3rd Act. But the 1st Act represents society. While following Carl & Yaya we are in a concrete jungle where the rules of society & others judgment is pervasive. Society is then taken & transported so that it perverts nature; the ridiculousness of the $250 million dollar yacht is they've just taken society & placed it onto a large body of water so that they can feel special while they simply continue to do all the dumb worthless indulgent hedonistic things they did while on land...but now on water! The 3rd act represents society being destroyed. At this point they basically only have nature to rely on but everything turns very Animal Farm as you quickly realize that Abigail will simply become the next greedy pig as she's been put in a position where she now has complete power over the food source.

We start with Carl and Yaya & learn about how & why these very young people have all of the money, comfort and privilege that they have. Both are payed very well not because they are nice people. They are blatantly shown to be mean, hedonistic, self absorbed, self serving, act in narcissistic ways & are overall really gross people already at such a young age. We see the funny but depraved ridiculousness of the world of people that make excessive money through Carl and his fellow young male models. There is more commentary here on the rich & poor represented through Balenciaga and H&M; the role reversal of 'Poor people smile, Rich people pout.' There is also foreshadowing here about how these young attractive male models are wanting to be taken advantage of by the older gay men in the industry and whether or not that worries them. All the young men there quietly know however that that is a part of the job and they accept it. Later, on The Island, this exact being taken advantage of because of his looks & succumbing for his own survival & place on the social totem pole becomes Carl's fate with Abigail.

These two are a young hot model/influencer couple who to sum it up, seem to be very confused on what kind of relationship they want to have. They are both extremely shallow which is a big reason (though not the biggest) why they do not have a good romantic male & female relationship. They are both also selfish; Carl with money, Yaya with her time & intentions. She admits that she is manipulative in the relationship. While in the first Act we witness her lie several times to Carls face. She also clarifies that she doesn't love him or even really like him like that but she is dating/sleeping with him because they're both young & hot & help grow each other's following & money by being together. Here Carl declares it his mission to "make her fall in love with him" & that "it will be real." By the 3rd Act he is happily entangled with Abigail & that is his last concern. They both speak lies & empty words which is a theme throughout the film (The woman obsessed with the dirty sails represents/symbolically mirrors an older Yaya) The entire Part 1 of the film touches on money, gender roles & how they intersect. This is mostly abandoned for the 2nd part & then is connected beautifully to Part 3. We start with Yaya being the one playing with & manipulating their relationship & Carl constantly being jealous to by the end, the (gender) roles being reversed. At one point he literally becomes a prostitute using his body to get them both food. In Act 2 Yaya is complimented on how HER good looks got them free tickets on the yacht. In Act 1 we find out that she is a more successful model than Carl, makes more money than him and gets free things (he's staying at "her" hotel) that Carl doesn't get. It is the syndrome of the pretty girl outside the club getting in for free or getting her meals and bills payed for because she's pretty. But by Act 3, Carl IS the pretty girl he always wanted to be while someone takes care of HIM. They have fully switched gender roles even down to the 2 women fighting over him while he stays behind in the tent like a stay at home wife and let's them, when it should be the other way around; 2 men May battle for one woman they both want. Everything is reversed. The fact that he didn't offer to go with Yaya despite their tension just to keep her safe but it's instead Abigail who goes even though she and Yaya have the same tension is telling. SHE catches all the food and provides for HIM. And it is Abigail not Carl who pursued & facilitated a sexual relationship. At this point Carl is now exactly where he said he wanted to be in the beginning of the film when he said, quote: "I don't want to be the man in the relationship.." which is why he's actually more comfortable being with Abigail than Yaya by the end because she provides for and protects him like a Man while he stays soft and pretty and gives her company, comfort and his body like a Woman.

In Part 2, The Yacht, we transition from new money to being introduced to old money. Like New Money those with old money have ridiculous ways they make their money but there is a higher level that only some get to where they make the most money and that gets into blood money. They are as vapid & shallow as the young people but amplified. They are even MORE entitled, demanding, & care even MORE about keeping up appearances.

Several examples of the hedonism the wealthy display are shown. Carl gets jealous of a "hot" hard working man on the crew that Yaya is purposely flirting with and gets him fired. There is a great moment after where he has the chance to retract his statement about the man as he's clearly going to get him into trouble but instead he simply asks to view engagement rings he can't even afford. Both he and Paula are so concerned with keeping up appearances that even though he clearly isn't going to buy one they both still tend to the social game for his sake. We see the psychopathic older woman who for the sake of bored self pleasure is boldly lying about the "sails of the boat being dirty." Once again everyone placates her purposeful delusion & lying for the sake of the social game everyone is not so secretly tip toeing around & playing.

You also have several levels of the staff. The Captain played by Woody Harrelson represents those awake enough in society to not worship but be disgusted by the Uber rich. Paula represents in society the opposite; those that worship people richer/prettier than her. By any means necessary she will find a way to continue to follow society's rules & stay in her place somewhere below those above her. The young white middle/upper middle class staff that make up the waiters and waitresses are very carefully picked. No one has anything less than perfect English with no hint of an accent. The scene where Paula hypes them up for the disgusting behavior & abuse they're about to take is So accurate to what it's like working a sales job that I got flashbacks (that is EXACTLY what it's like). The theme of language very subtly touches on how it is cultured & to be respected when the RICH have European accents; Russian,Swedish & French etc. In fact almost all the rich on the yacht have some sort of accent. But the lowest social position of the staff is left to the South East Asians; those accents are not acceptable, beautiful, cultured or represent intellect, no. Those are the accents of poor brown people and we wouldn't want to upset the guests with that.

It must also be mentioned that in this act Carl takes it upon himself to decide to role play being a poor hot pool boy hooking up with an older woman of authority over him. He inadvertently here manifests his new social position that will happen later with Abigail on the island.

Act 2 is probably overall the easiest, most clear act to understand but understandably for many will be hard to watch. If you're the type of person that gets physically ill watching other people get ill then I genuinely feel bad because I do think that you need to see every frame of this film and not close your eyes or look away to get what you need to get from it. The rich in every way cause their own destruction. It is because of them & only them that the seafood is left for hours to get warm & grow bacteria because they are disgustingly narcissistic & want to force all of the staff to swim. The irony in that the main woman orchestrating this is insisting that she wants everyone to do this so that "they can have fun and enjoy themselves" all while they're annoyed at this demand & she is making them all highly uncomfortable. She just wants to be able to make them do anything she wants (like cleaning imaginary sails, for example) The hand grenade from the pirates killing the couple that made them is classic irony.

There are times when gross or uncomfortable things are displayed on screen either for shock factor or out of depravity (Trainspotting, The Human Caterpillar) & then there are times where it is there because it is actually an integral part of the story (Requiem for a Dream, etc.) This is the latter.

Absolutely perfect, perfect ending. Orwell, Eggers, Bong Joon Ho level brilliant. A must see, at least for the Woody Harrelson characters that are awake enough.

As someone who can handle a long film if it's worth it, this was a tedious bore. The film is simply not gripping, there was no fear or tension and I do not think they did an exemplary job of explaining or giving any insight into why Jack is the way he is. But even more than that, this film makes me not care why Jack is the way he is. He's another anti social narcissist, who though he's had the hallmark serial killer proclivity for torturing animals ever since early childhood apparently waits until his 40s to finally kill someone and then seems to quickly try to make up for lost time. His backstory as far as his childhood and even parents goes is never fleshed out (he very conveniently gets a huge inheritance from his dead parents whom we know nothing about, not even a line of where that money came from or something to make it realistic, just pure plot convenience to explain why he has so much time on his hands and unlimited resources to run around day after day for 12 years doing nothing but killing people and failing to build a terrible house.) In fact everything seems ridiculously convenient, the rain washing away the blood (the rain didn't start until Jack reached the freezer which was god knows how far away from the house and the police officer conveniently did not go outside and see the blood trail before it got washed away? Also the officer was THAT stupid? He wasn't even suspicious enough of Jack to send another car to follow him when a woman has disappeared inside of a house he's been sitting outside of in a red van in the dark for 2 hours? Really?) I mean one incident of coincidence okay, but his entire life story seems a made up concoction (I do like the irony of him mentioning how he felt at that moment he had a higher power with him but by the end he himself finally sees what delusion that was). The victims also all come across as so thick headed and the acting is competent but dull that you just don't really care when anyone dies? Even the kids start just running around wildly while there's a man trying to shoot at them, it's so bizarre? It's even mentioned by Verge that the victims seem shockingly stupid but it is never properly explained why that is (there are many discussion points like this between Verge and Jack that just trail off into the next "incident" and never resolve themselves)

The artistic discourse comes across as extremely pretentious and the only saving grace is the last half an hour of the film which connects the narration we've been hearing for over 2 hours straight to something of actual tangible substance. I was honestly relieved when Verge appeared Lynch style and lead him down the hole to the descent. It was the first time in the entire film that anything started to click and made me care to pay more attention. The last half hour of the film is the only time that the films audio, visual and dialogue become interesting. The entire first 2 hours of the film are simply boring. Every shot is shaky handheld, constructed fake "up and personal" chaos (I was painfully aware of the camera, what it was doing and that there was someone holding it, filming the ENTIRE film, which completely took me out of it) There is quite literally one screechingly annoying soundtrack song that plays through the entire film that made me scream at my screen by the 3rd time to just stop it already, the artistic cut shots are more interesting than the actual film and still annoyingly pretentious (which reflects Jack's character I get it but still) I understand it's probably to show the juxtaposition between the transcendent art he wants to believe he is making, the higher purpose he believes he really serves and then the stark reality of what he is actually doing, but guess what? It's still boring to try to watch.

Each discussion Jack and Verge has finds Jack trying to lead to the conclusion that his way is the way of nature, whereas Verge argues for love (it gives very The Tree of Life which is a profoundly better film that deals with this type of topic) There is of course irony in the fact that Verge argues violence and torture are not in the way of nature but then quite naturally because of his actions Jack goes to hell for the demonic acts he has done.

By the end the point is made: The final scene finally wraps up everything that we've already been able to see; Jack wants to believe that he's special, superior, has ultimate power and control and autonomy but just like every psychopathic freak before him, he is the same; he is not special or different. That point is made very clear as soon as he accepts the "challenge" to climb across, before he even falls into the depths of torture and the lake of fire. The act of acceptance wraps up everything there is to know about Jack. Though Verge makes it very clear that no one has ever made it across (because stronger powers are at work and clearly no one not meant to leave their punishment ever would)..he genuinely believes that he is different, that he is better and superior just like he has his entire life. A nice message that took almost 3 tedious hours to say.

I just watched it again last night and The Secret life of Bees always makes me remember why it is one of my favorite movies. There are just so many high points to this film...no film is perfect but I think a 9 is well justified and since I'm a bit biased I give it a 10 :)

All of the main actresses are just SUPERB in their roles. It always amazes me how Alicia Keys embodied the role of this beautiful talented but cold hard little women so bent on blocking out her emotions. Her learning to play the cello in 4 weeks for this role I think shows her dedication to the character and it comes through on screen. Queen Latifah is just absolutely perfect as the older sister/main mother figure. Jennifer Hudson embraces her role of down trodden maid turned strong, cultured loving sister and Sophie Okonedo...jeez the seamlessness of an actress being her character cannot escape you with her she is so extremely talented, wise and truly pure and endearing as May Boatwright I never fail to cry. Dakota Fanning is great as usual and also never fails to make me cry when she finally admits what she's done as a child and declares herself "unlovable." The women leads carry this film but also great in their supporting roles are the few males in the cast including Paul Bettany as the domineering abusive love-lost father Tristan Mack WIlds as Lillys' love and Nate Parker as the intelligent and endearing love to June.

The movie fairly thoroughly explores several themes without I think pushing any one too much down your throat...from abandonment, guilt, abuse (both physical and emotional), racism, bigotry, nature, the way of nature and man and how they conflict, themes of hatred and of course love. Love that is where the true heart of the movie lies in love, how we all want it like Lilly, how love is blind with Lilly and Zach, how we're scared to take it like June and Neil, how some of the pure and innocent like May can have unconditional love and how we should all strive for that love and happiness everyday in everything around us. The very essence of what makes the honey so good is the love used in extracting it, the love sent out by the bees into the universe, the time and care took to package each and ever jar (this is what makes it even more intense when Lilly breaks several of them as she knows more than anyone the time and effort it makes it make even one jar)..So much love in this movie.

The score is also gorgeous as they tend to the bees and India Aries' "Beautiful" crooning to the backdrop of beautiful hot southern summer nights and days filled with laughter and joy in the midst of a world of hatred are heavenly. The filming locations are beautiful, the direction is great. Always one of my favorites. 10/10