Inland Empire

Treading on the same terrain as the vastly superior Mulholland Drive, this movie drove me crazy. At least an hour too long, I couldn't wait for it to end. It also looked like absolute shit.

However, there were some really great moments in this film. My favorites were the bunny sitcom scenes and the early scene of Dern's neighbor visiting her and freaking her out. In fact, the more I think about it, there were many many stunning moments.

But having to sit through three hours was too much. As Alex J. said after seeing this with me, it is amazing that even a thread of a coherent plot goes a long long way. When this movie goes off the deep end, it goes way off the deep end.

When one of the actresses from Mulholland Driveshows up at the end for a dance party, is this suppposed to be another part of that movie? Who the fuck knows? As long and annoying as this movie was at times, I think I really would have been able to get more into it if it hadn't looked like absolute shit. There were also moments visually that felt like it was straight from a film school student's final project.

Alex loved David Lynch's signature cup of coffee though that they were serving at concessions. In fact, he said that if there had been two intermissions and he could go out and get two more cups of coffee, he would have enjoyed the movie a lot more.

Laura Dern was great though. Perhaps my favorite part of this whole film is this story about Lynch's unique Oscar campaign for her to get a Best Actress nomination.

The IFC has a sign posted that states that the 10th viewing of the movie is free if you present 9 ticket stubs.

Check out this negative review. And also this one by the same reviewer after the second viewing where he decided that he loved the movie.

Jim e-mailed me the other day to ask me if I wanted to go see the movie with him. He had seen it awhile back and didn't love it at the time. However, he had been thinking a lot about it recently and was curious to see it again.

When I told him that I had no desire to see it again, he replied that he wasn't all that impressed with a lot of it but he did love the bunny sitcom. I did as well. And I liked other parts of it as well but not enough to pay 11 bucks to see it again. When I told him that I couldn't get over how bad the movie looked, he wrote, "Yeah, considering how good his other films look it was like watching a movie through a bar glass that just got dropped in mud." Exactly.

Then again, if I saw it again, maybe I'd love it. And I only have eight more ticket stubs to accrue to get the 10th showing free! Who's with me?

Directed by David Lynch
2006
IFC Center