Letters to the Editor
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piece of crap
I saw Inland Empire at the NY Film Fest--well, I should qualify that. I saw part of Inland Empire at the NY Film Fest. It was so terrible, so stultifyingly ridiculous, so ugly to look at that the friend I went with and I walked out less than halfway through. And believe me, I gave it a chance--my friend wanted to leave a half hour before I finally gave up.
Nothing makes any sense. The touted use of HD--it was supposed be spellbindingly beautiful--produced images that were muddy and gray and pallid.
I actually felt sorry for Laura Dern. She must have been thinking "What the Fa?" in every scene.
I loved the first half of Mulholland Drive. The second half was a claptrap of bullshit that made no fucking sense and all of you who defend (or pretend to love it) it know it. Inland Empire is the second half of Mulholland Drive on Quaaludes and bad bottle of gin. Nothing, but no fucking thing, makes any sense.
And it's one of the ugliest films you will ever see.
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David Lynch is full of shit.
And so is anyone who wastes bandwidth intewrviewing him or his films. You dickheads are the reason he's laughing all the way to the bank. There's no meaning, hidden or otherwise in his lameass films. He likes titties and kinky sex. Whoop-de-fucking-do. If that's your thing, just rent some porn and save yourself the pretension.
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His movies do make me dream.
That's because I fall asleep about 10 minutes in. WTF is Laura Dern's fascination with getting paid to not act? Wait, I just answered my question.
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Thank Goodness for zzzzzzz...
...it could save everyone a lot of time and money if they just contacted zzzzzzzz to find out which kind of art they should be liking. That way, we can all avoid liking art that zzzzzzzz doesn't like, and he won't be so enraged.
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Laura laura ...
Laura Dern is such a GREAT actress. 'We don't live here anymore' and 'Rose Red' are the two that instantly jump to mind, but there have been plenty of other ones. Why isn't she in more and better movies though? It's a huge shame. Meanwhile I probably won't see this film. I used to be a David Lynch film, and I loved the one about the guy crossing the US on the mower, but I find people telling me their dreams drop-down-on-the-table-in-a-dead-faint boring, let alone going to a cinema to see a dream sequence film. No way. Plus, any artist who sets out with no plan, no idea, and then pieces it togehter afterwards is my definition of An Artist In Trouble. An Artist Who Has Run Out of Ideas. I don't want to see the road kill that's obviously resulted.
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it's not just east of LA
Loved the interview with Lynch and hope desperately that Inland Empire opens sooner than later in Portland, OR.
As a native of Spokane, WA I have to let you know that "Inland Empire" was a term regularly used to indicate the region stretching from Eastern Washington, through North Idaho and into Western Monatana (home of Lynch's hometown of Missoula), at least until the mid to late 80's. Certainly Lynch knows this. There's probably no way to know whether that's a clue to his intention for the film. But, interesting none-the-less.
BTW, I saw Blue Velvet because I worked in an Eastern Washington college town video store in the late 80's and the film buff regulars highly recommended it. Eraserhead I saw for free in the cafeteria at Berklee College of Music as a freshman in 1990. This is only to say that one might consider including music schools along with art and film schools when pointing out the most likely audience for such creative endeavours!
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David Lynch...
...is hands down the greatest, most inventive American Film Director working in movies today. Long after Scorcese, Coppola and the rest of those revolutionaries and " auteurs" (yes, I know Lynch came in the next generation, though he is about the same age) have lost their way, long after their films have long since become impression after impression of their once great work, no one, and I categorically mean no one in this country working in "main-stream" films is consistently taking more chances than Lynch. He should be applauded simply for getting his movies made, let alone distributed. He is truly the heir of Bunuel, Bergman, Fellini, Resnais, Hitchcock, and, perhaps, the Marx Brothers, all be it just a bit dryer.
More importantly, Lynch is one of the few reminders left to us of why we began going to movies in the first place: to be taken into an unexpected dream along with so many others, to share that in that experience individually and together the way we only can at the movies, then to walk out of the theatre feeling, perhaps, just a little bit different then when we walked in, seeing the world just a bit different too. Perhaps that feeling lasts, perhaps it is soon forgotten, but Lynch gives us this experience, and is this not the role of the true artist?
Lynch is an American treasure. His time will come.
Just watch.
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Dreaming about, or rather because of, Lynch?
I used to love David Lynch. I loved Twin Peaks, I rather liked Mulholland Drive, but this time - no. Hearing people rave about Inland Empire, I keep thinking of that Andersen tale where the king walks around naked, and everybody pretends he wears his most beautiful clothes. Why don't I see them?
I shall not say, as many others did: this film is crap. I'll say: I don't like it. And I would have added: I suspend my judgment, maybe in retrospect I'll notice I missed something, were it not for the interview I just read here. I find it arrogant.
I got up and left the cinema where Inland Empire was showing - it must be the 10th time in my life at the most I walk out of a film, I am a junkie, I like going to the cinema, and I never leave, even if I don't like what I see - but I suppose there is a limit. Inland Empire was it. Boring and un-surprising. Made me want to sleep.
There are several kinds of “geniuses” I suppose. David Lynch's isn't my cup of coffee.