INLAND EMPIRE

Finally Lynch's new film is out on dvd and what a great dvd it is. Personally INLAND EMPIRE is so beautiful and a breath of fresh air to me, but i'm also a huge David Lynch fan and own everything he has ever done. This movie is either you love it or you hate it. It's a movie you will have to watch more then once cause taking it all in on one try aint gonna happen folks. Plus the extra's he put on this are awesome, 90 min of scenes that couldn't make it on to this 3 hour monster, Lynch tells you stories about making the movie, 40 min of behind the scenes on the making of INLAND EMPIRE where you can see how passionate Lynch is about film making AND he even teaches you how to cook Quinoa. Like someone said INLAND EMPIRE is like Mulholland Dr. on acid, one crazy head trip. So anyone else on here had a chance to check out this piece of art?

Shark,

No I have not, but I, too, am a big fan of Lynch films -- with the exception of Dune. The way you describe it is exactly what I would hope to get out of it. As you said, a breath of fresh air and it's certainly a blind purchase I'm looking forward to.

Tim (=

I saw this in the Theatres and it definitely screwed with the head. My copy is on order and should ship out with a few other titles I ordered next week (Inland Empire is actually the first SD DVD that I am purchasing in almost a year, I have gone almost exclusively HD).

I am very excited to watch it again a couple of times to try to unravel its mysteries - I spent many months on imdb discussing Mulholland Drive back in the day.

I bought it and watched it last night. What a trip! It was much longer than his previous work but just as strange, bizarre and incoherent as I expected. As always, I was mesmerized all the way through as I was trying to put all the pieces together, and what little that did. For me, it was very enjoyable, but I can understand that the general audience member won’t be able to comprehend a film like this. Lynch films are abstract art at its best and I view him as the Liquid Drano of film makers. Every once in a while we need a film like this to flush out the typical, Hollywood linear crap we’re dealt.

It has similarities to Mulholland Drive -- girl in distress working in Hollywood and a dark mood that emulates possible murder in the air. However, the film takes off in so many tangents that it makes his previous films seem coherent. Nevertheless, that's exactly what I loved about it. Lynch went way beyond his own rules on this one that it should be considered illegal to mess with one’s mind that way. But when I think of my own dreams, they are also strange, bizarre and literally impossible to figure out -- Lynch, basically, just puts his dreams on the screen. So be it as it is, I still enjoyed everything about it and can’t wait for some heated debate over the tangled puzzle he has created.

The only complaint I’d give is the transfer quality was horrible. Most of it was too grainy and soft in a way that seemed muddy. I can only wish the picture quality would have been better, and on a DVDTown scale, I rate it about a 6/10

As for the movie, I’d give it a strong 8/10.


[Post edited by Tim Raynor on Aug 22, 2007]

>The only complaint I’d give is the transfer quality was horrible. Most of it was too grainy
> and soft in a way that seemed muddy. I can only wish the picture quality would have
> been better, and on a DVDTown scale, I rate it about a 6/10

He actually recorded it using SD mini-cams, which is why the video quality is such a mess. It was sadly very noticable on the big screen that it was upconverted SD. Oh well.

However, I definitely agree with your analysis. Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway can both be analyzed and a reasonably coherent and meaningul interpretation can be had from them. From what I remember of this movie in the theatre, it will be a lot harder to piece together a logical meaning.

Blurry,

Yeah, I noticed a lot more hand-held camera action than I'm used to with Lynch. Quite possible the way it was filmed was meant for artistical expression, to be sure. Oh well, it still turned out to be a delight to have my head messed with.

Tim (=

Great review Tim, now all i hope is that the members on this site will read it and want to take the time to check this film out. Personally i feel if you love movies then you have to give this one a shot. Yes i know it's three hours but it's a one of a kind movie and definitely what you should call "art". The dvd release of INLAND EMPIRE was the #1 thing I was looking forward to for 2007 and it has not been out of my dvd player since the 14th.