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I went with a friend to see the new David Lynch film _Inland Empire_.
Imagine part Fellini _Roma_, part _Matrix_, part Argento, and sometimes the feeling of watching someone play something like MYST but on a mix of acid cut with strychnine and a quadruple dose of stale psilocybin mushrooms. WAY out there. NO concession to traditional storytelling in any way. Time collapsing on itself. Not recommended for epileptics who can be set off by strobing lights. Those times that you feel like everything is askew, important, and not making sense? Distill it and watch it for 3 hours. The reviews talk about "an actress whose personality becomes confused with that of the role she's playing" but that's about the first 15 minutes. Think gypsies and whores and unpaid psychic debt and polish criminals and different timelines and realities at different times and bunny-head sitcoms and Pomona. And blood.
Laura Dern is amazing, mostly because she pulls off inches-away closeups of her face for the large majority of the film without ever making you tire of her.
I think it's an incredible piece of filmmaking. That doesn't mean I think I'd want to see it again or could recommend it to anyone. The sound is oscar-worthy, I haven't been haunted by every sound for hours after seeing it since I saw the original _Solaris_.
My friend came out of the film and tried to listen to his voicemail messages and was unable to understand them. It's that sort of experience.
Imagine part Fellini _Roma_, part _Matrix_, part Argento, and sometimes the feeling of watching someone play something like MYST but on a mix of acid cut with strychnine and a quadruple dose of stale psilocybin mushrooms. WAY out there. NO concession to traditional storytelling in any way. Time collapsing on itself. Not recommended for epileptics who can be set off by strobing lights. Those times that you feel like everything is askew, important, and not making sense? Distill it and watch it for 3 hours. The reviews talk about "an actress whose personality becomes confused with that of the role she's playing" but that's about the first 15 minutes. Think gypsies and whores and unpaid psychic debt and polish criminals and different timelines and realities at different times and bunny-head sitcoms and Pomona. And blood.
Laura Dern is amazing, mostly because she pulls off inches-away closeups of her face for the large majority of the film without ever making you tire of her.
I think it's an incredible piece of filmmaking. That doesn't mean I think I'd want to see it again or could recommend it to anyone. The sound is oscar-worthy, I haven't been haunted by every sound for hours after seeing it since I saw the original _Solaris_.
My friend came out of the film and tried to listen to his voicemail messages and was unable to understand them. It's that sort of experience.
