{"id":548,"date":"2007-05-06T22:32:32","date_gmt":"2007-05-07T02:32:32","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2009-01-07T08:42:45","modified_gmt":"2009-01-07T08:42:45","slug":"inland-empire-lynch-takes-communion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/inland-empire-lynch-takes-communion\/","title":{"rendered":"Inland Empire: Lynch Takes Communion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_DlYCvxvPZY?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nTonight at The Royal in Toronto, I saw the new David Lynch film, <em><strong>Inland Empire<\/strong><\/em>. Clocking in at over 3 hours and shot on mostly grainy video, I was attracted to a review in a local weekly that called the movie Lynch&#8217;s most inscrutable film since <em>Eraserhead<\/em>. I&#8217;ve seen that film a baker&#8217;s dozen times, and I love it without need for scrutiny; it is what it is! Seeing this new flick in this strange, delightful city seemed like a good idea, and man it was a little more than I could have hoped for.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bBpd5xy-vCY?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nAs could be expected of a Lynch film, <em>Inland Empire<\/em> is brutal at times, way over the top, occasionally terrifying, oddly humorous, and verging on a parody of Lynch&#8217;s work now and then, especially his work as codified by <em>Twin Peaks<\/em>. I dig his excesses, however, and although this 3-hour movie felt like it was 8 hours long (in a good way &#8211; it seemed like it actually could have gone on that long and kept my heart beating). Laura Dern was excellent, picking up on her Best Actress in a Ridiculous, Occasionally Terrible Movie skills, as developed in Lynch&#8217;s <em>Wild at Heart<\/em>. This better tempered movie was able to take advantage of Dern&#8217;s sweet and nasty sides. <\/p>\n<p>I won&#8217;t even bother trying to summarize the plot. There are few excercises less useful than plot summary in any of Lynch&#8217;s typically absurd films. Let&#8217;s just say it&#8217;s a film within a film that mixes terror, Polish-language segments, a sitcom within a film within a film, dancing prostitutes, and more. What really struck me and capped off this film full of heart-stopping moments and uncomfortable laughs, was the conclusion. Just when I expected to see the film wrap up and have to hear the rumbling of &#8220;<em>What&#8217;sitmean?What&#8217;sitmean?<\/em>&#8221; from people around me, Lynch clearly conducted <strong>a communion of artist and audience<\/strong>, paying homage to the commitment of both the artists, specifically his actors, and those who engage in works of art and work through their own psychoses along with those of the artists. It was a beautiful wrap to a strange day in the life!<br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sSQOeQakExU?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nThat&#8217;s my musical tie-in: Lynch&#8217;s films often work like a piece of music &#8211; a thematically linked album or orchestral piece. The whole thing was very musical &#8211; and not just the great soundtrack that Lynch put together. Lynch&#8217;s use of sound took me back to <em>Eraserhead<\/em>, which also had a very &#8220;orchestrated&#8221; use of sounds.I don&#8217;t think it was a coincidence that the backing music in <em>Inland Empire<\/em> featured a lot of choppy crescendos along the lines of the punctuations in the middle and end of &#8220;A Day in the Life&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Has anyone else seen this movie yet? Is it even out in most US cities?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tonight at The Royal in Toronto, I saw the new David Lynch film, Inland Empire. Clocking in at over 3 hours and shot on mostly grainy video, I was attracted to a review in a local weekly that called the movie Lynch&#8217;s most inscrutable film since Eraserhead. I&#8217;ve seen that film a baker&#8217;s dozen times, <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/inland-empire-lynch-takes-communion\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}