Oh David Lynch...

Inland Empire(dir. David Lynch)
This is my first "whole" experience with Lynch. I've only seen the first two episodes after the pilot of Twin Peaks and I've seen big bits and pieces of Blue Velvet pretty much all the way through so it might technically not be my first experience with Lynch, but still... Knowing this was most likely a bad place to start since even some of the most dedicated Lynch fans didn't know what quite to make of it, I decided to start with it anyways because baby, I don't gradually get in the pool from the shallow end, I jump in the deep end. I'm not going to pretend I understood it because honestly, I don't think that's possible, but I honestly felt I "got" it. The movie really clicked. To overuse the pool metaphor a little more, after jumping in the pool, it had a nice casual cooling effect until I hit the bottom and wondered what happened? Sure, the movie was not nice or casual, but disorienting and totally unpredictable. It's unpredictability was it's greatest asset. This movie was fucking nuts and I was particularly amazed by how random it was up until the end. This is where I felt the movie turned from masterpiece to just near-masterpiece. It felt like the ending was trying to wrap things up nice and neatly even though I don't understand what it was wrapping up. It felt too conclusive for my tastes and the music was also a little on the cheesy side. It turned this disorienting mindfuck of a movie into an almost calm and cheerful one. I wish it stayed nuts the whole time. With that aside, I highly recommend seeing this movie.
***1/2 out of ****