Inland Empire

Recently we lost filmmaker David Lynch. Here in Ottawa, the Mayfair Theatre has once again stepped up and has been putting on a David Lynch retrospective - applause, Mayfair; job well done. I had the good fortune to catch "Inland Empire," one of only two Lynch films I hadn't seen. I like weird, I like surreal. The films of Alejandro Jodorowsky for example, "The Holy Mountain" and "El Topo." And such recent wonders as, "Titane," and "Beau is Afraid." Lynch's other films, "Blue Velvet," "Wild at Heart," "Lost Highway," and "Mulholland Drive" all fall into this dreamscape world. "Inland Empire" might just be Lynch's most ambitious work. It's a movie about a dream, set inside a movie about a dream - maybe? Yes, that makes no sense, and neither does "Inland Empire." It might just be the strangest and most challenging of Lynch's works. Days later I'm still digesting it. Packed with strange situations and repeating themes, it's a mental workout in a gym where everyone suddenly breaks into dancing. Lynch is painting in dreams. As a result, sometimes it feels impenetrable, you're grasping for something to hold onto but the handrail has turned into a homeless person begging for change. This is not for you Marvel film goer. This might not be for those folks who like art films. This is for hardcore Lynch fans and people who like to sit around in coffee shops and pretentiously say, "I watched 'Inland Empire' and it was simply brilliant," (insert person sipping a cappuccino, pinky extended). I jest, although I think there might be some pretentious Criterion film nerd shit going on with anyone who says they love and/or understands this film. It's certainly a film I'm glad I saw and I think it may be Lynch's masterpiece, at least in his own mind, or did I dream that? Go rent it from Movie 'N Stuff here in Ottawa or watch it on the Criterion channel.