Inland Empire

Cafe Society
1

I saw it Saturday night in Chicago, with Lynch attending and doing a Q&A. I still can’t even process the film, and want to go back to see it again.

My initial impression is that it’s like “Mulholland Drive,” but with the weirdness and nonlinearity turned up about 1,000 times.

It looks absolutely amazing - even though it was shot on DV, it doesn’t have “the DV look,” nor does it look like film - it’s something in between, something with its own unique look going on.

Laura Dern’s performance is the best of her career and one of the best in American cinema.

It’s very, very frustrating and meanders quite a bit in the middle third.

The music is quite different from most Lynch works (no Angelo Badalamenti), and the movie has a really different feel than other Lynch projects.

More later…

2

It’ll be opening here soon and I can’t wait (though the trailer did have that horrible DV sheen to it; glad to hear the film doesn’t come across that way).

3

Can’t wait to see it; I’ve been reading about it and gettting more and more excited. Lord knows when, or if, it will play Memphis, though.

4

I just got back from seeing it again, and here’s my advice to anyone who’s planning on watching it; see it at least twice. The first time you’ll walk out with your head spinning, and the second you’ll feel like you’re at least starting to be able to catalogue and dissect what you just saw.

I also picked up on a million little things the second time through that you’d only notice having already seen it once.

But yeah, I’m no closer to figuring it out; in many ways, it’s inpenetrable.