Inland Empire

Why should I try to describe what happens in 2006's INLAND EMPIRE, perhaps the most enigmatic of all of writer/director David Lynch's creations? A straight recount of the plot would tell you nothing.  Perhaps watching the film will do likewise.  Maybe even watching it ten times.  I was a bit obsessed with it when I first saw it in 2007 or '08, determined to crack its hidden meanings.  I had done much the same with MULHOLLAND DRIVE.  But while INLAND EMPIRE is every much a companion piece with that and LOST HIGHWAY, attempts at making sense of it all become more futile with deeper familiarity.  How many works of art can you say that about? Often connections begin to form, even if they would only make sense to you.  But art is a very personalized thing, in my opinion. One's receptors are sculpted with exposure, but it surely cannot be the same for everyone.

That is one reason why discussions of Lynch's works can be frustrating.  Everyone believes they've sufficiently decoded, and get angry when you refute them, or shake their head when you offer an alternative interpretation.  This is true of many films, novels, songs.  The debates are tiresome.  Lynch would agree.  While I may not be in the "nothing makes sense so just go with the imagery" camp, I do find that letting the sights and sounds wash over you can lead to a more free analysis.  A dynamic one, too.  That is how art becomes timeless, living and breathing far beyond the original release.

But the audience for INLAND EMPIRE will be comparatively small.  Even many devoted Lynch disciples dismissed this one, ranking it dead last in the Pantheon. It is one of the most demanding. challenging experiences I've had with a movie, but my viewing in 2020, several years after the previous, was less frustrating than I had recalled.  It clicked for me.  Fragmented, of course (and the film is comprised of many disparate scenes and ideas over time), but still a whole of some kind of otherworldly genius.  No one else can do what Lynch does.  No one else could've pulled this off.

Laura Dern, a frequent Lynch collaborator, gives perhaps the performance(s) of her career in INLAND EMPIRE.  We first meet her as the polite L.A. actress named Nikki, overjoyed that she has won the lead in a new film. Then we see her character in the film, Sue. Soon enough, we're disoriented and unsure what is real and what isn't.  But it goes much farther than that.  She wanders and wanders, through dark soundstages and dingy, poorly lit rooms.  She encounters a group of prostitutes.  But we also meet some from 1930s era Poland.  There are actually several Polish characters.  And a man with red lips. And a family of human sized rabbits. And a screwdriver as a murder weapon.

As often as I've seen INLAND EMPIRE, I'm still not sure I can offer a real analysis.  A late scene with two homeless women on Hollywood Boulevard may offer some help.  I'm still working on it.  It's a singular effort, and somehow Lynch makes it  (mostly) visually interesting despite the use of low resolution digital video.  The sound editing, also by Lynch, is once again quite disturbing.