Inland Empire, David Lynch’s 2006 surreal epic that confounds, disturbs and frustrates, gets a comprehensive overhaul for its Blu-ray release, following a limited cinema run. Lynch, who brought us Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, Wild At Heart and Mulholland Drive, here delves into his psyche once more in this arthouse dreamscape conundrum.
Shot on DV back when it wasn’t ubiquitous, the film follows Laura Dern’s actress, Nikki Grace, reteaming with Lynch after Wild At Heart and also acting as an executive producer. Following her casting in an apparently cursed film – a remake of an unfinished movie where the two leads were murdered – her personality appears to fracture. She is both Nikki and the character she plays in the film Sue Blue, alongside Justin Theroux’s Devon as her lead; her Polish husband is concerned about possible infidelity as the film’s director (played by Jeremy Irons) proceeds.
Realities become increasingly warped. A prostitute watches the proceedings on television and cries; there are sections in Polish, a strange fairytale about half-formed people with evil shadows, and then a weird sitcom with people in rabbit heads. Multiplex fare this is not. It is, however, full of inventiveness and dream logic that defies description but remains seared into the memory. Disjointed editing, extreme closeups, films within films and an absence of easy explanations amidst the murk make Inland Empire a challenging watch.
There are cameos from Lynch regulars Harry Dean Stanton and Laura Harring, as well as William H Macy, Terry Crews and Natassja Kinski – and a towering performance from Dern, who makes the weirdness eminently watchable. Filmed over three years on a very low budget, this is to date Lynch’s last feature film: Twin Peaks has since returned to TV, but he has not assayed another film project. Perhaps there is nowhere left to go after this often incomprehensible arthouse endeavour which, despite its contempt for digestible narrative, still fizzes with dread and imagination. Extras on the Blu-ray contain an extra 75 mins of deleted scenes (from a film that is already three hours long!) and a documentary on Lynch.
Dir: David Lynch (15, 180 mins)
In cinemas now; released on Blu-ray and DVD on Mon 19 June
words KEIRON SELF
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