映画を楽しもう!

last year i decided to go pretty far outside of my comfort zone. my favourite cinema was doing a long David lynch marathon. while i knew his work was well regarded and very influential on the Japanese games space i had never actually checked out anything of his on its own. American movies and TV is just a big mystery zone for me, it's just not something I'm at all interested in. sure i liked some things here and there like riverdale but for the most part it was something i usually just avoided out of sheer disinterest unless it was an adaptation of something i did like or the occasional G4 show. still i thought that it might be good for me, expanding outside of your small bubbles of interest is always healthy and i think it's good to seek out new things. sadly not everything here really resonated with me and there were a few that i really struggled to get through, even though i respect the fact that lynch was a true artist and most of these are important and worth respecting. even the ones i dislike i do still hold that respect for, the man knew what he wanted to make and tried his best within a broken system that actively Fought against him. i think that for me was worth watching these alone, it makes you appreciate art that little bit more. but before i start i want to put in some disclaimers. one is that this will talk about movies and shows with some really tough to get through scenes, sexual assault is a common theme in his media and it made a lot of this very difficult to get through. if you can't handle that content or discussions around it then please avoid this article and research these movies on your own before checking any out. second is that i know that this might not be as positive as i like to keep my pages, this was very far outside of what i usually like and i know that will colour how i see things. i don't think I'll ever write something like this again, about the kinds of media featured here. the kind of TV and movies i talk about here are things i just don't have a lot of passion for and the last thing i want to be is someone who covers things just for the sake of content. i find that kind of thing very fake and it's not who i want to be. i felt miserable at times while getting through this because i realized so early on that this just wasn't something i really wanted to do, sometimes you just need to stay true to yourself and admit when something isn't for you. so consider this a one-off and appreciate it for that at least, thanks for reading.

eraserhead is his first movie and often considered one of his best. for me it's pretty low in my ranking but I do respect it quite a bit. I like a lot of what it accomplishes stylistically and I think it's a beautiful movie with some of lynches best shots and atmosphere. I can't deny it was striking and memorable too with it's style and all the cool effects like the baby, but it's just not one I found a lot for me in. I tend to feel that way about a lot of experimental movies, it's strange. I never feel that way with games. I love weirdo experimental stuff there but with cinema I just find it harder to get into that entirely, these kinds of stories with very slow paces and symbolism heavy storytelling. I an see why so many love it though, for it's time I can imagine seeing this in a theatre and being completely blown away by it, even if it doesn't quite inspire me in that same way. it did also have the first appearance of best lynch boy jack nance, so that's wonderful.

the elephant man is one of the weirder films in his library. that's mainly because it's just kind of a normal biopic outside of it's slightly surreal style. it's a standard, if very well made and really good, historical biopic with some great sets and performances. there's very few weird artistic choices beyond the choice to shoot in black and white and some very impressive prosthetics and it's all generally solid. that means there isn't a ton to really be said about it though. it's a good story well told, it's sad as hell and made me cry at least once and it's never boring like a lot of these kinds of movies can be. that makes it kind of hard to talk about, sometimes a movie is just good and that's all there is to it. it's good enough as a biopic to be informative about the topic while never feeling dry or bland. so it's easy enough to recommend it on that alone but it's just not one I can muster up a ton to say about.

dune: This was the first one to really make me happy. it's weird since this is often considered lynch's worst movie but i had a great time with this. it was the first movie where i started my ritual of pre-movie boba and it's just an incredibly fun time, Sakura peach, brown sugar coffee and Hokkaido milk tea are my go-to's. i adore silly b-movies and this is one of the most fun for me. the silly effects, the excellent cast, characters like the duke going ham with it or Patrick Stewart running into battle with a pug or sting's entire character. it's just the most fun lynch movie to watch and i had a really great time with it. it helps that it's well paced, has a great OST, is just really pretty in general and is the first of many great Lynch/McLaughlin pictures. this is one of the easier ones to recommend since it's very accessible while still being strange enough to showcase some of lynch's strengths. it's also one of the two movies here i actually ended up getting on DVD, since a friend threw me their copy during a clear-out. highly recommended to any and all, if nothing else it at least seems a lot more interesting than those boring looking new dune movies.

blue velvet is the first lynch movie that i fully started to get into. it's full of memorable performances from people like Dennis hopper, Laura dern and Kyle McLaughlin and it has an appearance from my favourite lynch regular with jack nance. it's very stylish and one of the best looking lynch movies with a really saturated 50's style and very arguably the best look of any of his movies. the movie is a much darker and more sexual take on the formula of "collage kids investigate a mystery that is way too dangerous for them" and i think it really works. it's dark and mysterious and interesting enough to always keep you on edge. it has a great villain, interesting main characters and a really killer OST. of his less silly movies this is the first one i really connected with, i liked the dark tone and it was interesting to see ways that other things i like were influenced by this. it's also hard to not like a movie with this silly a villain, even though he does some really heinous things it's also just the funniest performance in maybe any of these movies. it's a manic energy I've never seen replicated and hopper is worth watching the movie for alone, but it does help that the movie surrounding him is pretty great too. i also randomly found £10 on the ground the way to see it which bought me lunch and a boba, so that was nice. of note this is the first of his movies to feature prominent sexual assault, it's one of the better handled of them but it's still worth keeping that in mind before you try it.

wild at heart is probably my second least favourite lynch movie. it's one that by all accounts should be an easy win. it's got Nicholas cage, Laura dern and Willam Dafoe all in memorable performances. it has a great setting in the southern states in America and a really cool road trip setup. it's got amazing music and some of the funniest scenes in any of his movies. somehow just none of it works for me though. i like the performances but none of the characters beyond Nicholas cages are all that interesting. the road trip setup is cool but it also makes the movie kind of drag and the movies darker themes just don't gel well with the campier aspects in ways that really don't work for me. it even has his most out of place and gratuitous scene of sexual assault that just completely ruined the latter half of the movie for me. i found myself really bored at points too, it's just too long and not interesting enough to justify its length. it's not a bad movie or anything, but it just had almost nothing for me and it's not one i ever intend to watch again. it's one i do recommend seeking out for yourself though, it's interesting enough that i think it justifies a viewing and i think people will absolutely get a kick out of the casting and soundtrack.

twin peaks season 1: the best of lynch's TV features. it's short, fun, very memorable and quotable, it's got a killer atmosphere and it doesn't overstay its welcome. sure it feels a little incomplete because of how short it is but whats here is good enough that it's hard to find fault with that, wanting more of something is not a bad complaint to have. the soundtrack is one of the best here, it's easily the most iconic tv show OST i can think of outside of anime. the characters are great, pete, Audrey, coop, ben, bobby, lucy and andy were all easily instant favourites from the first season. the mystery is also really solid, it drags you in fast and makes you want to know more. the town itself is also basically a character and it's all really well shot, it's basically became the go-to depiction of Washington these days and for a good reason. it doesn't go too heavy on the supernatural either like later seasons which gives it a cozier and just nicer to be around atmosphere that i think really lends itself well to drawing you in, it's also super rewatchable too. i generally really liked this one, i saw the whole thing for the first time in the theatre in one huge marathon they had going on and i think that was the best way for me to engage with it. if nothing else it helped make it a lot more memorable, we didn't get out of the screening until like 2am and even then i still went home and started season 2 the very next day.

twin peaks season 2 is a difficult one for me. i like parts of it but on the whole i would find it difficult to say i liked the whole. there's a lot of good in the first half and it's still very charming and funny. this season though has a major issue. the charm of season 1 was helped massively by its length, a lot happened in a small amount of episodes and it helped keep it from getting too boring or soap opera'y. season 2 kind of has that in the first half, albeit with worse pacing, but it's that second half where it very noticeably falls apart. i like some aspects of the second half still, it's got the best of ben horne's scenes with him becoming a confederate general and i like that dick tremane gets more scenes but so much of it just falls into really boring soap opera antics, very bad plotlines involving James and Leo Johnson and the windam earl plotline falls flat entirely. it makes the second half a real slog to get through that the good scenes just don't do enough to salvage for me. the first half is very solid though and i do like how it wraps up with the killer, so i think it's worth watching for that alone. plus you get a ton of David lynch as Gordon cole who is probably the best thing this season gave us, he's just delightful. on the whole it's a difficult thing to recommend though.

twin peaks: fire walk with me is probably my favourite piece of twin peaks. it's not perfect since i do find the first half less interesting and it drags a little but i think once it picks up and gets into the laura palmer stuff i think it really shines. it's a movie basically split into 2 sections. an investigation into the killings before twin peaks happened with a set of 2 new detectives which still can be interesting and you even get a cameo in there from Gordon cole, dale cooper and a new character played by David bowie. however it feels a little meandering at times and the stuff with coop and cole really only pays off in return. the second half is what i like more though, it's a very empathetic take on the last few days of Laura palmers life. it's not an easy sit, its probably the darkest the show ever gets and it needs all kinds of content warnings before you go into it, but i do ultimately think it was done respectfully and in a way that didn't hurt or offend me like a lot of depictions of the subject do. i also just like Laura a lot as a character. she's interesting and i liked learning more about her, even if i do think it lessens some of the mystery surrounding her and the show itself. i think if you can handle it and you liked twin peaks then it is worth watching for sure, that second half is seriously amazing.

lost highway is a movie i didn't even plan to finish for this. I'll admit, i dropped it and never planned to go back. this was another that i went to the theatre to see and i was really excited about it, but when i got there....... i hated this. i really hated this. it felt like lynch leaning into all of his worst aspects and while i could handle the topics of his movies generally this is one where it just felt very weirdly sexist in a way that wasn't even there for commentary, it felt like a bad porno and it ended up upsetting me enough that about half an hour before the ending we just left and never went back. for the most part i do kind of stand by this, i don't like lost highway and i do think it's lynch at his worst. it's overly long and boring and too much of it is taken up by those low-rent porno scenes which get in the way of what points are trying to be made, it feels like the movie conflates showing bad things with commenting on them. i did go back and finish it though and i will admit, i do think it gets better. the final scenes are well shot and interesting and i do concede that my uncomfortableness is likely an intentional thing on the point of the movie with its whole commentary on voyeurism and male gaze, but to me how far this movie goes with its depiction of women and it's message just ends with it all being super muddled. you can see by my initial impression of the movie and i do stand by it leaving the worst possible impression. i don't think it's one of the worst movies ever made like my initial reaction had me to believe, but i think it's the worst lynch movie and it's one i just don't think i like even with what i do think is an interesting message and ending.

straight story is much like one of his earlier films, the elephant man. mainly in that it's a very straightforward biopic but one with much more charm and love than that movie had. it's arguably lynch at his best and I think the one that feels the most personal on screen to me. it's just so sweet and sentimental and cute and I really loved it, it's also the one where you see lynch show his love for America the most. it's a biopic about an older man who travels across states on a lawnmower to make amends with his bother and it's about the people he meets on the way as he changes their lives and vice versa. it's just a nice watch and it's helped by one of the best performances in any of these with Richard Farnsworth in the lead role, his performance carries an already great film to "nearly best" territory. got a few tears out of me to a few times. it has some great shots of the American Midwest too and a pretty great score to boot. easily one of his best for me and one of the easiest ones i'd recommend people get into him with, it's just nice.

i think Mulholland drive is probably my favourite thing in lynch's filmography. it's probably the most popular favourite to have and i think that's for a good reason. it's stylish, it has probably the most interesting story out of any of his movies, a killer OST, it's funny and charming and it's oddly prophetic (or i guess maybe he did know) for the ways in which Hollywood would come to be known to have worked. i have a real affinity for stuff like that, when it feels like something predicted the future. it's hard to not see it as being a little prophetic with all the Hollywood conspiracy stuff and its expose on the casting couch culture. it's got multiple storylines that are all interesting and the conspiracy stuff really got me hooked really fast. the atmosphere here is some of the best i feel, it's unsettling in such a subtle way. the characters are all interesting and well written. it was the main lynch that really made me want to watch again to try and understand everything and i had a great time going and doing so. it's a very rewatchable movie for me. it's another one, alongside dune, that i actually went and got A DVD release for. i went for an older one specifically because the newer ai upscale just looks really poor quality, same with the one for inland empire. for that reason these are the two movies i ended up skipping in the theatre.

inland empire is another for the "i respect it a ton and love what it's doing but ultimately doesn't do a ton for me" pile. it's for sure one of his best looking movies at least. it's so uniquely shot and it looks and feels like nothing else I've ever seen. that means a lot to me and i admire it a ton for that, same for the super alienating atmosphere the movie has. beyond that it just never really did much for me. it's one of his longer movies and it really feels it. it's one of the movies i found myself a little bored during, especially during the last half an hour with the homeless people. it just feels very meandering and a little nothingy at times and it just didn't endear itself to me all that much beyond visually. you do get a great performance by Laura dern though and that's always nice and there's some neat cameos in here. plus i do find the proto-creepypasta idea he has here really interesting conceptually, so it's not all bad. i do recommend watching it for the visuals alone at the very least, maybe you'll even connect more with the story than i did.

the last thing i watched for this was twin peaks: the return. i don't know if i have the words for this one. it's one i was excited for, really excited. I'd heard a lot of people say that it was his best, his swan song. in a way it very much is, it's lynch at his most ambitious and artistic and i love it for that. i respect this maybe more than i respect anything else he's made. to get something like this made in the way he made it at the time he made it is nothing short of a miracle. it's the kind of show that in the age of second screen entertainment and streaming that i just don't think would have ever gotten made and i think for that alone it should be celebrated. it's got tons of the best actors in the industry like matthiew lilard, amanda seyfried, laura dern and naomi watts all in interesting new roles, dern especially is one of the show's highlights as Diane. she's easily the best new character and i think that she's one of the better written depictions of a specific kind of trauma. i also loved the gangster casino owners, they were hilarious in every scene they were in and always brightened up an episode. a lot of the prior cast show up and generally at least get an episode to show how they've been, though maybe not as much as you would like. i love how andy and lucy and Gordon and albert all get tons more screentime but it would have been nice if Audrey, ben, shelly and bobby would have had a little more to do. the best of the returning cast had to be doctor Jacoby though, the turn they did with him was one of the highlights of return overall. i also really like dougie, he's the best. he might even be the best part of twin peaks overall. the scene with him in the casino was the series highlight entirely and honestly worth watching those opening episodes for on its own. the style is excellent too. it's one of the most visually creative tv show's out there when it lets itself be and it ends up being much closer to his more experimental works like inland empire and eraserhead than it does the original series. despite all this i just found it difficult to really connect with the show and the story it's telling. at times it can be slow to the point of being a little boring especially in some of the middle stage episodes when the story gets into kind of a lul. i really disliked all of the evil coop stuff. i found it always dragged episodes down and he makes it i think a little too dark and edgy for me. the cozy atmosphere is gone and it's all just alienating . that's the point though, it's coming back to a town after 25 years of absence and finding that it's all changed and usually in ways that feel wrong. it's probably the most alienating of his works, at least for me, even during the comedy it has that air of strangeness dialed up to the max and it never quite gets comfortable. so while it's hard for me to say if i loved it, i love what it's going for and i really respect it for shooting for the stars and managing to reach it mostly unscathed.

so after all of this do i like his work. I'm not really sure. i respect it, that much is certain, but for a lot of it i didn't really enjoy my time with it. this just isn't really my thing. English language cinema and tv is an area i don't really know nor do i care about. prestige tv the least of it. the only non Asian TV show i watched in the last decade was riverdale if that tells you how little i care for the medium, though i do love riverdale. it does suck being one of the likely few people to enjoy riverdale more than twin peaks but it's a hill i sit comfortably on. so don't be expecting to read coverage on prestige tv shows or letterbox'd top 100 movies in future, that's just not happening, i'm just not interested in the medium. For me this was also a lot of something to get through, i don't find it difficult to sit patiently through a long anime or a 100 hour RPG but when it comes to these kinds of movies and tv shows i struggle. so throwing me into the deep end with 3 hour movies like inland empire and 18 hours of twin peaks the return was like throwing detective conan at an anime novice. i did enjoy the time spent with those i watched them with though, i did love those cinema trips and they will always mean a lot to me. then there was the novelty of seeing a whole season of TV in a theatre. it's something i don't ever think I'll have a chance to do again and i think that's really neat, it's unique. the man himself too, he's maybe more interesting than his work. he seems so genuine and real and kind. everything I've seen of him outside of his movies has always just been so delightful and I'm glad to have learned more about him and his work. I'm proud to say that i watched none of these movies on my *fucking telephone*.