Looking for a way to get into Lynch’s work. I know, a little late, but I feel like I’m missing out on something with all the condolences going out today. I’ve heard good things about Twin Peaks? Does it still hold up?
What about his movies? I’ve heard great things about Mulholland Drive, although I was very confused when I got halfway through.
Are there other works that are better to start with or just that people generally recommend as being good?
You must log in or register to comment.
Here’s my quick and dirty summation of each major thing in order, IMO you can’t go wrong with most of it.
Eraserhead - funny and horrifying midnight movie classic
The Elephant Man - historically bunk but emotionally devastating “staight” historical drama that he stuffs with stunning visuals and remarkable empathy. produced by mel brooks!
Dune - Not For Me but it has its defenders/cult. FWIW Lynch often said developing and filming it was a waste of years of his life.
Blue Velvet - the movie that brought him to the relative mainstream and inspired ABC to get into the David Lynch business - it’s not my favourite but it establishes a lot of his preoccupations going forward. incredible ensemble.
Twin Peaks - People who recommend fan edits etc are doing the show a disservice imo. Luxuriate in its horrible yet cozy yet horrible vibe and roll with the weirdness, not to mention the best-looking cast in TV/film history. Catching the third season week to week was magical.
(Fire Walk With Me - to be watched only after completing S1/2 of TP - the horrifying heart of the whole project. Critically reviled at the time, since redeemed. Sheryl fucking Lee!!!)
Wild at Heart - made while TP was happening with a couple of cast members in common - it has a few amazing scenes but it has never been my favourite, some people adore it though. it has a bit of early 90s nastiness to it I find tough to watch idk
Lost Highway - his most 90s movie, and his most goth (unfortunately including a Marilyn Manson cameo). incredible sense of atmosphere and foreboding, but sort of feels like a dry run for…
Mulholland Dr - probably the “consensus” classic among his movies, originally intended as a TV pilot and refashioned into an irressistible dream-logic noir with endless corridors
The Straight Story - possibly underrated but I think really just underseen, a deeply moving but still subtly Lynchian G-rated movie made for Disney. quietly amazing movie.
Inland Empire - my personal fave, Laura Dern pulverizing her way through a cursed Hollywood with just the power of her incredible acting. Lynch at the most free and experimental he ever let himself get in his features, liberated by the consumer grade digital cameras
In 1999, David Lynch directed a movie for Disney called The Straight Story. It’s about an elderly man who doesn’t qualify for a driver’s license, so he drives his lawn mower 240 miles from Iowa to Wisconsin to reunite with his estranged brother. The movie focuses on conversations that he has with people he meets along the way. There is an absurdity in the long distance lawn mower travel, highlighting America’s lack of public transportation and lack of care for the elderly.
Unironically one of my favourite David Lynch movies. The level of artistic surrealism present in his other movies might not be there, but a lot of his other themes are.
I saw that movie on Netflix streaming years ago and didn’t even realize it was a David Lynch film till years later.
Lynch at his best will be surreal and confusing, making you wonder what you just watched, while still having an emotional impact.
Mulholland drive is a favorite because it balances the straightforward plot of the first half with the wtfness of the second half. If you couldn’t stick with it because of the second half, try Blue Velvet, it’s narrative doesn’t unravel half way through. Just know that part of the fun of lynch is trying to make sense of what you just watched.
Lost highway was where I started. Completely blew me away. Surreal and confusing, but there is just enough there to sort of make sense and keep you thinking about it.
FWWM is amazing and was criminally underrated at the time it released, but it spoils the series.
Twin peaks is great, but if you bounce off it because of the intentionally goofy soap opera elements, there is a fan edit version called “northwest passage” which turns the first two seasons into a five hour movie focusing on the murder investigation, and its pretty well done.
Season 3 is a whole separate thing, and is fucking great. Just 18 hours of lynch doing his thing and pulling elements from his entire life’s work.
Eraserhead is great, and is considered a classic “midnight movie” for a reason.
Elephant man and the straight story are the only conventional movies he’s done, and both are worth watching.
His version of Dune is kind of a mess, but the aesthetics and weirdness of it all make it worthwhile. The new Dune is kind of blandly sterile in comparison.
Wild at heart is the only lynch movie I don’t like. It has some great moments but overall it just leaves me cold.
No mention of Inland Empire?
That’s the final boss of lynch movies.
Twin Peaks isn’t a bad start, but it’s co-created with Mark Frost who was a significant contributor as well as a few other writers and directors etc cause it was a TV show. So the first 2 seasons aren’t fully Lynch, I say this mostly to give credit to other people but also yknow, it wasn’t just his project. Fire Walk With Me and The Return were a bit more.
For movies I’d go with Eraserhead if you’re down for some full arthouse or Blue Velvet for a more gentle introduction.
Blue Velvet for a more gentle introduction.
YOU WANNA GO FOR A JOY RIDE!? 🤣🤣🤣
What kind of beer do you like?
PABST! BLUE! RIBBON!
Are you sure you wouldn’t like a Heineken?
HEINEKEN?! FUCK THAT SHIT!
I meant surrealism-wise. Considering Lynch’s filmography it’s a gentle introduction. There is more gentle but they’re bad introductions.
I figured, it was just a low hanging fruit 😂
blue velvet is intense
Most of his stuff is. Blue Velvet is still fairly grounded at narratively straightforward. It’s like a normal movie mostly. It’s also kind of a dry run for Twin Peaks. Wild at Heart is lighter but hardly a great intro to Lynch. Intensity is hard to avoid
You have to accept intensity if you wanna get into Lynch.
jump into the deep end, watch Eraserhead. it’s very abstract and surreal, and you’ll be forced to interpret a bunch of symbolism to start making any sense of what’s going on or what you think it means. I can’t guarantee you’ll like it, but it’s a good way to get in the right mindset to enjoy his later, more narratively straightforward but still symbolically complex work.
Definitely not his version of Dune
I will argue it’s better than the Villinieuve Dunes, the best adaptation is the Sci fi channel miniseries from 2000, but Lynch gets the spirit of the book, new Dune really doesn’t
To be fair after studio/exec meddling it wasn’t really /his/ version anymore. Maybe not a place to start but it’s an interesting thing to look at eventually if you’re really interested in him. Either the extended cut or the high seas “spice diver” cut would be best but not a place to start or judge him on given how badly other people interfered with his vision at every step there.
I actually like his version of Dune, it’s deeply flawed and no one could call it a masterpiece or better than the recent adaptations BUT it has certain things going for it. To be honest I could never really get into most of his works and Dune was the first thing of his I saw. Very 80s film, weird in a lot of right ways.
I’ll always have a soft spot for it because I grew up on it, and later reading about the production answered a lot of the questions I had. It is so 80s. But in that “still kinda late 70s” way from the early 80s.
Believe it or not Dune was the first Lynch work I saw.
Mine too.
Remember the part where the Baron gives Thufir a “machine” that has an albino cat and an albino rat harnessed inside it? Very memorable and weird. But probably shouldn’t be anyone’s first foray into Lynch or Dune.
That scene is so wild because they completely drop the “poisoning Thufir so he works for us” plot. The scene should have been cut entirely and I say that as a major Thufir fan.
In my head-Canon every Baron scene was so over the top just to make sure the audience wouldn’t blink too hard when they unveiled the cat/rat contraption. By the time it rolls around you’re kinda like “yeah, sure, this thing checks out…”
I watched Mulholland Drive for the first time last summer and thought it was incredible. Like I couldn’t stop thinking about it for weeks. I still watch some clips on youtube
Blue Velvet is probably his most approachable work. After that Wild at Heart, then Mulholland Drive.
Personally I suggest watching a few of his films before trying to watch Twin Peaks.
Then after that you can check out his weirder shit if you’re still into it.
Also, minority opinion amongst Lynch fans, I actually really like Lost Highway. That tends to be Lynch fan’s least favorite one but personally I kinda dig it.
Lost Highway goes hard, just watched it last night to kick off a lynch marathon. Had a really lovely discussion with my partner about how the possessive behaviors inculcated by patriarchal society almost inevitably lead to male violence towards women and other men. Probably one of Lynch’s most explicitly feminist films, Alice’s final line “you’ll never have me” goes hard as fuck
Also, minority opinion amongst Lynch fans, I actually really like Lost Highway. That tends to be Lynch fan’s least favorite one but personally I kinda dig it.
I’m pretty cold on it personally. It’s beautifully shot (the first part in their house is incredibly lit), but its just too cool and distant for me to get much out of. Doesn’t really help that to me it feels like the only one of his films that feels “of its time”, like it feels like it has an ambition to be “cool” that none of its other films have.
I thought Lost Highway was well regarded. I’ve heard Wild at Heart catch more shit. Lost Highway is fantastic. Putting FWWM aside cause the Twin Peaks of it all kinda makes it unfair I’d call it my number 3 of his behind Muholland Drive and Blue Velvet. Lost Highway slaps.
I guess it’s anecdotal but I’ve seen a lot of people call Lost Highway mid.
I like Twin Peaks
He signed the Roman Polanski petition, so take that for what you will before deciding whether or not you want to start.
Literally who didn’t sign that thing? Signatures aside a great deal of his work is very anti patriarchy and while there’s some SUPER uncomfortable stuff he’s been praised frequently by women he’s worked with to approach that stuff very well on set and make what could be a really uncomfortable experience feel like pulling off some damn good acting, which it is. There are lots and lots of stories about his overall sensitivity as a director and care for actors in general but especially in more vulnerable scenes. I think it would be foolish to dismiss the guy over the petition. You’d also have to not watch pretty much most movies.
I got a concussion earlier today, maybe I should have thought that one over a bit more.
Also, IIRC, the folks who started up that petition got folks to sign it using some underhanded tactics.
Filmmaker David Lynch has thoughts on the “tricky business” of sexual misconduct accusations, specifically the ones posed against fellow Hollywood heavyweights, Louis C.K. and Roman Polanski
"And Roman Polanski: People were writing things about him when he went to Switzerland and got arrested — things like he should be hung. Things get a little out of hand. You feel terrible for anyone who’s been a victim. This subject is tricky business.”
“And political correctness came in,” Lynch continued. “I don’t know if that’s a good thing. You can’t make laws to change people.”
You can make laws to hang them, though
It’s crazy the person who made Mulholland Drive signed that petition make it make sense
make it make sense
IIRC the people who started it got signatures by claiming it was for something else
you really think someone in Hollywood would misrepresent something they’re trying to get signed?
It’s crazy that the guy who made Rosemary’s Baby did what he did too. Whole industry’s full of “do as I say, not as I do.” Kill your heroes.
Start with Elephant Man
That’s not a bad choice. I forgot about that one. Our 11th grade English teacher was a Lynch Guy who made everyone watch Elephanr Man in class and that was actually my first time seeing his stuff.
Blue Velvet; it has a relatively normal narrative structure and brings in Lynchian themes (depraved evil beneath the surface of small-town America, a blurred sense of time that’s equal parts 1950s as when it was made, and aesthetics that would prefigure Twin Peaks). When you’re ready for something more bizarre, Lost Highway or Mulholland Drive.
Dune, even though he person disowns the movie due to studio meddling.
I forgot I’ve actually seen this. I actually kind of liked it, although I like the new one better. But it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.
