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Writer-director David Lynch has been lying low since his much-criticized television series Twin Peaks bombed along with its accompanying feature Fire Walk With Me. For those unfamiliar with Lynch's work, let's just say that he's one of America's strangest film-makers. Unfortunately, a recent criticism leveled at Lynch (in response to Twin Peaks as well as his previous feature, Wild At Heart) was that he was too campy |
 * Once again, crew-savvy David Lynch proves he knows how to pick 'em  the technical credits are all top notch, creating an atmosphere of unparalleled strangeness.
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 As with Wild At Heart and Fire Walk With Me, the cast of Lost Highway is packed with familiar faces.* Independence Day's Bill Pullman and True Romance's Patricia Arquette fill the lead rolls, while Balthazar Getty, Gary Busey, Richard Pryor, Henry Rollins, Robert Loggia and Robert Blake round out the supporting cast. Special mention must go to production designer Patricia Norris (much of the film was shot in Lynch's own Hollywood Hills home), cinematographer Peter Deming, as well as Angelo Badalamente, Lynch's regular composer. Badalamente is assisted by Nine Inch Nails' lead singer Trent Reznor, who supervised the many songs heard on the soundtrack (David Bowie, Lou Reed, Marilyn Manson and Reznor himself are heard, to name just a few).
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* ...suggesting a world somehow off-kilter...or a bad dream... |
 A suburban couple (Bill Pullman and Patricia Arquette) receive several packages on their doorstep. Each contains a videotape showing the inside of their house. As Pullman becomes increasingly suspicious of his wife's nocturnal activities, things begin to grow darker (literally), until he can barely find his way through his own house. He receives another videotape, this time showing him murdering his wife. From there, he disappears, and literally turns into a young man (Balthazar Getty). In this new guise, he meets a double of his murdered wife (shades of Hitchcock's Vertigo). He begins an affair with her, much to the dismay of her current companion, a mob boss (Robert Loggia)... So here we've hit all the bases of Lynch-dom: An obsession with the dark side doomed romance, sex, violence, madness, despair and, of course, undiluted weirdness from start to finish.*
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 Not since his first feature, Eraserhead (1976), has Lynch concocted such an uncommercial film. The pace is agonizingly slow, the main characters are distant and often unsympathetic, the atmosphere is crushingly grim and no explanation is offered for the bizarre goings-on. It's also a brilliant piece of filmmaking, beating out (with the exception of Cronenberg's Crash) just about everything else around. This is pure, unfiltered David Lynch, proving that he remains of the most exciting filmmakers around.
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 Lost Highway October Films, 135 minutes Director: David Lynch Producers: Deepak Nayar, Tom Sternberg, Mary Sweeney Screenplay: David Lynch, Barry Gifford Cinematographer: Peter Deming Editor: Mary Sweeney Cast: Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, Balthazar Getty, Robert Blake, Natasha Gregson Wagner, Gary Busey, Robert Loggia, Richard Pryor, Henry Rollins
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