Review of Inland Empire (2006) by Tristan G — 12 May 2009

I thought it was okay. There were a lot of things I liked about it. I really liked the first quarter of the film. I liked the idea of a haunted film set and I thought that film pulled off that creepy mood really well.

Then when the film got surreal and they go to Poland and there's all that stuff with the prostitution and all that, I still found myself interested in what was going on. However, after a while it got kind of tiresome, but in my opinion the last 25 minutes redeems it when it switches back to how it was in the first act.

So overall, I'd say it was a bit of a mess, but I liked it more than Lost Highway, which was confusing in an irritating way that I found kind of disappointing. I went into Inland Empire expecting to be disappointed after all the bad things I heard about it, but I actually found myself enjoying it to an extent.

The first 25 minutes and the last 25 minutes were my favorite parts of the film as they felt truly Lynchian and thus more what I wanted to see, but the whole middle section of the film felt a bit weak.

I also had trouble getting used to the ugly look of the film and it took me a bit to warm up to it. I will say that I absolutely LOVED the soundtrack! Inland Empire had one of the best soundtracks to a film of the 2000s that I've ever heard.

I just loved the ambient quality of it. It reminded me of a great film-noir film of the early 50s! I actually liked Laura Dern's performance as well, though I could see how some people wouldn't like it.

Overall, I don't know. I'd watch it again. I've only watched it once. I actually own it, so I might watch it again sometime soon. It's definitely one of David Lynch's weakest films overall, but I did like it a bit.

It was alright.