Review of Inland Empire (2006) by Timothy S — 23 May 2011

Maybe Lynch's craziest, most thoroughly unhinged movie to date. Which is a good thing. It scared the life out of me. The DV cinematography creates dark corridors and blown-out highlights--both lightness and darkness disappear into nothing--Lynch's sound design is unnerving and terrifying, and Dern's extraordinary performance anchors the whole thing, to the degree that such a thing can (or should) be anchored.

I'm not sure I'd call it one of Lynch's very best, but it certainly feels like a culmination of his dramatic, thematic, and aesthetic obsessions to date. And it's certainly a great film and an unshakable experience.