Review of Lost Highway (1997) by John C — 24 Feb 2011

David Lynch never fails to amaze me. With every film he makes, he pushes the boundaries and structure of film even further. Most films seem to require a narrative or a realistic structure for them to work, but Lynch films don't.

In fact, If I saw one that had a regular structure, it'd baffle me. The beauty of Lynch's films is the mystery at the forefront of the plot. In each and every one, whether they are classed as a horror or not, there is always an overgrowing and tight grip on the surrealistic and terrifying theme.

Lost Highway features Lynch's regular dark, ambient sounds which amplify the film higher and higher throughout the course of the movie. The writing is also very strong, and we transpire and communicate through it.

The acting is almost there. I personally think that Bill Pullman pulls off a strong performance, and to an extent so does Patricia Arquette, but that doesn't matter all as much as you'd expect.

As stated earlier, it's David Lynch's terrific and unique direction that mountains over and shields the film from being affected, even in the slightest of way.Most critics were against this film, but I don't understand why.

It shows the slightest of comparisons to Lynch's debut masterpiece; Eraserhead with the ambient sounds and of course Jack Nance's minor appearance (he plays the garage mechanic, Phil). And if these similarities are there, then how can they hate it? Eraserhead was quite possibly the strangest and most surreal picture to ever be made.

Well, at least of what I've seen.