A confounding tale, where a series of stories operating right on the edge of reason – loosely held together by actress Laura Dern – bump and grind against each other and become ever more tangled, Inland Empire is a difficult and often tortuous movie to watch. And with regular diversions into a dark place of violence, talking rabbits and the most disconcerting rendition of ‘The Locomotion’ ever filmed, David Lynch’s latest slice of American psychosis is guaranteed to have Epic Movie fans gnashing their teeth in frustration. But if you can contain your desire to understand what the hell is going on and instead be swept along by the director’s twisted dream logic, Inland Empire is one of Lynch’s most accomplished and beautiful movies to date.
Brought to life using the familiar imagery and set-pieces that have defined Lynch’s work from The Grandmother onwards – claustrophobic stairways, crackling electricity, plush red velvet, staccato dialogue, parallel worlds and so on – Inland Empire is a delight for the senses and, much like Mulholland Drive or Eraserhead, feels like a surrealist painting made flesh that should be felt rather than understood.
The DVD features a wealth of interviews with Lynch – including his recent talk at London’s National Film Theatre – and while none of them reveal much about Inland Empire, they’re still fascinating, and present the director as a likeable nutcase happily existing in his own Cloud-Cuckoo-Land.