Double or nothing? (The Lynchian Strip)
March 2, 2018 5:54 PM   Subscribe

Asking the Wrong Questions: Reiteration and Doubling in David Lynch’s Lost Highway, Mullholland Drive, and Inland Empire
posted by spaceburglar (9 comments total) 18 users marked this as a favorite
 
Oh dear Jeebus... a post that wants me to to and watch three of the most demanding movies I've ever seen... again?

That's an intense proposition, but I'm not entirely against it.

I'm still recovering from Twin Peaks: The Return Episode 8, to be honest with you.
posted by hippybear at 8:12 PM on March 2, 2018 [5 favorites]


There are beans on this plate.



I think.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 2:54 AM on March 3, 2018


There are beans on this plate.

Small damn things. Man-made! They're new!

you overthink them just like regular beans
posted by flabdablet at 4:01 AM on March 3, 2018 [4 favorites]


I stopped reading at the Sam Harris quote
posted by kittens for breakfast at 5:47 AM on March 3, 2018 [1 favorite]


I stopped reading at the Sam Harris quote

Ah, that’s a pity. I stopped reading because the first part looked interesting, but I wanted to go back and rewatch Inland Empire before reading the rest. Seems odd to put a [presumably approving?] Sam Harris quote into an essay that tries to put the undefinable and mysterious back into art, since that’s more or less the opposite of his schtick. Unless the author found allusions to a hidden fifth column of dusky barbarians in Lynch’s films or something?

As far as I read, it felt like a rejoinder to this amazing AskMe reply from dobbs, which remains the earliest and the best attempt to explain Mulholland Drive “logically” that I’ve seen.

Google suggests that a lot of other sites - both Q&A places like reddit and quora, and regular venues for media criticism - made their own similar attempts to explain the film about a decade later. The AskMe seems to be the only serious analysis before 2010 or so. Also the AskMe is no longer listed in the first few pages, where it used to be a top result, and once you do find it [using very specific search terms that Google will still mostly ignore and cross out], Google has tried to steal Metafilter’s content using their profoundly shitty “amp” service, except they only caught the question and not the replies, so a lose-lose-lose all around. Fuck Google.
posted by chappell, ambrose at 8:36 AM on March 3, 2018 [3 favorites]


Mulholland Drive was intended to be the pilot for a new television series which then was dropped and so Lynch did some new filming and editing to make it into the movie release that it became.

I can't even imagine what that TV series would have been like.
posted by hippybear at 11:02 AM on March 3, 2018 [1 favorite]


I stopped reading at the Sam Harris quote

You win at moral purity.
posted by acb at 10:10 AM on March 5, 2018


Haven't read the whole thing yet, but yes "the first two thirds of Mulholland Drive is a dream/fantasy" is the second most bullshit take on a Lynch movie.

The first most bullshit take on a Lynch movie is "Eraserhead is about parental anxiety. The end."
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 12:05 PM on March 5, 2018


This is some Institute of Gremlins 2-level beanplating, but without the self-awareness.

I really wish Mulholland Drive the series had been made, but found the movie agonizingly dull. Lost Highway is the weakest Lynch film for me. Still don't know how I feel about Inland Empire.
posted by aspersioncast at 12:07 PM on March 5, 2018


« Older “But then what does he eat? And how does he...   |   I think my least-hated favorite fish is sole. Sole... Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments