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[plagiarize]

I rewatched Fire Walk with Me only two days ago and I've decided it might just be my favourite Lynch movie, and it's certainly some of my favourite Twin Peaks out there. I don't remember when exactly, but it must have been somewhere in 2012 to 2014 when I first watched it if that contextualizes it at all, I loved it back then too.

Also: my mom, who disliked the film on her initial watch over 20 years ago? I've been posting about her rewatch of Twin Peaks on here if you recall such a thing. Anyway, she watched it again with me during that last rewatch and she absolutely loved it this time. She said it was, and I quote, "way better than any of the TV series, I must have been in a bad mood when I first watched this. And I just don't understand why it wouldn't have been highly regarded when it released, it might not be a continuation of the series but it's clearly a work of art." I'm not sure if I'd go that far in regards to the series, but I thought that was pretty neat, I was worried about how she would like it this time. So there you go.

It's a bit saddening newcomers are still getting the impression it should be avoided because of a bad reputation, I really do believe that reappraisal has been well under way by now. And the film has been important to season 3 too. Just watch it and make up your own mind! Skipping it is such a weird choice.

Your mum sounds amazing.

And yeah, the fact is FWWM no longer needs to carry any expectation of carrying on the series. Thank god they made a prequel when everyone was still young enough to do it.

We're watching the sequel right now... so it's not justifiable for people to be angry that FWWM wasn't a sequel anymore.

 

[Joqu]

Your mum sounds amazing.

And yeah, the fact is FWWM no longer needs to carry any expectation of carrying on the series. Thank god they made a prequel when everyone was still young enough to do it.

We're watching the sequel right now... so it's not justifiable for people to be angry that FWWM wasn't a sequel anymore.

She is. c:

And right. I didn't have that issue with FWWM, but I can understand that angle of it to some degree. But those opinions aren't nearly as relevant anymore, and as you say I'm pretty glad things turned out the way they did, FWWM was pretty much made at the perfect time in retrospect. And now that season 3 exists it can finally be appreciated without that baggage.

 

[Dusk Golem]

This is also a thought, Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me released a little over a year after the original series ended, so people were indeed still heated to know the answers rather than having time to cool down and realize that's it (or a new season would be 25 years later). But on-top of this, I personally think Fire Walk With Me would be very hard to take without a good or decent memory of what happened in the series. I think Fire Walk With Me is empowered by the series, and if you only loosely remember things, or maybe never even saw the series originally like some at Cannes maybe did, I imagine at the time it'd be very hard to follow and what you're left with if you're not following the film seems like a random collection of scenes, characters brought up and dropped for no reason, and a bleak story about a girl going through abuse and things that may seem random going on around it.

Within the context of the series, there's a lot to take in and digest. Which I also think is part of why it's gotten better received over time, the show stay relevant and has become available multiple times over to rewatch and most people hae a general gist of the series more than they maybe did in 92 when they were wanting answers or the series was on the way out of the mainstream public conscious. I think many people also might of looked at it as an attempt to be an 'edgier' version of the series and lacking all the charm at the time.

But in retrospective and with an audience who I think is more open to different viewing experiences more than when the film aired and in a very different climate of the world I think it's gotten a rising reputation as people have begun to appreciate the films vision, the fantastic performances, a number of scenes that can stick with you, and a deep delve into the series mythology. Having the series available and now having a new era of fans who watched it way after the initial run or maybe were too young to watch or understand when it originally aired have also gotten into it.

This is going to sound completely pretentious but I think there's truth to it, I simply don't think the viewing audience back then were really ready to appreciate Fire Walk With Me, hell while the movie would be hard to understand without the context of the TV series I think it being the 'movie' for Twin Peaks soured a lot of people to what it is. But I think ignoring it as a follow-up movie to the series and enjoying it as basically part of the series rather than some grander follow-up does it a lot of favors, as weird as that may sound. I feel like if Fire Walk With Me released right now in theaters for the first time rather than the new season people would still be initially down on it... It's weird to express this but I kind of think the movie being a follow-up to Twin Peaks and a film which released publicly in theaters actually somehow hurts the movie rather than helps it.

I'm fairly certain Lynch is going to become a remembered director in history even a century from now, and I think the response to Fire Walk With Me will be an interesting thing for analysis in the future. It's kind of Lynch's own "upsetting the mainstream" work. but one that upsets because of the context rather than the quality of the film. It makes it an absolutely fascinating specimen to analyze for why the way it was released caused such dismay towards it.

 

[120v]

i find it weird people generally love mulholland drive but revile Inland Empire. Inland empire is basically mulholland drive on steroids

 

[Real Hero]

i find it weird people generally love mulholland drive but revile Inland Empire. Inland empire is basically mulholland drive on steroids

Well, visually they are very different for one.

 

[Krev]

i find it weird people generally love mulholland drive but revile Inland Empire. Inland empire is basically mulholland drive on steroids

I think it's probably because the vignettes in Mulholland Drive are generally entertaining and comprehensible in and of themselves, whereas Inland Empire is always fucking with yor perception of what is what and who is who. Past a certain point there's no 'home' characters and locations to ground you. In MD you have Betty and Rita and Adam to follow.

That, and IE has the really punky grainy lo-fi look, while MD is visually rich.

 

[plagiarize]

Well, visually they are very different for one.

Yeah. That's my big problem. For a visual artist like Lynch to suddenly work in a medium that looked like trash *to me*, I can't get into it. Every frame of most of his work on film is something I'd hang on my wall. Inland Empire lost that completely. Maybe one day I'll be able to get through it. I'm sure I'll try again soon.

Series 3 gave me that high quality art again for about 2/3rds of the running time (so far) so it's much easier for me to deal with than Inland Empire. Digital cameras are much better now than what Lynch used on Empire.

 

[Dusk Golem]

i find it weird people generally love mulholland drive but revile Inland Empire. Inland empire is basically mulholland drive on steroids

I personally love Inland Empire, but I can understand the hate for it. I could give a fucking essay on my theory here, but I think Inland Empire is the hardest to digest Lynch film, more than any of his other works. I wouldn't say it's his 'strangest' film or even his darkest per say, but I think it's the hardest to follow. Almost every one of his films have a sort of easy to understand 'gripping point' which makes the weirdness feel centralized both in plot and character. IE, Eraserhead is about a man who ends up having to take care of his freakish child, Mulholland Drive is about a woman who comes to Hollywood to become an actress and meets up and begins to live with another woman. These aren't specifically what the works are actually about, but it's the easy to follow beginning point and doubled with a character that has a simple enough motive to understand and some charm that helps gets us attached to the characters, makes them relatable and we have something to latch onto while watching to sort of understand the context of what's going on.

Inland Empire has something that sort of resembles this but I think it's the loosest hook Lynch ever did. It's about an actress who goes to be in a movie, but the script is said to be cursed and bad things have surrounded it. That's a bit more of a complicated set-up, but more so it doesn't immediately tie to our character directly into who she is like many of Lynch's other films, and the film quickly goes on into the deep end. I think many who watch it haven't really gathered their footing in what's going on at the start before being thrown deep in there and then the film becomes increasingly hard to even understand what's going on if you missed things. Add to that the movie is longer than any of Lynch's other films and most films in general, and its raw digital look which makes it even visually a bit more muddied and hard to follow. Add to that the characters are consistently changing roles and who they are, so it's hard to get attached to the cast if you're not paying attention because the cast is continually switched up during the course of the film of who they're playing.

I could go further, but I think it's understandable why so many people didn't like it. However, I think it's a fantastic movie and it's maybe the Lynch film where every time I've seen it (I've seen it 6 times at this point), I notice new things about it which makes me appreciate it more. It's kind of like a storm though, there's a lot that happens and it's hard to all take in as its brewing, but the more time you kind of spend staring and watching the more you begin to pick up on it and begin to appreciate things it's doing both individually and as an entire picture and narrative that you begin to become fonder of it.

I firmly believe Inland empire is Lynch's least accessible film and I can honestly say I don't think anyone will really firmly understand what they just watched the first time they do, it's also almost consistently dark until the very end and hard to follow that it may make people actively hate it on their first watch. But there's a lot more to Inland empire than I think many people think there is on the first watch, and there's a lot to like about it the deeper into the film you go. It's kind of like... the film has a repulsive outer layer but there's a depth to explore in the film if you decide to delve deeper than face value into the the movie.

 

[Sorcerer]

i find it weird people generally love mulholland drive but revile Inland Empire. Inland empire is basically mulholland drive on steroids

Can you find any structure in Empire? Drive is intriguing but Empire just seems like Dave threw together a greatest hits of Lynchisims.
I still like it but its at the bottom.

 

[Krev]

Can you find any structure in Empire? Drive is intriguing but Empire just seems like Dave threw together a greatest hits of Lynchisims.
I still like it but its at the bottom.

There is definitely a structure to IE. It's not just a random assemblage of footage. It has more to do with the feelimg and tone tham it does narrative, but the different fragments refer to and build on each other.

 

[Count Dookkake]

Never understood the hate for FWWM.

From small minds who feed on continuity and lore.

 

[gun_haver]

time to watch bobby and his dad having a heartfelt conversation in light of bobby being apparently a good member of the twin peaks police force

god damnit bobby don't let me down

 

[plagiarize]

time to watch bobby and his dad having a heartfelt conversation in light of bobby

Spoiler

being apparently a good member of the twin peaks police force

god damnit bobby don't let me down

Spoiler

I will be crushed if he fails to make the memory of his father proud.

 

[Dan-o]

Lost Highway is Lynch's best movie

For me, it's a toss up between Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive. Today, I'll agree with you.

Red Letter Medias recent re:View on FWWM is a fantastic modern second look. Shines a light on why FWWM is one of Lynchs better films.

I'll have to check that out. Thanks for recommending it!

It's a film that only works if:
1. You're a fan of Twin Peaks
2. You're a fan of the lore and dark stuff in Twin Peak, not just the quirky characters.
3. You're a fan of the lore and dark stuff in Twin Peaks and don't mind that the vast majority of the cast isn't in it.

It's a movie for a subset of a subset of people who are/were already fans of the show. That's... a tough sell. This isn't a case of having "love blinders" for Lynch as someone else said. It's a case of knowing what the film ultimately IS, which (in short) is a rickety bridge between the beginning of the story (as we knew it at the time) and the end of season two. I totally get and respect that people don't like it (and never will), but Lynch made the movie to tell a part of the story he felt needed to be told. Turns out, most people aren't along for that ride, and that's perfectly fine. But for those who like/want that story... it really is excellent.

100% objective official Lynch ranking

1. Mulholland Drive (his masterpiece)
2. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
3. Blue Velvet
4. The Elephant Man
5. Twin Peaks he directed
6. Eraserhead
7. The Straight Story
8. Lost Highway
9. Wild at Heart
10. Inland Empire
11. Dune

I'm glad this is ultimately subjective because Lost Highway is so damn good. I'd also put Elephant Man lower. I need to revisit Dune and Inland Empire, though.

I'm throwing way back to two pages ago here (sleep! I have to sleep sometimes guys!).

Part 4

Spoiler

Coop says 'Hi!' no argument. Not 'Coffee'. Turn on the subtitles if you don't believe me.

umm

Spoiler

She brings the cup over and says, "Here's your coffee." He stops,
looks at it in amazement, and says, "Cofffeeee" then after he drinks it, he spits it out,
and says "Hi!!!!!"

 

[RepairmanJack]

100% objective official Lynch ranking

1. Mulholland Drive (his masterpiece)
2. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
3. Blue Velvet
4. The Elephant Man
5. Twin Peaks he directed
6. Eraserhead
7. The Straight Story
8. Lost Highway
9. Wild at Heart
10. Inland Empire
11. Dune

Damn close to mine, I'd put Eraserhead a little higher though. Love that movie for the creepy factor. Mulholland Dr. is easily my number though and one of my favorite movies of all time.

I feel like I might not have actually seen Lost Highway and Wild at Heart.

 

[Fancy Clown]

Lynch is one of the few artists who is able to make things scarier by actually showing things, rather than relying on the suspense of leaving the horror to your imagination (noth that he doesn't do this as well, recently with the "mother" pounding on the door in the purple room). Like in these four episodes alone he's scarred me with the thing in the glass box, the blackened hobo dude, the mismatched corpse, the lady with her eyes sewn shut, and probably more stuff that I've already let sink into my nightmares.

Fancy Clown, helllooooo~~~oooo

Call me Mr. Jackpots baby, cuz this shit is solid gold.

 

[MikeBison]

Wait, so it's a 7-8 day wait before more twin peaks? No part 5 this week?

 

[plagiarize]

For me, it's a toss up between Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive. Today, I'll agree with you.


I'll have to check that out. Thanks for recommending it!

It's a film that only works if:
1. You're a fan of Twin Peaks
2. You're a fan of the lore and dark stuff in Twin Peak, not just the quirky characters.
3. You're a fan of the lore and dark stuff in Twin Peaks and don't mind that the vast majority of the cast isn't in it.

It's a movie for a subset of a subset of people who are/were already fans of the show. That's... a tough sell. This isn't a case of having "love blinders" for Lynch as someone else said. It's a case of knowing what the film ultimately IS, which (in short) is a rickety bridge between the beginning of the story (as we knew it at the time) and the end of season two. I totally get and respect that people don't like it (and never will), but Lynch made the movie to tell a part of the story he felt needed to be told. Turns out, most people aren't along for that ride, and that's perfectly fine. But for those who like/want that story... it really is excellent.



I'm glad this is ultimately subjective because Lost Highway is so damn good. I'd also put Elephant Man lower. I need to revisit Dune and Inland Empire, though.



umm

Spoiler

She brings the cup over and says, "Here's your coffee." He stops,
looks at it in amazement, and says, "Cofffeeee" then after he drinks it, he spits it out,
and says "Hi!!!!!"

Yes. Someone many posts ago was saying he didn't

Spoiler

say 'hi', that he said 'coffee'. Refuting the fact someone else pointed out that it's the first time he says something that isn't just repeating something someone else said to him.

 

[DoctorFling]

The only Lynch film I don't like is Dune. My top 5 are

1. Fire Walk with Me
2. Eraserhead
3. Mulholland Drive
4. Blue Velvet
5. The Elephant Man

but I do need to give Lost Highway and Inland Empire another watch. Straight Story is good but too... straight? Wild at Heart is funny.

 

[thenexus6]

This two week wait until episode five really sucks..

 

[Dan-o]

Yes. Someone many posts ago was saying he didn't

Spoiler

say 'hi', that he said 'coffee'. Refuting the fact someone else pointed out that it's the first time he says something that isn't just repeating something someone else said to him.

Ah, gotcha. That is true. I think the only noteworthy thing about

Spoiler

him saying "Coffee" is that it's said with emotion/amazement whereas everything before that was missing that kind of emphasis. Actually, when he says "Home"
to the guy who recognized him in the casino... there's a hint of some kind of emotion there I guess.

Anyway, I don't think there's too much to interpret with all of that, but yes, you are correct. I misunderstood the point earlier

This two week wait until episode five really sucks..

Not when you've watched the first four hours... four times (or more).

 

[SuperStiltzkin]

This two week wait until episode five really sucks..

Well I can use this time to catch up on BCS and Fargo. I'm behind in both ever since Twin Peaks dropped.

 

[Kayhan]

1. Mulholland Drive
2. Wild at Heart
3. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
4. Twin Peaks TV
5. Blue Velvet
6. Lost Highway

 

[Elchele]

FWWM bad reviews were just angry people because they didn't get exactly what they wanted.
The film is great

 

[newdayrocks]

I've seen every Lynch movie multiple times (The Straight Story is easily his worst of all time), except for Inland Empire, which I've never ever seen.

No idea why, especially as I'm FROM the Inland Empire!

I need to fix this.

 

[Dusk Golem]

The only Lynch film I don't like is Dune. My top 5 are

1. Fire Walk with Me
2. Eraserhead
3. Mulholland Drive
4. Blue Velvet
5. The Elephant Man

but I do need to give Lost Highway and Inland Empire another watch. Straight Story is good but too... straight? Wild at Heart is funny.

Straight Story might not actually be as straight as you think it is. There's basically a straight-forward sort of 'happy' way to see the movie, but if you pay attention you may start to realize some things aren't adding up.

Spoiler

Every character he meets highlights something being amiss more and more, from the runaway to the lady who keeps hitting deer to the war veteran, each character Alvin spends some time with and shares a story with them. The stories he paints are to be encouraging or to pass on a lesson, and seem fine enough on an old man reflecting on his life... Until you start realizing the contradictions Alvin makes with himself over the course of the film.

There's kind of a 'hidden' story in Straight Story that's not very straight forward at all, and the title I think is an allusion to this. It turns out Alvin has a LOT of amending to do. There's a few clues to this, but the biggest is when he loses control of the Mower, which might seem like a random scene in the film that's kind of oddly scary to a movie that seems so tame but is very important for understanding the real theming of the movie. Alvin is at the end of a life he long lost control of, and he desperately is clinging to things and to make amends to various atrocities he's made over his life.

During him losing control of his Mower and him seeming to begin to very scared, there's various cut aways to the fire station practicing on putting a fire out on an abandoned house. Earlier in the film Alvin says someone was taking care of his daughter's kids and neglected them which made her lose custody of them. Alvin leaves who this is as an unnamed individual and makes it sound like it was a babysitter, but there's several hints in the movie that it wasn't anyone 'anonymous' at all. There's various things that don't add up, Alvin mentions he has fourteen kids but none of them visit him anymore or have for years; why did all of his kids just stop visiting or caring about him except for his disabled daughter? Why does Alvin say he removed himself from alcohol after WW1 and that a minister helped him move away from the bottle of being an alcoholic, yet later in the film to a priest he acknowledges that his fallout with Lyle (his brother) which was supposedly only 10 years ago was because of Alcohol, which would've been way after the time Alvin claims he stopped heavy drinking? Why does he have random falirs of a violent temper in the film, the most evident being when he takes a shotgun to shoot up his Mower when it stops working and he gets frustrated by it? Even more so, he says very 'wise words' which actually are references to stories of child abuse, the most obvious is the one where he talks about tying sticks in a bundle, and try to break them, and says you can't, since that bundle is a family.

The Straight Story is a story about a mean drunk named Alvin who got his grandchildren burned in a house fire that made his disabled daughter lose custody of them, He was an abusive drunk who had 14 children, all of which abandoned him but one who couldn't, even his own brother stalked talking with him. The whole movie is Alvin seeking redemption for his past sins of 40 years being a terrible husband and father and taking it out on those around him and even making one of his daughters lose custody of her children for his mistake, he says lines various times to allude to this as a double meaning ( "The worst part of bein' old is remembering when you was young."), and he refuses any sort of help on his journey. While this happens, he meets characters who open up old wounds of his, but he only alludes to those wounds, and a thematic begins to happen. He goes on this journey not just because his brother had a stroke, but he realizes he's not going to live much longer. He says at the start of the film he's going to, "live to be 100," but he doesn't believe it and his doctor warns him he needs to treat himself better. He claims the road journey is to make up with his brother before his brother has another major incident, but it's him facing his own mortality and sins he's committed during his life. Alvin is too afraid to look at and change himself as demonstrated right at the start of the film, there's a lot of things about himself he doesn't like and is afraid to look deeper into himself and wants to forget or not face. He's stubborn and self-destructive to himself, as well as was the patriarch that pushed away most of his family from ever wanting to deal with him.

There's more you can say for each scene in the film, but the fun thing about The Straight Story is when you realize Alvin's straight-forward narrative isn't true and he's one hell of an unreliable narrator with a lot of double meanings in what he says and clues to things he leaves out mentioning through the film, contradictions to what he tells different people, and themings you may begin to notice when you begin to view the movie in the more crooked way than it demonstrates itself.

 

[jon_i634]

Ranking!

1. Mulholland Dr
2. Blue Velvet
3. Eraserhead
4. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
5. Inland Empire
6. The Elephant Man
7. Wild At Heart
8. Lost Highway
9. The Straight Story

(I truly believe that all of his films* are 5/5, I have thoroughly enjoyed every single one!)
*

Spoiler

I have not watched Dune.

Anyway on topic, I've somehow held out on watching 3/4 until now. I didn't wanna wait two weeks for a new episode. Looking forward to more great TV!

 

[Man with Knife]

Ranking!

1. Mulholland Dr
2. Blue Velvet
3. Eraserhead
4. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me

Exactly my order too!

Dune is at the bottom (the only Lynch movie I don't like), the other five in between, but I don't think I could put them in order.

 

[darkwing-buck]

Yeah I finally saw Lost Highway yesterday and thought it was a chore to get through. The first 30 min with Bill Pullman were outstanding but when Pete comes in for nearly the rest of the film I tuned out.

 

[PolishQ]

Yes. Someone many posts ago was saying he didn't

Spoiler

say 'hi', that he said 'coffee'. Refuting the fact someone else pointed out that it's the first time he says something that isn't just repeating something someone else said to him.

Spoiler

I stand by my assertion that he says "coffee..." when she first puts the cup in front of him and then "COFFEE!!" after he spits it out, subtitles be damned. Twin Peaks subtitles have been wrong before ("Helga baby damn no!").

It's like "Coffee! I remember this!"

 

[hydruxo]

Spoiler

I stand by my assertion that he says "coffee..." when she first puts the cup in front of him and then "COFFEE!!" after he spits it out, subtitles be damned. Twin Peaks subtitles have been wrong before ("Helga baby damn no!").

It's like "Coffee! I remember this!"

Spoiler

Nah he definitely says "HI!" after he spits it out haha.

I rewatched it a few times.

 

[eXistor]

Finally was able to see the 4 episodes. It's pretty much what I hoped and expected; more modern Lynch. To me that's a good thing. I'm not gonna comment on the story for now (I can finally read some theories and such without fear of spoilers). I will say the two things that work against the show for me are the overall pacing of some scenes. Sometimes things really just drag on too much. Episode 4 especially was pretty bad in this regard. I'm all for letting scenes breathe, but I've found that a lot of the time this extra breathing space does nothing for the scenes at hand especially the (Ep 3 spoilers)

Spoiler

Las Vegas jackpot scenes

. We got the joke within 2 minutes, but they felt the need to drag it out to what felt like 15. Overall it's a minor complaint, but one I've never found myself commenting on with other Lynch stuff.

The other downside is special effects. Some of them are so laughably bad that they take me out of scenes completely. What could have been effective and creepy scenes come across as goofy because of the bad effects. I wonder how much of this was intentional.

Other than that I'm completely happy with it and the sense of mystery is very palpable. Can't wait to continue the show, should be a good one.

 

[Ophiuchus]

I just wanted to say that I am delighted with the direction taken by David Lynch and so far show has seen phenomenal return.

As a fan of series I must say that this third season is actually more darker and mystical than original show.Pace is somewhat faster but it still manages to hold viewers intact.

We had rushed third season but it had a reasonable ending to the very first mystery (the killing of Laura Palmer) but as show progressed the story evolved and I feel that third season is in many ways better and logical than the second season.We will have to see what the remaining episodes have to offer.

It will be great to watch and discuss show with gaf as I find this thread very interesting.

 

[mattiewheels]

I'm pretty sure that lodge experience Coop had made him into braindead coop. Drinking that coffee clearly restored him!

I'm sure a lot of people are hoping for that, but I don't think that's how the logic of the doppelgänger situation works. Seems like they share a single person's energy when they're both out in the world, and the only way for Coop to be Coop again is for him to the doppelgänger to die.

 

[Moff]

1. Lost Highway, it was also the first Lynch movie I have ever seen
2. Twin Peaks + FWWM
3. Blue Velvet
4. Wild at Heart
5. Eraserhead
6. Mulholland Drive
7. The Elephant Man
8. Dune
9. The straight story

I can definitly see Twin Peaks becoming his Magnum Opus judging from the first 4 episodes of season three.
Never saw Inland Empire, I am afraid of it

 

[Ophiuchus]

By the way, OP is extraordinary .

 

[Man with Knife]

Fire Walk With Me (Saxophone Version)

 

[DoctorFling]

Straight Story might not actually be as straight as you think it is. There's basically a straight-forward sort of 'happy' way to see the movie, but if you pay attention you may start to realize some things aren't adding up.

Spoiler

Every character he meets highlights something being amiss more and more, from the runaway to the lady who keeps hitting deer to the war veteran, each character Alvin spends some time with and shares a story with them. The stories he paints are to be encouraging or to pass on a lesson, and seem fine enough on an old man reflecting on his life... Until you start realizing the contradictions Alvin makes with himself over the course of the film.

There's kind of a 'hidden' story in Straight Story that's not very straight forward at all, and the title I think is an allusion to this. It turns out Alvin has a LOT of amending to do. There's a few clues to this, but the biggest is when he loses control of the Mower, which might seem like a random scene in the film that's kind of oddly scary to a movie that seems so tame but is very important for understanding the real theming of the movie. Alvin is at the end of a life he long lost control of, and he desperately is clinging to things and to make amends to various atrocities he's made over his life.

During him losing control of his Mower and him seeming to begin to very scared, there's various cut aways to the fire station practicing on putting a fire out on an abandoned house. Earlier in the film Alvin says someone was taking care of his daughter's kids and neglected them which made her lose custody of them. Alvin leaves who this is as an unnamed individual and makes it sound like it was a babysitter, but there's several hints in the movie that it wasn't anyone 'anonymous' at all. There's various things that don't add up, Alvin mentions he has fourteen kids but none of them visit him anymore or have for years; why did all of his kids just stop visiting or caring about him except for his disabled daughter? Why does Alvin say he removed himself from alcohol after WW1 and that a minister helped him move away from the bottle of being an alcoholic, yet later in the film to a priest he acknowledges that his fallout with Lyle (his brother) which was supposedly only 10 years ago was because of Alcohol, which would've been way after the time Alvin claims he stopped heavy drinking? Why does he have random falirs of a violent temper in the film, the most evident being when he takes a shotgun to shoot up his Mower when it stops working and he gets frustrated by it? Even more so, he says very 'wise words' which actually are references to stories of child abuse, the most obvious is the one where he talks about tying sticks in a bundle, and try to break them, and says you can't, since that bundle is a family.

The Straight Story is a story about a mean drunk named Alvin who got his grandchildren burned in a house fire that made his disabled daughter lose custody of them, He was an abusive drunk who had 14 children, all of which abandoned him but one who couldn't, even his own brother stalked talking with him. The whole movie is Alvin seeking redemption for his past sins of 40 years being a terrible husband and father and taking it out on those around him and even making one of his daughters lose custody of her children for his mistake, he says lines various times to allude to this as a double meaning ( "The worst part of bein' old is remembering when you was young."), and he refuses any sort of help on his journey. While this happens, he meets characters who open up old wounds of his, but he only alludes to those wounds, and a thematic begins to happen. He goes on this journey not just because his brother had a stroke, but he realizes he's not going to live much longer. He says at the start of the film he's going to, "live to be 100," but he doesn't believe it and his doctor warns him he needs to treat himself better. He claims the road journey is to make up with his brother before his brother has another major incident, but it's him facing his own mortality and sins he's committed during his life. Alvin is too afraid to look at and change himself as demonstrated right at the start of the film, there's a lot of things about himself he doesn't like and is afraid to look deeper into himself and wants to forget or not face. He's stubborn and self-destructive to himself, as well as was the patriarch that pushed away most of his family from ever wanting to deal with him.

There's more you can say for each scene in the film, but the fun thing about The Straight Story is when you realize Alvin's straight-forward narrative isn't true and he's one hell of an unreliable narrator with a lot of double meanings in what he says and clues to things he leaves out mentioning through the film, contradictions to what he tells different people, and themings you may begin to notice when you begin to view the movie in the more crooked way than it demonstrates itself.

Really interesting points, I always suspected there was more under the surface. My ranking still wouldn't change really due to the straightforward structure of the film which I find generally less interesting than his other works (bar Elephant Man which is elevated by the incredible performances) but I'll definitely rewatch Straight Story and try to keep this dissection in mind.

 

[Mengetsu]

some hooligan vandalized this advertisement in the NYC subway.

God NYC subways are just the pits. I hate taking them most of time. I wonder what tourist think when it's not like the movies lol. That's funny though.

Spoiler

You did it didn't you? It's OK if you did =)

 

[31GhostsIV]

The agonising wait for episode five continues.

 

[Kayhan]

The agonising wait for episode five continues.

Mr. Crackpots.

 

[gun_haver]

The other downside is special effects. Some of them are so laughably bad that they take me out of scenes completely. What could have been effective and creepy scenes come across as goofy because of the bad effects. I wonder how much of this was intentional.

I'm pretty sure it's 100% intentional. Anybody could look at some of the effects, in the current world, and immediately say 'that doesn't look realistic' and go to delete it, except for Dave cutting in and stopping them. It's stylistic.

 

[brandonh83]

I like the bad effects at least at the casino. I didn't think anything else was too bad.

 

[Yamibito]

I can't stop thinking about this goddamn season so far. It's surpassed what I thought was coming in so many ways, and it's just dug its way into my mind. My first thoughts after watching the premiere was that the effects aren't great, and that it's far too slow, but looking back I love it even more. After watching 3 and 4, I've fallen in love with this and have such high hopes for the rest of the season. I honestly think this could be David Lynch's finest work.

Spoiler

The start of the third episode really caught me off-guard at first and I wasn't feeling it with the edits, but that part has haunted me ever since. The music, the banging on the door, the weird edits, it's just so mesmerizing. I've had dreams about it, and the first thought was that it reminded me of a recurring nightmare I've had in which time keeps looping and I can't move forward.

No one does this kinda stuff better than David, and I'm so fucking excited to see where the rest of the season goes.

 

[Moff]

of course the bad effects are intentional, all of them 100%
do you think Lynch is an amateur and/or a buffoon?

 

[HotHamBoy]

Rewatched FWWM and there's a lot of issues with how that movie is put together. Lots of great scenes but terrible flow.

I think it's one if his worst movies, tbh.

Definitely worth watching as it does seem to play a big role in this new season.

Also, I want to see the black lodge characters that only appeared in FWWM make a return.

Mulholland Drive is basically a redo of Lost Highway, which Lynch himself considers a failure.

 

[Fantastical]

Rewatched ep 4.

Spoiler

For whatever reason the Lucy and Andy scenes were a lot better for me this time and Wally was even better the second time around. I still want my old Coop back though... hope we get there soon!

 

[Menome]

Caught up with Episodes 3 &4 this evening, as I didn't want a two-week wait for Episode 5.

Wowsers. That scene at the very start of Episode 3 was phenomenal, with that unexpected cameo from

Spoiler

Don S. Davis

and aftewards seeing

Spoiler

Cooper's bewildered journey back into civilisation

was quite affecting as someone who's had to see a relative suffering from a combination of PTSD and dementia.

I'm glad to see that

Spoiler

Bobby

has made a proper man of himself, and thanks to The Secret History of Twin Peaks, I was prepared for the fact that

Spoiler

Sheriff Truman is Franklin, Harry's otherwise-unmentioned brother

.

Having read that, I am worried about what

Spoiler

Audrey's

condition is like, as the related newspaper-clipping indicated "severe injuries". Time will tell.

EDIT: Oh, and of course Andy and Lucy's son is

Spoiler

Michael Cera

. Perfect casting.

 

[Grenouille]

The opinion I had of Fire Walk with Me was that the first half was great, but the second half just seemed like retreading old ground. Even if it showed a new perspective, it didn't seem too relevant, just extra material.

 

[Fancy Clown]

The opinion I had of Fire Walk with Me was that the first half was great, but the second half just seemed like retreading old ground. Even if it showed a new perspective, it didn't seem too relevant, just extra material.

I thought it did a great job of exploring Laura as a character and humanizing her. She's so important to the show, but we only ever really feel for her based on other people's sorrow. It might not feel as crucial since like you said it's not really anything new in terms of plot, but as a character story I think it's pretty powerful.