This film is "arty" in that it is about cursed artwork, framed against the background of the impossibly snobby and pretentious world of art dealing and art criticism in Miami. But it's not arty in a David Lynch or Darren Aronofsky sort of way. A lot of the dialogue was well-scripted, but overall it didn't live up to the hype. I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I had hoped to .... although Jake Gyllenhaal was pretty buff and easy on the eyes.
Reviews
10 Reviews
Inland Empire
(2006)
David Lynch takes the art of film making to a whole new level.
4 January 2014
The first time I watched INLAND EMPIRE, there would be times during the nearly 3-hour running time that I would have to get up to go pee or grab a beer or something. So I would stop the film ... and find myself unwilling to move. Instead I would gaze up at the mysterious TV lamp casting its glow on the wall, the ominous folding doors concealing the den next to the living room ... and suddenly my comfortable home environment felt vaguely threatening.
Last night I began watching INLAND EMPIRE again, getting about halfway through the film before it was time to go to bed. Having plunged through it once already, I found myself free to simply watch rather than analyze, to simply listen to the exquisitely written dialogue rather than trying to puzzle out every nuance. And I found the film moving along a lot more quickly than the first time around.
And make no mistake: INLAND EMPIRE is a lot to digest. I'm still working on it. But after two days and some additional viewing, I find myself appreciating the film much, MUCH more. The first time I watched it, I thought to myself, "There is a story here, but it is told in extremely unconventional terms." And now I think there are several stories here that exist in a kind of orbital resonance and sharing themes of loss, guilt, and regret.
Oddly enough, spinning like a neutron star (or perhaps an old acetate record) at the core of this film is a Polish gypsy folk tale cum movie script so cursed that it has the ability to suck its actors and characters into other realities and identities, shuffling them around mercilessly, and in the process causing us, as members of the audience, to question our own grip on what is real and what is fiction.
There is the story of Nikki Grace, a veteran Hollywood actress with a chance to reclaim the limelight with the role of a lifetime. She ultimately falls victim to the aforementioned curse, losing both her identify and her marital fidelity. But how real is Nikki herself? She might in fact be nothing more than a DREAM of stardom, a fantasy concocted by a doomed Hollywood prostitute. In this regard INLAND EMPIRE shares some of the themes previously explored in David Lynch's previous film, "Mulholland Drive."
(Bill Macy, in a VERY brief appearance as a television announcer, utters what could possibly be the most telling line in the film, saying that Hollywood is "where DREAMS become STARS, and STARS become DREAMS!")
There are other stories at work here: The prostitution ring in Hollywood may parallel a similar racket in Poland. We are teased with scenes from a Polish film that ultimately went uncompleted, the same film being remade with Nikki Grace (played brilliantly by Laura Dern) and Devon Burke (Justin Theroux). There are cryptic references throughout the film to something called "axonn.n" ... which, according to the first spoken words in INLAND EMPIRE, is the longest radio play in history. And then there are the rabbits (Trapped? Caged?) used as the films most surreal device.
But to hell with all that. Ultimately what's really most important about INLAND EMPIRE is the art of filmmaking. Cinema is most often used to tell stories in the simplest, most conventional terms, just as oil paint on canvas is most often used to portray people, landscapes, and bowls of fruit. But both painting and cinema can be used in far more adventurous and experimental ways, even if such efforts are not commercially viable. I doubt that Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel made "Un Chien Andalou" in hopes that it would be a big box office smash; they were more interested in expanding the artistic potential of film, and if they challenged and confounded the viewer in the process, so much the better. And throughout the history of filmmaking there have been a great many other directors that have pushed the envelope of the medium in their own ways, whether through storytelling or visual imagery.
With INLAND EMPIRE, I think David Lynch has gone back to his roots, forsaking the interference of big studio executives and marketing his film on his terms. As everyone knows by know, he is notoriously reticent to discuss the film's "meaning." But if all he really wanted to do was blur the distinction between fantasy and reality, and in the process make his viewers become just a little unhinged ... well, I think he succeeded in spades. Few films that I can think of have crept into my mind so tenaciously. And when some reviewers dismiss INLAND EMPIRE as pretentious nonsense, all I can think of is the old curmudgeon who looks at a Jackson Pollock painting and sneers, "My four-year-old granddaughter could do better than that!"
Last night I began watching INLAND EMPIRE again, getting about halfway through the film before it was time to go to bed. Having plunged through it once already, I found myself free to simply watch rather than analyze, to simply listen to the exquisitely written dialogue rather than trying to puzzle out every nuance. And I found the film moving along a lot more quickly than the first time around.
And make no mistake: INLAND EMPIRE is a lot to digest. I'm still working on it. But after two days and some additional viewing, I find myself appreciating the film much, MUCH more. The first time I watched it, I thought to myself, "There is a story here, but it is told in extremely unconventional terms." And now I think there are several stories here that exist in a kind of orbital resonance and sharing themes of loss, guilt, and regret.
Oddly enough, spinning like a neutron star (or perhaps an old acetate record) at the core of this film is a Polish gypsy folk tale cum movie script so cursed that it has the ability to suck its actors and characters into other realities and identities, shuffling them around mercilessly, and in the process causing us, as members of the audience, to question our own grip on what is real and what is fiction.
There is the story of Nikki Grace, a veteran Hollywood actress with a chance to reclaim the limelight with the role of a lifetime. She ultimately falls victim to the aforementioned curse, losing both her identify and her marital fidelity. But how real is Nikki herself? She might in fact be nothing more than a DREAM of stardom, a fantasy concocted by a doomed Hollywood prostitute. In this regard INLAND EMPIRE shares some of the themes previously explored in David Lynch's previous film, "Mulholland Drive."
(Bill Macy, in a VERY brief appearance as a television announcer, utters what could possibly be the most telling line in the film, saying that Hollywood is "where DREAMS become STARS, and STARS become DREAMS!")
There are other stories at work here: The prostitution ring in Hollywood may parallel a similar racket in Poland. We are teased with scenes from a Polish film that ultimately went uncompleted, the same film being remade with Nikki Grace (played brilliantly by Laura Dern) and Devon Burke (Justin Theroux). There are cryptic references throughout the film to something called "axonn.n" ... which, according to the first spoken words in INLAND EMPIRE, is the longest radio play in history. And then there are the rabbits (Trapped? Caged?) used as the films most surreal device.
But to hell with all that. Ultimately what's really most important about INLAND EMPIRE is the art of filmmaking. Cinema is most often used to tell stories in the simplest, most conventional terms, just as oil paint on canvas is most often used to portray people, landscapes, and bowls of fruit. But both painting and cinema can be used in far more adventurous and experimental ways, even if such efforts are not commercially viable. I doubt that Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel made "Un Chien Andalou" in hopes that it would be a big box office smash; they were more interested in expanding the artistic potential of film, and if they challenged and confounded the viewer in the process, so much the better. And throughout the history of filmmaking there have been a great many other directors that have pushed the envelope of the medium in their own ways, whether through storytelling or visual imagery.
With INLAND EMPIRE, I think David Lynch has gone back to his roots, forsaking the interference of big studio executives and marketing his film on his terms. As everyone knows by know, he is notoriously reticent to discuss the film's "meaning." But if all he really wanted to do was blur the distinction between fantasy and reality, and in the process make his viewers become just a little unhinged ... well, I think he succeeded in spades. Few films that I can think of have crept into my mind so tenaciously. And when some reviewers dismiss INLAND EMPIRE as pretentious nonsense, all I can think of is the old curmudgeon who looks at a Jackson Pollock painting and sneers, "My four-year-old granddaughter could do better than that!"
A really mixed bag. That's why I'm giving it a "5."
11 April 2013
I used to watch The Outer Limits with my dad when I was a small child back in the early 1960s. Most of the time it scared the hell out of me. And this particular episode, "Production and Decay of Strange Particles" was no exception. Two things about this episode always stood out for me: (1) The scientists in radiation suits who were suddenly taken over by glowing electric-arc beings, which I found extremely creepy, and (2) the nuclear explosion (and implosion) at the end.
In recent years I learned that this episode is considered by many Outer Limits aficionados to be one of the weakest in the series, if not the worst ... and I found this puzzling, since the episode stuck out so strongly in my memories of childhood. So when this particular episode was broadcast recently on our local "My-Z" channel, I decided to watch it with a more mature and critical eye.
First of all, some context: "Production and Decay of Strange Particles" was made at a time when physicists were really starting to peer beyond the Newtonian world and into the realm of subatomic particles and quantum theory. The episode makes mention of "quasi-stellar" objects, which had only been discovered a scant few years earlier. Scientists were beginning to confront the fact that the Universe was a far stranger place than hitherto imagined, that there might be other realities beyond our own ... so naturally the producers of The Outer Limits decided to speculate about what might happen if high-energy particle physicists cracked that doorway between such realities just a bit too wide.
Watching this episode reminded me of how people have raised nightmare scenarios about the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and how it might create a miniature black hole that would suck up the Earth. I was also reminded of a fascinating hard sci-fi novel by John Cramer called "Einstein's Bridge" in which an experiment at such a facility allows a hive-like civilization from another Universe to invade our own world. These fears are, in a way, prefigured in this old episode of The Outer Limits, and it is the hard physics here that makes the episode a refreshing change from the usual weird creatures and spaceships.
Unfortunately, this episode is SEVERELY hampered by melodrama, enough nonsensical techno-jargon to choke a horse, a slender plot and script that have to be padded quite a lot to expand the episode to 50 minutes, and worst of all, some shameless scenery-chewing by George Macready as the tormented Dr. Marshall.
In recent years I learned that this episode is considered by many Outer Limits aficionados to be one of the weakest in the series, if not the worst ... and I found this puzzling, since the episode stuck out so strongly in my memories of childhood. So when this particular episode was broadcast recently on our local "My-Z" channel, I decided to watch it with a more mature and critical eye.
First of all, some context: "Production and Decay of Strange Particles" was made at a time when physicists were really starting to peer beyond the Newtonian world and into the realm of subatomic particles and quantum theory. The episode makes mention of "quasi-stellar" objects, which had only been discovered a scant few years earlier. Scientists were beginning to confront the fact that the Universe was a far stranger place than hitherto imagined, that there might be other realities beyond our own ... so naturally the producers of The Outer Limits decided to speculate about what might happen if high-energy particle physicists cracked that doorway between such realities just a bit too wide.
Watching this episode reminded me of how people have raised nightmare scenarios about the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and how it might create a miniature black hole that would suck up the Earth. I was also reminded of a fascinating hard sci-fi novel by John Cramer called "Einstein's Bridge" in which an experiment at such a facility allows a hive-like civilization from another Universe to invade our own world. These fears are, in a way, prefigured in this old episode of The Outer Limits, and it is the hard physics here that makes the episode a refreshing change from the usual weird creatures and spaceships.
Unfortunately, this episode is SEVERELY hampered by melodrama, enough nonsensical techno-jargon to choke a horse, a slender plot and script that have to be padded quite a lot to expand the episode to 50 minutes, and worst of all, some shameless scenery-chewing by George Macready as the tormented Dr. Marshall.
Armageddon
(1998)
The most RIDICULOUS movie of the year!!!
7 June 2005
"Armageddon" went head-to-head against "Deep Impact" in the theaters, and I chose to see "Deep Impact" first, since it seemed to be a more thoughtful, serious look at the possibility of a comet impacting Earth. After surviving the disappointment of "Deep Impact," I thought, "How bad could Armageddon possibly be? Sure, the science might be bad, but it's probably just a lot of rollicking good fun." How WRONG I was! Apparently the producers of this movie felt there was no need to speak with technical or scientific consultants; I can't imagine anyone but male high school dropouts enjoying this film. Sure, there's a lot of explosions, flashing lights, Aerosmith, cheesy sets, flag-waving, still more Aerosmith, and clouds of testosterone pouring off the screen, and if that's your cup of tea, go get this movie. But if you've got an IQ of at least 90, avoid "Armageddon" like the plague.
Fargo
(1996)
It's a true story! Just ask Mike Yanagita.
29 January 2005
Warning: Spoilers
The titles at the beginning of "Fargo" indicate that the film is based on a real murder case. The clue to whether this is true or not, I think, comes during Marge Gunderson's lunch with Mike Yanagita, a guy who attended the same high school as Margie. Mike's tale is woeful indeed ... but as we learn later, it's all an elaborate ruse. The same can be said for "Fargo," but who cares? This is one movie I can watch over and over and NEVER get tired of. I found the "Special Edition" DVD at my local grocery store for just $10 and wondered, "Is this DVD so cheap because so few people want to take a chance on this movie?" THAT would truly be a shame.
Hero
(2002)
Some of the most astonishing cinematography I've ever seen.
15 November 2004
Some reviewers have suggested that the storyline of this movie is a bit plodding and portentous, and I'd be willing to allow that. But even if this film had absolutely no plot to speak of, I would have considered the money I plunked down yesterday to see "Hero" to be money well-spent, because I have been witness to some of the most achingly beautiful film-making I've ever seen. As in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," the characters here fly through the air and dance across water, but "Crouching Tiger" surely could have benefited from the sublime camera eye of "Hero." One scene of swordplay in particular that takes place in a grove of trees amongst swirling yellow leaves almost stopped my heart in my chest: It was that gorgeous. And yes, there is a plot also, one that involves various assassins with names like Sky, and Broken Sword, and Flying Snow. I have to admit that the tales and counter-tales told were a bit confusing at first, but by the time the film is over, all the pieces have fallen into place, and this chapter of ancient Chinese history has assumed a truly mythical quality. At a time when movie theaters show a lot of utter dreck, we ought to be supporting movies like this.
The Mummy
(1959)
Perfect MST3K Fodder
9 October 2003
Too bad "Mystery Science Theatre 3000" isn't around anymore; they'd have a BALL with this. My partner and I caught it the other night on Turner Classic Movies, and we were dubbing in funny dialogue left and right. I love horror movies, I have a healthy respect for Hammer horror, Christopher Lee & Peter Cushing, etc. ... but what can you say about a movie that makes Egypt's Valley of the Kings look like a tropical rainforest, complete with birdsongs? A location shot probably would've been too expensive, but a JUNGLE? Not to mention that audiences in 1959 probably came out of the theaters convinced that Muslims were good for nothing but riding camels and re-animating the dead. I try to keep such films in perspective, but I really had too hard a time taking this one seriously.
Joshua
(I) (2002)
Jesus Lite
23 April 2002
Just got back from visiting friends in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, which apparently is one of the few cities where this flick is playing. The wife of one of my friends there insisted we go see "Joshua," perhaps thinking this movie would be good for our souls and everlasting salvation. I don't know... the acting was pedestrian at best. The message boiled down to this: "All you need is love. God is love. Therefore, all you need is God." Very little drama. And what is it with the music??? During almost every scene, some contemporary Christian group was selected to play in the background. Overall this movie could've been a "very special" episode of "Touched By An Angel," or the Monday Night Movie of the Week on PAX. Dull dull dull.
A sublime, almost OPERATIC Chinese fable.
26 February 2001
My partner & I went to see this film yesterday at the Marquee Cinemas here in Charleston, West Virginia, and we were warned at the box office that it was in Chinese with subtitles, therefore no refunds. Well, DUH. One of the reasons I wanted to see "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was BECAUSE it had subtitles. As a matter of principal I probably WOULDN'T see it if it was dubbed into English, and if I were Ang Lee I would NOT include a dubbed version on the DVD package. If more Americans could get over their parochial attitudes toward foreign languages, we'd probably have more exquisite films like this in theaters.
"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is an absolutely exhilarating film caught somewhere between the realms of reality and mythology, kind of like Wagner, sort of like "Star Wars." It is also a much different movie than Americans are accustomed to, and so much the better. Don't be put off by having to read the subtitles at the bottom of the frame; they are very easy to follow. I'm not a fan of Kung Fu movies, but I have to admit that the fight sequences were spectacular. As for the much-discussed suspension of certain gravitational laws in the film, please remember: It's a FABLE, and as such it's no worse than films about talking pigs. And the very ending of the film was truly sublime.
The ONLY thing that Greg & I found utterly laughable was the song "A Love Before Time," sung during the closing credits by Asian pop star CoCo Lee. It's almost as though the producers felt they HAD to come up with some kind of CD single that they could mail out to top-40 radio stations to generate interest. It was completely unnecessary and utterly incongruous to the rest of the movie. For its part the score of this movie was wonderful, with pulse-quickening percussion work during the fight sequences and Yo-Yo Ma's sensitive cello solos during some of the more dramatic moments.
See "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" in the theater if at all possible. This is one of those films that TV screens simply do not do justice to.
"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is an absolutely exhilarating film caught somewhere between the realms of reality and mythology, kind of like Wagner, sort of like "Star Wars." It is also a much different movie than Americans are accustomed to, and so much the better. Don't be put off by having to read the subtitles at the bottom of the frame; they are very easy to follow. I'm not a fan of Kung Fu movies, but I have to admit that the fight sequences were spectacular. As for the much-discussed suspension of certain gravitational laws in the film, please remember: It's a FABLE, and as such it's no worse than films about talking pigs. And the very ending of the film was truly sublime.
The ONLY thing that Greg & I found utterly laughable was the song "A Love Before Time," sung during the closing credits by Asian pop star CoCo Lee. It's almost as though the producers felt they HAD to come up with some kind of CD single that they could mail out to top-40 radio stations to generate interest. It was completely unnecessary and utterly incongruous to the rest of the movie. For its part the score of this movie was wonderful, with pulse-quickening percussion work during the fight sequences and Yo-Yo Ma's sensitive cello solos during some of the more dramatic moments.
See "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" in the theater if at all possible. This is one of those films that TV screens simply do not do justice to.
Left Behind: The Movie
(2000)
Waiting for the Rapture 'til the cows come home
5 February 2001
Never before have the motives of the producers of a motion picture been more transparent. Let's see: FIRST, they get every willing televangelist to hype this film as the greatest thing since sliced white bread. NEXT, they encourage as many fundamentalist Christians as possible to purchase copies of the film so as to recoup its paltry production costs and pump up its advertising budget. And FINALLY, when the film hits the theaters, get as many said Christians as possible to see it yet again, bus them into the multiplexes if necessary, NOT on the merits of the film itself, but because a #1 box office opening will be seen as some sort of profound spiritual victory.
But THAT, of course, won't be enough. I imagine that any film critic with the audacity to give "Left Behind" anything short of a glowing review will be deemed "anti-Christian."
Of course, this shamelessly manipulative marketing campaign shouldn't surprise anyone. It is, after all, good old fashioned Capitalism at work. What DOES surprise me is how many people have been suckered into the whole "Left Behind" mindset. As someone who tries to balance his spiritual beliefs with some sense of reason and rationality, it leaves me scratching my head. It would appear that there are many, MANY people who actually believe that sometime in the near future a "Rapture" is going to occur, and that millions of people all over the Earth are going to simultaneously vanish INTO THIN AIR. What kind of reality, I wonder, are these people living in? Is this "Rapture" something they actually believe in, or is it something they fervently WANT to believe in? And when they reach the end of their lives and realize this "Rapture" has not occurred, will they be disappointed and disillusioned? Will there still be people 100 years from now insisting that the "Rapture" is imminent?
In a way, I almost wish that such an event would occur! What an interesting day that would be! What would be even more interesting is if the Apocalypse were to occur in a more spectacular fashion, not in the anthropological sense the authors of the "Left Behind" series have portrayed, but as more of a Stephen Spielberg production, with boiling clouds, trumpets, angels descending out of the sky, Moon turned to blood, the whole nine yards. Imagine coming to the realization that it was all coming true, just as the evangelists had been warning for years, and that there was something more awesome than just the cold, hard, physical reality we inhabit. Wouldn't THAT be something???
Yet in the final analysis, it's that cold, hard, physical reality that I will content myself with. My life is not so meaningless that I need the fear of a "Rapture" and the "End Times" to make sense of it all ... nor do I need Heaven or Hell to bribe or scare me into behaving decently, thank you very much.
But THAT, of course, won't be enough. I imagine that any film critic with the audacity to give "Left Behind" anything short of a glowing review will be deemed "anti-Christian."
Of course, this shamelessly manipulative marketing campaign shouldn't surprise anyone. It is, after all, good old fashioned Capitalism at work. What DOES surprise me is how many people have been suckered into the whole "Left Behind" mindset. As someone who tries to balance his spiritual beliefs with some sense of reason and rationality, it leaves me scratching my head. It would appear that there are many, MANY people who actually believe that sometime in the near future a "Rapture" is going to occur, and that millions of people all over the Earth are going to simultaneously vanish INTO THIN AIR. What kind of reality, I wonder, are these people living in? Is this "Rapture" something they actually believe in, or is it something they fervently WANT to believe in? And when they reach the end of their lives and realize this "Rapture" has not occurred, will they be disappointed and disillusioned? Will there still be people 100 years from now insisting that the "Rapture" is imminent?
In a way, I almost wish that such an event would occur! What an interesting day that would be! What would be even more interesting is if the Apocalypse were to occur in a more spectacular fashion, not in the anthropological sense the authors of the "Left Behind" series have portrayed, but as more of a Stephen Spielberg production, with boiling clouds, trumpets, angels descending out of the sky, Moon turned to blood, the whole nine yards. Imagine coming to the realization that it was all coming true, just as the evangelists had been warning for years, and that there was something more awesome than just the cold, hard, physical reality we inhabit. Wouldn't THAT be something???
Yet in the final analysis, it's that cold, hard, physical reality that I will content myself with. My life is not so meaningless that I need the fear of a "Rapture" and the "End Times" to make sense of it all ... nor do I need Heaven or Hell to bribe or scare me into behaving decently, thank you very much.
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