Thursday, October 12, 2006

Lost Highway


(1997) ****

At a party he meets the scariest looking man that has ever lived. If nothing else, it answers the question “yes, but can Bill Pullman actually act?” Angelo Badalamenti’s haunting score meshes beautifully with some of the best work from NIN, Lou Reed, Marilyn Manson, and David Bowie.

The mechanic is released and he gets romantically involved with the wife of a bad-tempered mobster.

Perhaps David Lynch intentionally distanced himself from the mainstream after being disenchanted with the success and sudden death of Twin Peaks. After Pullman is arrested for the murder of his wife, he is inexplicably replaced in solitary confinement with a young mechanic played by Balthazar Getty. The story goes more or less like this:

But I thought that Dick Morant was dead? Both of the femme fatales are played by Patricia Arquette but are they the same character?

The spectacular soundtrack is not only worth mentioning, it’s worth purchasing if you don’t already own it. While somewhat true, (an easy explanation as to what exactly happens in the movie cannot be found), it ultimately triumphs by penetrating and unleashing fear from the furthest depths of the mind.

This ghoulish creep is apparently capable of being in two places at once.

David Lynch’s Lost Highway is often dismissed as self indulgent or incoherent. Are these seemingly separate stories somehow intertwined?

Bill Pullman plays a jazz musician who suspects that his wife is cheating on him.

6 comments:

Octopunk said...

I love this movie! It's the single best example of setting a mood without bothering with a linear story. I was able to decipher Mulholland Drive to my satisfaction, but this thing? Nuh way. That's not a trick, of course, there's any number of movies we see that confuse and bewilder -- but this one strikes that fine balance that makes it work.

It reminds you that cinema is an art form.

50PageMcGee said...

david lynch is better than almost anyone out there at tapping directly into veins of raw emotion. his more distant work plays out like a medley of emotions.

best moment in this one, i think, is the look on gary busey's face when balthazar getty asks him what happened on the night of the switch.

Johnny Sweatpants said...

Ahh. There's the mug I was hoping for, thanks!

I've watched this one more times than I'd care to admit. Every time I go in with the notion that maybe I'm a little more perceptive and I'll be able to uncover some profound meaning. Every time I give up. And every time I shrug afterwards and admit that it really doesn't matter because the movie is incredible!

Johnny Sweatpants said...

I wrote a review and then cut and pasted everything to be clever but it came out stupid. See, it's not easy to be David Lynch, even in jest!

50PageMcGee said...

ohhhhhh

JPX said...

I've never seen this but God, that picture is really scary.

Make it stop.

Malevolent

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