Lost Highway (1997)

The film starts. You're careening down a dark road lit only by your headlights, David Bowie blasting as you see names like Gary Busey and Richard Pryor, then "Directed by David Lynch". You know you're in for something great. The first film in Lynch's thematic trilogy (we can call it the "Prisoners of the Mind" or "Fuck Narrative" trilogy) that continues with Mulholland Dr. and Inland Empire, Lost Highway was the film that transformed Lynch from a director of dark, indie quirk to one of the medium's greatest masters and innovators.

Saxophonist Fred Madison (Bill Pullman) becomes president and has to save the world from an Alien inva...just kidding. He's a saxophonist in LA who starts to receive mysterious tapes indicating that someone is breaking into his house. Then there is Pete Dayton (Balthazar Getty), a mechanic for the shady Mr. Eddie (Robert Loggia). These two men will come to find themselves in very similar circumstances, connected by a, well there's no other word for it, a Lynchian cast of characters and events that is sure to change the course of their lives.

Lost Highway isn't likely to convert any Lynch haters out there. The film is filled with mise-en-scene and archetypes that are distinctly Lynch; red curtains, strobe lights, femme fatales, the Angelo Badalamenti score, but there is something oddly accessible about this movie as well. From the outset you are pulled into a world that offers just enough logic and mystery to keep you on the line. It doesn't take long before the hook pierces your cheek and you cant escape, you must know what the hell is going on and where everything fits in. But alas, one watches a Lynch film not for the moment when the brakes screech to a halt and the constraints lift up, but so that they may be dragged along on a ride unlike anything else. A

Other semi-related thoughts:

-hahaha, Rammstein

-It seems like these movies are a test drive (in terms of bold ambition) for the film that inevitably follows; Lost Highway for Mulholland Dr. (we're leaving out The Straight Story here) and Mulholland Dr. for Inland Empire. God only knows how David intends to top that.

-His next feature is rumored to be a CG kid's flick, Snootworld. My dream was a prophecy! (even though these rumors have been around since 2003)