I ♥ Inland Empire

What has Laura Dern so confused?

Is it that she's in INLAND EMPIRE, or that she's watching it?

How about both?

I should say two things up front: 1) God, I love this film. 2) I'm not a Lynch-pin. I've seen Mullholland Drive (loved!), Blue Velvet (liked!) and Lost Highway (thought was cool when I was in high school because I had no fucking idea what was going on). Oh yeah, and Dune, which I love for reasons that have more to do with Frank Herbert than David Lynch. I haven't seen Eraserhead or Wild at Heart or even a single episode of Twin Peaks, although now I want to absorb them all as a result of my infatuation with INLAND EMPIRE (the caps are Lynch's -- that's how he prefers the film to be referred to, and who am I to argue?). The point is that I'm not coming at you as some proselytizing cult member all, "Lynch is God! Drink the coffee!" I've never even had his coffee. Although, again, now I kind of want to.

INLAND EMPIRE, which was released on DVD last week, may or may not be about several things including moviemaking, prostitution, white slavery, time's malleability, mundane and anthropomorphic bunnies (as featured on a sitcom that I can only pray was called The Bundanes), Poland, women's intuition, Justin Theroux's devastating beauty, confusing blood for condiments, prostitution on crack and "The Loco-motion" by Little Eva, not Kylie Minogue (though if you squint your brain really hard, it can be about Kylie, too). At the Venice Film Festival premiere, Laura Dern, the anchor of Lynch's whims, said of the two-and-a-half year shoot that found her playing the roles actress (possibly) Nikki Grace and fictional character (possibly) Susan Blue: "The truth is I didn't know who I was playing - and I still don't know. I'm looking forward to seeing the film tonight to learn more." Her sense of humor intertwined with her sense of reality is fitting, really, considering the movie she's referring to. INLAND EMPIRE is sometimes hilarious and often scary, but mostly it's disorienting. You need to look no further than Laura Dern's almost permanently furrowed brow to see it:

It's not just the audience and the actors who are confused -- the fucking characters can't get a grasp on what's going on and they're living this shit. Or are they?

Again, I ask: What has Laura Dern so confused? But this time I come armed with answers.

The following things are confusing to Laura Dern and/or her character(s) in INLAND EMPIRE (click the links for pictorial evidence):

1. This clearly insane, Tagina-esque lady who asks her if the script of the movie she just signed to is about marriage (Clearly insane, yet prescient. Funny how that works.)
2. Tangina-esque's assertion that, "If it was tomorrow, you would be sitting over there" (But what of the light? Should she go to the light? Huh?!?! Should she, Tangina-esque?)
3. Harry Dean Stanton's yammering about dogs' reasoning ability (Maybe they could help figure this shit out, then.)
4. Justin Theroux's possible flirtiness (Her exterior says, "Huh?" but inside she's swooning.)
5. The realization that she's being filmed (What kind of an actress is she?!)
6. The symbols, "AXXNN" (That means "action," right? See, originally, this was supposed to be a porno, but Behind the Chalk-Covered Door just takes too long to get to the point.)
7. Herself, behind the scenes (Fair enough!)
8. A lamp (Does that thing have a dimmer on it?)
9. Creepily lit hookers (Imagine how confusing they'd be with proper lighting!)
10. Snowy Poland (maybe) and some hookers that have accompanied her on her whisked-away journey (It's like The Wiz, but poorer and whiter. Also, I'm not positive that the bulk of her confusion here isn't the result of those American Apparel shorts.)
11. A cigarette that has burned all the way down in an ashtray (That fascinates me, too. If you got 'em, let 'em smoke themselves is what I say.)
12. Hookers doing "The Loco-motion" (And seriously, why shouldn't they?)
13. Girls who might be hookers (It must be weird being at a place where people don't come on you.)
14. Guests at a barbeque who probably aren't hookers (But, hey, you never know. This is, after all, Lynch.)
15. Those same guests, after finding out that they are "group that performs at traveling shows in the Baltic region" (Traveling sex shows! See, darlin', they are whores. And see, everyone, I'll reference Showgirls until the referencin' region of my brain burns out.)
16. Her crazed self, who creeps up to the camera like she's Björk and then assaults it like she's Aphex Twin (Digital video and inadvertent IDM references? The late '90s are so chic that they won't be in for another 10 years. Lynch is trailblazing once again!)
17. Some strung-out lady, who asks, "Do you know the man who lives here?" (Haha, I was totally going to leave the joke at, "Mary Steenburgen, that you?" But it really is fucking Mary Steenburgen! Amazing.)
18. A man with a light bulb in his mouth (He's got the wrong end in, but whatever!)
19. Being the center of a malfunctioning light show (This is why your mother warned you to never put light bulbs in your mouth.)
20. Herself, on screen (Again, I wonder, what kind of an actress is she?)
21. The number 47 (It is, at the very least, more entertaining than The Number 21.)

Jokes aside, what's going on above is, I think, why I love INLAND EMPIRE so much. Lynch's principal character is right there with the audience trying to sort things out, and I find so appealing -- it's like having a friend who stares blankly at you for just under three hours. Whether it's intentional or not (that Lynch's intentions are so oblique so much of the time make his work inherently review-proof, as identifying intention is, like, the first thing to do when critically analyzing something, even if you go on to reject that intention), what Lynch is doing is answering the criticism that his films are about being disorienting by making a film about being disoriented. If it's a true sign of a half-grasp on a piece of art to call it a meditation, consider my fist happily flimsy here: INLAND EMPIRE is a meditation on disorientation. It's not exactly about a dream, although it does brilliantly use an essential quality of dreaming to move its disjointed action along: the chain-reaction quality of suggestion in dreamland. You know how sometimes you'll be dreaming and you'll think of something happening or someone will say something and then it becomes a reality, but you still can't quite put together the cause-and-effect nature of the events? If you could, it'd be a lucid dream and you'd presumably be able to, you know, take charge and do whatever you wanted. Fly or fuck Justin Theroux on his back, for example. Dern's character(s) never make those connections and, as you can see above, remain decidedly less than lucid.

And there's more meta where that came from. Most of the positive reviews of INLAND EMPIRE suggest entering the (now home-) theater waving your white flag -- surrendering yourself to the fact that you're going to watch something that does not pander to logic as you know it. It's been said in so many different ways, but LA Weekly's Scott Foundas says it particularly nicely: "The thrill of INLAND EMPIRE lies, I think, in surrendering yourself to its epic weirdness, falling under its spell and allowing Lynch to gradually lead you back into the light." Of course, there's no such thing as consciously falling under a spell, and while there is plenty to be seduced by here on an emotional level, I think the real suggestion is to enjoy this as cinema, not A-to-B storytelling. At this point, if you're watching a Lynch movie (especially one about actresses' identities and Hollywood), you know it's going to be disjointed. You can invest yourself emotionally all you want (though I never suggest doing that completely, lest you become attached to celluloid), but it's important to check your logic if you want to remain unangry. It's important to understand that the scenes, which seem not to progress but freely associate, are just that: freely associated scenes.

And, looking at INLAND EMPIRE as not just a movie, but a David Lynch movie that's meta before any interpretation even hits it (it is, after all, in however large or small a way, about an actress who's cast in a movie), I can't help but wonder if this film isn't somehow an overall comment on film in general, specifically the ever-pertinent topic of women in film. The film's subtitle, which appeared on the posters and on the DVD box is, "A Woman in Trouble," and that's as succinct a description of INLAND EMPIRE as you're likely to encounter. If what unfurls during INLAND EMPIRE's 2 hour 59 minute running time (it's literally 20 seconds away from being 3 hours, which is the time at which most people would say a movie becomes too long -- is that some kind of confrontational commentary, too?) is basically a series of Lynch's whims, then Lynch is the culprit here, the force that's put his character in jeopardy. Is this some kind of comment about the way male-dominated Hollywood treats its talent? The fact that Dern's characters may be a whore or whores could also speak of the depiction of women in the media (is that, underneath all the layers, ultimately what women are to the men who control them?).

At the very least, it comments on the quality of roles that are out there while providing an amazing one that's so multi-layered and humanely complex that no matter what's piled on, you're never less then aware that buckling under this weight is a real live human. There's this amazing 30 seconds in INLAND EMPIRE's third act that I actually uploaded to YouTube yesterday only to have it taken down by Lynch within 24 hours (I really didn't think he was that tech savvy). At the point in the film, fucked-up shit is de rigueur and you worry that the crease in Laura Dern's brow is permanent enough to be botox-resistent. (See? Lynch really is torturing her! How ever will she get work with permanent facial lines?!?) Her character has somehow ended up on a dark, seedy L.A. street and is surrounded by the hookers that may or may not be her peers. She's kind of still for a second before saying, "I'm a whore." She then crumples up her face and, in a thick tone that could be doing nothing besides mocking everything that's gone on up to this point, says, "Where am I? I'm afr-aaaaid!" It's amazing and hilarious and maybe the key to the whole film -- we don't have to keep repeating, "It's only a movie," when she does it for us.

But I can't say any of this for sure.

What I do know is...

1. I love bunnies.

Especially when their mundane dialogue is made hilarious via a laugh track. Seriously, this is like the most cerebral dumb joke ever:

Bunny: What time is it?
Audience: (Uncontrollable laughter)

It's so absurd that it wind right back around to being straightforward: the laugh track tells you when to laugh. And laugh I do.

2. Laura Dern sometimes sounds like Anna Nicole Smith.

3. Five seconds of screen time for William H. Macy is plenty.

4. This story about this woman's sister, which happens in the film's final stretch, is fucking awesome:

Probably because she's too busy worrying about the hole in her hole!

5.

 

Of course it was.

6.

Mumbling is the only way to talk about INLAND EMPIRE. And, take it from someone with experience: it helps if you ramble those mumbles.

7. Mr. Bill is one of Laura Dern's ancestors.

8. There's a viewer character that watches the action from time to time.

At the end of the film, Laura Dern's character embraces her.

The empathy on both sides is palpable. Either of them could say, "Girl, you won't believe the fucked up shit I just experienced," and be right.

9. This man really has no clue.

10. Did I mention that Laura Dern's really confused?

Ultimately, I'm OK with INLAND EMPIRE meaning whatever it wants to. It's a film that, instead of begging to be viewed while stoned, begs you to view it as a stoner: "That's cool, man. Do your thing." Is it any coincidence that the last line of the movie is, "Suh-weet?"

Comments

[Christina]

I saw the film in the theatre and was confused as hell. I am happy to hear you were too Rich, and embrace it. David Lynch never fails to surprise me. The bunnies creeped me out, I didn't find them amusing, more like a bad acid flashback. Great review, I understand (?) INLAND EMPIRE a little more now.

[svrb]

The bunnies are from a series of 9 installments that I saw as a stand-alone dvd called "Rabbits." Typically Lynchian, impenetrable yet somehow haunting stuff. The rabbits basically keep saying the same few lines over and over again, with some variations, throughout the whole thing. Anyway, I was just excited to see them turn up here. I'll have to check this out when I get a chance.

"Rabbits" link:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0347840/

[Lapo]

"You cannot see it fRRom the RRoad"

[Ross]

I left halfway into it while the husband continued to watch the whole thing. I think my biggest gripe is that I was truly expecting a disjointed narrative going in and thinking I'd quickly bail, but was happily surprised to find some structure, only to have it yanked away halfway through.

My problem with the second half of this movie is the same problem I have with horror movies that start killing off characters from the get-go. If you aren't emotionally invested in the characters, then you don't care what happens to them. Once Laura Dern's initial character went bye-bye, I didn't care what was happening and grew bored very quickly.

[s.]

Run, do not walk, to get your paws on a copy of Wild at Heart. It will provide endless quotes with which to entertain and annoy your friends and pets. Dianne Ladd's got some mad wig and lipstick going on.

[katie w.]

You HAVE to see Wild at Heart! Its camp MADNESS and so awesome. Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern play star-crossed lovers named Sailor and Lula with hot sex scenes, Elvis infatuations and the best crazy mother ever put on film. Rent it and recap it now! How can you resist?!?

You must see Twin Peaks. That shit haunted and thrilled me when I was just a little 13 year old Catholic schoolgirl. (something I'm sure pervy Lynch would appreciate) I love Lynch dearly, although I don't really think he's a god who can do no wrong. I love him more like I would love my favorite eccentric uncle. Seeing INLAND EMPIRE is a joy...it feels like a declaration of independence and a fuck-you to critics everywhere, like my favorite crazy uncle is finally doing exactly what he always wanted to do.

[Lupes]

Justin Theroux is ridiculous hot. Like it's disorienting how hot he is, and ergo appropriate Lynch is using him lately. Saw Strangers with Candy for the first time last weekend and I was SOOO disappointed that his role was only really a cameo. Kept waiting for him to show up again.

Must respectfully disagree with no name above who calls Lynch pervy. Think he's so much about putting his inside dark mind on the outside that he's like the opposite of a perv...he's like almost wholesome to me.

But yes, not get all culty on your ass, but for serious: get the Twin Peaks series but then really the movie is the thing, like (until Mulholland Drive) never have seen anything that so utterly and perfectly captured what it feels like to be in the midst of one of those hyperreal dreams where you are in danger but then also feel like you're...like having some kind of interesting adventure or something.

[Jason]

I would imagine that the film is more palatable as a home-theater experience than it was on the big screen. There's something masochistic about submitting yourself to (just under!) three hours of abstract experimental cinema while sitting in a rickety art-house movie seat. Trust.

With that said, I hereby challenge you to construct a video in which you splice the various shots of Laura Dern's furrowed brow with scenes from "Rock of Love." Has this already occurred to you? Oh, if only her character's odyssey would have led to the House of Rock! Hoo boy, don't threaten HER with a good time! Also, I wish you would have uploaded an MP3 file of when she says, "I mean, I fucked a few guys for drinks..." She might truly give BB a run for her money.

[Greg]

Go out and rent "Wild at Heart" right now!!

[Tommy]

I hate to get all PC on you, but don't you think Lynch's representations of black people are a bit, like, problematical? a) There never ARE any black people in his films. b) When one finally does appear (say, in Inland Empire), he is a totally strung out hobo on Hollywood Boulevard.

That said, I also highly recommend Twin Peaks: Firewalk with Me. If you haven't seen the TV show, as I hadn't prior to viewing the film, the film (which is prequel to the TV show) has a stunning, surreal, hypnotic, and ultimately very moving quality to it.

[Michael]

Wild at Heart is a must see, but FIRE WALK WITH ME is friggin amazing.

[maria]

I recently saw The Elephant Man, which managed to elude me before. That is a brilliant movie, both strange and heartbreaking..just heartbreaking. David Lynch, love him or hate him, is a true artist. There is no one like him.

[dodger]

a woman cursed into being in a movie about a woman who gonna be in a movie thats cursed. she gets cursed, stuff goes crazy, she realizes whats going on. travels within the film to her psyche and breaks the curse by attoning for her sins and destroying the phantom. it ends with her saving the girl in room 47.
plz see twin peaks fire walk with me. you will love it.

[whol]

Ok...I have to see this

[Gyn]

Umm...I guess I'm the only one who doesn't like Wild At Heart. I'm still traumatized whenever I hear a match light up;)

I love Lynch and I collect all his DVD's (faves Blue V., Eraserhead, Mulholland Dr.) but I can't stand his "muse" Laura Dern. She always seems to have that same damn expression on her face all the time. I think she's the reason why I don't re-watch Wild At Heart. She kind of spoiled Blue Velvet for me too. Thank goodness for KYLE MACLACHLAN! Love!

Love Lynch because I've never had the chance to use recreational drugs but watching his movies is the closest I can get to knowing how it must feel like to get high. (except Elephant Man which still makes me cry)

[Burge]

Lynch from fav to least fav IMO:

1. Inland Empire
2. Eraserhead
3. Muholland Drive
4. Blue Velvet
5. The Elephant Man
6. Lost Highway
7. Wild At Heart (campy and colourful and LOVE Diane Ladd's character but Nicholas Cage ruins it slightly)

Haven't seen Dune, Straight Story or Fire Walk With Me yet.

[Jackie]

you must watch Twin Peaks! You will love it! Set aside a weekend and just get down with its awesomeness.

whatever, i will read this latter. right now im just really confused as to ben harper's choice in women.

[hope]

Rich, I have to agree with many of the previous posters - you must view "Wild At Heart" ASAP. I saw it when I was 16 and it blew me away. I've watched it a kabillion times since, along with almost every other Lynch film, and it still pleases me.

"Fire Walk With Me" got me through 4 years in Savannah, GA and I still dig it terribly.

[Liz]

Yes, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me is the best, and it has companion books one of which is Laura Palmer's diary.
I agree with you on Lost Highway. I like it, and I hate when people tell me they totally understand it. Understand WHAT?

[Henry Evil]

Which Lynch film was the one where Laura Dern agreed to have her hair peed on? That one was the best.

[finding the filth]

ok - consider wild at heart & the entire twin peaks saga mandatory viewing. immediate mandatory viewing.

i mean - wild at heart was probably laura derns best film and the scene with her character's mom having a mental breakdown while applying lipstick is well... iconic. it's what you imagine tyra does in her private moments.

and twin peaks is probably the most influential and astounding creative work in the last 20 years. seriously. everything about it is amazing. kyle mclachlan when he was hot, scaryfreaky bob, whorish cherilynn fenn, log lady, backwards talking dancing dwarf dreams, julie cruise music, and plot twists so insane you need a slice of cherry pie to understand them. and even then it doesnt make any sense. and you kind of need to get so into it that you lock yourself up for a weekend, watch the entire series - including the movie - from beginning to end. and if you can get your hands on a copy of laura's published diary, all the better. twin peaks was a full media attack of brilliance.

also, too. track down lynch's personal website. for a while there - not sure if he still does it - he was posting daily videoblogs about the weather. everyday, he would, in classic lynch delivery, announce the day's weather report. nothing more. nothing less. always awesome.

oh - and there's also a documentary about david lynch that's worth seeing. did you know he was an artist, too? he's got a whole series about rotting animal flesh thats both disgusting and fabulous. so very very lynch.

oh - and, yeah. the elephant man... got to see that as a kid and it was well... it left an impression for sure!

[sully]

what idiot posted the comment, "i'm just confused in ben harper's choice in women?" first of all, laura dern is a beautiful, real, natural goddess. second, ben harper is brilliant, as displayed in the end credit song. third, i seriously doubt mr. harper or ms. dern give a flying flip what you think. they have 2 beautiful children, a great creative life, and extraordinary talent.

[msminiver]

laura dern's performance in IE is miraculous. i cannot think of another actor that could even approach what she's done here. legendary.