LOST HIGHWAY – What Went Wrong?

Lost Highway, David Lynch-Director, 1997 

"Sorry, I can't seem to concentrate. I've got a long drive tomorrow."

HOOK: How did guy-next-door Bill Pullman get into this Alice-down-the-rabbit-hole movie for closet perverts? How do we get out?

LINE: “We met before, haven’t we?”

SINKER: The thing about a David Lynch film is that, like foreign movies of the 50’s and early 60’s, it asks us to reinvent the medium.

SPANKY: This picture was shot on a cell phone underwater. It is dark, blurry,…the music surges for no reason. There is a voyeuristic quality that is weirdly engaging and the red (and platinum) haired Patricia Arquette in a black silk robe with voice like a purring cat is a sex goddess that holds our attention no matter what spooky shit is hitting the fan. Like other Lynch films, about half way through there in no place to go so it just repeats itself. At best it is Munch’s painting “The Scream” come to life. At worst, car-sick vomit.

“TWO PAWS DOWN” (1 BARK out of four)

JOHN: The subtext is of someone watching or being watched, suggesting we in the movie audience are central, and the symbolic plot is just a lose representation of our lives. Lost Highway is the antithesis of a slasher movie. Nothing much happens because it is our own fears that are being provoked. What if someone slipped a video of our lives onto the outside steps each day and it purposely only captured appearances? Though not his best, in this age of block busters for specific demographic audiences and test-screenings to determine endings, give Lynch credit for saying “No.” The fact that he isn’t Bergman, Felini or even Herzog may be disappointing, but his refusal to conform is almost enough. If we can’t step forward and fill in the pieces, we don’t deserve more.

GO GO GO (3 GOs out of four)

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