"Inland Empire" represents the culmination of David Lynch's thirty years as a filmmaker, and I am not surprised this will probably be his last feature film. More than any other of his works, it's an abstract experience that is impossible to translate into words effectively.
Unlike most people have said, there IS a coherent plot, even though it might be hard to put all pieces together during your first view as you need to get familiar with the actors' faces and roles. The story is destructured and fragmented, Lynch didn't even have a script ready while he was shooting and just connected the dots while editing for post-production. As the main characters are actors, it's not clear if what we are watching is happening in the real world or on a set, even the characters themselves end up getting lost inside the multiple realities. The same actors play different roles, but different actors also happen to share the same roles. It kinds of reflects on the ability of cinema to make abstractions concrete, with actors being able to travel in between these "worlds". This clearly happens when Nikki gets to the other side of a set while shooting a scene where she goes buy groceries.
However, understanding the plot and themes is not the point this time, it's all about our inner feelings and perception of what is being shown to us. The way emotions get "released" with the ending is so poetic and powerful that I couldn't hold back my tears, even if I didn't even understand what was going on. I am not a big fan, but Laura Dern did an incredible job here, to the point that I cannot imagine anyone else being cast for Nikki's role. After all, the film was entirely built around her.
The video quality is ugly, with many pixelated and grainy shots, shaky camera, uncomfortable close-ups and weird wide-angles. It takes a while to get used to it, but it somehow contributes to creating this gritty, horrific atmosphere. Lynch also did an incredible job with sound designing here. You will need to keep the volume high and the room dark to get sucked in though, this is not something you should watch on your iPad or while you are ironing.
With full responsibility, I would not dare say that I understood everything about the film. In fact. I don’t think the story is even interesting, it’s more secondary. It is not important to understand, but to feel. Like giallo movies, the emotions it evokes are important here. Sometimes it’s torment, but it’s worth a look because if it sucks in, the end can also cause catharsis, which needs to be estimated because not many films can trigger this. Especially not lately. It’s a shame that this is probably Lynch’s last film.
bored.....so much fillers in the movie....not even connect the dots in the end:grimacing:
Not the best movie from the greatest director ever but still enjoyable.I didn't get almost anything and my mind couldn't follow this one but i liked it.7.2/10
Nikki/Sue: Some men change. Well, they don't change, they reveal. They reveal themselves over time, you know?
Laura Dern is amazing in everyway possible.
A masterpiece which is way too long.
Shout by DemiVIP 10BlockedParent2016-11-26T02:20:18Z
I didn't understand 99% of it, but I watched it all until the end and didn't even realise it was three hours long.