Inland empire

Inland Empire
Dir: David Lynch
Starring: Laura Dern, Justin Theroux, Harry Dean Staunton, Jeremy Irons
180 mins (English/Polish)
*****

David Lynch’s new film, the three-hour Inland Empire, is either a work of extraordinary depth and all-round brilliance or a confusing mass of interweaved art installations and pretentiously unwatchable scenes.
Many will think the latter, and in their defence, not without reason. From the outset, the epic production is uneasy viewing, and at times positively painful to digest. Following the plot is verging on futile and viewers will leave as baffled as they are shell-shocked.
The spellbinding Dern plays Nikki, a Hollywood actress offered a potentially career-reviving role in a new movie On High In Blue Tomorrows. When the film’s director (Irons) reveals to Nikki and her co-star (Theroux) that the film is in fact a remake of a doomed Polish production, the nightmare begins.
Boundaries between the events on the set, in real life and in the queasy Polish parallel existence are all blurred as Nikki is plunged into a Lynchian Alice in Terrorland.
Although not a horror film per se, Inland Empire is perhaps the most terrifying piece of cinema in recent history. There is a constant sense of foreboding played out vividly to a dark score peppered with uncomfortable sounds, frightful imagery and the fantastical leitmotif provided by the film’s ever-present talismanic screwdriver.
Some scenes will have you pleading ‘Oh God’ and grasping for the metaphorical pillow. This is one of those rare movies so scary that it actually induces shivers and goose pimples, making you plead for release.
Add, to name but a few, awkward scenes featuring choreographed gaggles of prostitutes, life-sized rabbits acting out a sitcom, and, on one traumatic occasion, a fruity man appearing from behind a tree with a light bulb in his mouth, and you begin to get the picture.
But the more the film draws you in – and that it does – the more apparent its magnificence becomes. For its power to elicit emotion and to leave an indelible print on your mind, Inland Empire is nothing short of a masterpiece.

Felix Lowe