The way The Lost Highway SHOULD have been done!

Rating: 8/10 (26 May 2002)

I'd heard so many wonderful things about this movie, so my expectations were high, especially since I was really disappointed with the Lost Highway. And this certainly met my expectations, though I perhaps don't think it's quite as good as most of my friends do.
David Lynch is certainly an acquired taste. And I've been hooked since I first saw Blue Velvet, which remains one of my all time favourite movies. And I was one of the many who was distraught when Twin Peaks ended (especially on such a frustrating note!!) This movie will definitely please the fans. it's cryptic, full of hidden clues and the inevitable Lynchian message about life and the world, and specifically in this film: Hollywood. And his commentary is strange, deep and at times hilariously wicked. The two scenes that particularly floored me were the assassination slapstick, Lynch style; and the Naomi Watts audition scene.
However, the film had a tendency to get TOO cryptic. And I'm not talking about the Lost Highway type of character switch, but of the many scenes which didn't seem to have ANYTHING to do with the film, involving characters that didn't seem to fit in. Some explained themselves a little as the movie progressed (the assassin for example, though that hilarious aforementioned scene still didn't really make sense to me plot-wise), other never really did. And the very ending (which I won't spoil) was a real letdown for me, as Lynch seemed to be trying too hard with it, a sort of cheezy artsy ending that I haven't seen from him before except as satire.
Still, this was a Lynch film, and a GOOD one. It was completely unpredictable, with great acting (check out Billy Ray Cyrus as the poolboy turned adulterer, Gene). And even if David Lynch's deep inner lesbian fantasies were a tad overdone, so be it (the scenes were at least really sensual and not plastic soft-core trailer trash). So although it's a bit too caught up in itself, the movie was a thrilling jumble of eerily connected pieces. It could have been connected JUST a bit more smoothly, but c'est la vie. 8/10.