Crying Over You

Rating: 10/10 (21 October 2001)

This is the first David Lynch movie I have seen. I just finished watching it for the third time, and am planning to go back as soon as I can. An absolutely fabulous masterpiece.
Roger Ebert, the movie critic for the Chicago Suntime, said something very interesting about this movie: this movie is not to be understood by logic or rationality; rather, it's like music, which gives you a feeling, an emotion, an atmosphere. It's a dreamscape saturated with powerful emotions. Ever had a dream where you wake up, you don't quite remember what happened in the dream, but a profound sense of sadness, despair, all laced with a touch of quiet malevolence, firmly holding onto your heart and wouldn't let go? This is that nightmare.
*spoilers ahead*
As to the structure of the movie, the most popular opinion seems to be this: the first 2/3 is a dream, and the last 1/3 or so is the reality. I think one can construct an equally strong argument that in fact the first 2/3 is a reality, and the last 1/3 is a nightmare. This confusion, of course, is exactly what Lynch had in mind: there are more than one "theories" that can "explain" this movie, though none can be perfect (that is, account for everything) -- exactly what "dream logic" should be. Two realities. Two dreams. Dreaming of each other. Projecting their respective love, fear, anxiety, and hope onto each other. Creating each other. Which is perhaps the more important theme Lynch is trying to explore: Hollywood being not merely the "corruptor" such as that of Nathanael West, but as the intersection of an identity crisis. Who dreamed who into being?
Lastly, a small Taoist fable, as told by Zhuang Zi, A Chinese Taoist philosopher who lived some 2000 years ago: one day he was sleeping and had a dream. In that dream he was a butterfly doing all sorts of butterfly things, such as flying from one flower to the next, fluttering his wings. He had no awareness of being a human. Then he woke up and found himself to be a human again, lying on a bed. He thought: am I really a human being who was just then dreaming of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly who is right now dreaming of being a human being?
Lynch -- a secret Taoist? In any event, a great artist for sure.