Lost Highway with homoeroticism

Rating: Null/10 (2 July 2004)

When I saw Lost Highway after much hype, I thought it was OK for a low-budget first attempt. Until I found out it wasn't. I'd pretty much say the same for this film except that perhaps it was financed by a rich aunt. All the same themes and mechanisms are there from Lost Highway - the dodgy effects like strobing and fake epileptic fits, playing around with the manual focus and other indy style tricks to attempt to use the camera to tell the story and get us inside the characters head. And just as Lost Highway uses lingering face shots to indicate "I'm a good guy", "I'm a hard- nosed cop", "I've got amnesia" so too does this film. What has improved is the score. All the things attempted and totally botched up in the previous film 'in the series' are perfected here. Hearing languid string arrangements morph into almost sleazy-listening lounge is a real aural treat.
I'm no genius, but I do read the odd book, so there really wasn't much to think about. You'll pick up the gist of the story fairly quickly - just look for the usual clues, mainly things that don't quite fit. Arrgh! It's so pretentious! There's no great mystery I'm afraid. Just like it's predecessor - the entire film can be summed up in one sentence, which I'll spare you because I'd have to use rude and angry words. If you want to like Lynch, you'll want to like this - good luck to you, you've got a tough job ahead of you .
Final word: Pretentious. Heed the immortal words of Francis Ford Coppolla in Hearts Of Darkness. Go hire it if you don't know what they are. Final, final word: I get it already! get on with the film... Oh, for goodness sake - was this written by some self-important teenage artiste or a serious film-maker, cos I just can't decide. 1 star for using nice film stock and getting a halfway decent soundtrack.