YES, IT IS BETTER THAN 'LOST HIGHWAY' AND NEARLY AS GOOD AS 'BLUE VELVET'.

Rating: Null/10 (15 January 2002)

After the debacle of Lost Highway, and the 'experiment' with conventions of The Straight Story, Lynch returns to the 'deceptiveley equillibrium' sub genre reminiscent in his best films (Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet) and achieves something 'resembling' a film which blows the senses, and proves once again that he may not be the best director, but is easily the single greatest auteur in cinematic history. What proves a sigh of relief after the atrocious Lost Highway (yes, Lynch fans, it's up there with 'Dune') is that the humour is intact- in fact, for the first half, this resembles very much 'a David Lynch' comedy' (and Lynch is obviousley a man with an extraordinary sense of humour). He directs from the heart here, returning to personal values instead of uninspired madness (Lost Highway again) making a mockery of the film industry (he's had problems financing his films for the past ten years) set in LA, but could just as easily be Hollywood. The performances are great, many scenes are sheer classic (an 'unexpected' assassination attempt gone wrong will have you rolling in the aisles with laughter), and the final 30 mins. are probably the most 'out there' that Lynch has ever been. The only flaw here is accidental- this was intended to be a pilot for a TV series, but the production company Lynch showed this to didn't approve (one of the greatest tragedies in TV history- this could've easily outshone Twin Peaks) resulting in the material he had having to convert it into a feature film. It looks unbalanced, the first half is mildly uncinematic (but still very effective), but as a whole this film is still amongst the directors greatest work, and could easily be the best independent film of the year.