innovative technique, modern story : excellent!

Rating: 8/10 (27 January 2002)

Lynch's expose on the failure of Los Angeles only comes to light as his the final parts of his cinemagraphic technique come together. This movie works on many different levels. Firstly, it's style reminds somewhat of Lost Highway, but also Memento : the movie is primarily a mystery, but also a drama and a thriller. He unfolds the puzzle by using symbolism (the old lady who warns of danger within, the homeless "man"), surreality (dreams), and rearranged-time: it is for the viewer to separate reality from dream, and earlier from later. It's a very innovative technique that extends traditional approaches and brings them into modernity. Secondly, it's about the failure of a girl to make it in the dream world of hollywood (and only at the end do we realise that the first part of the film was not real, it was her dream), and the corruption in hollywood (the power politics behind the creative parts of the film industry) and some of the personalities involved. It's ironic that he should criticise hollywood not only with his artistic style (against the mainstream), but as direct subject matter as well.