A Nightmarish Enigma

Rating: 9/10 (1 July 2002)

If you can imagine "Blue Velvet" gone completely berserk, you'd still not be able to fully describe this picture. It starts out as a conventional film noir (well, as conventional as Lynch is able to get) and begins exploring some Hitchcockian territory only to begin spinning around and literally losing all of its marbles. Is this bad? No, it's gripping, enthralling, provocative and frustrating. There's some hints about what Lynch is up to in the middle of the film with the drug addict meeting a character who was an bungling assassin earlier in the film. Is this a drugged out dream of some street waif who hoped the Hollywood dream was a reality for her? Who knows - it just means you're doomed to want to see this film again and again, and just as likely will be as dumbfounded and impressed each time. This was made from an aborted TV pilot that was deemed too deep, too quirky and too full of high powered sexual themes for the TV audience. Understatement of the century! Watch it and be amazed.