Who's on first; What's on second...

Rating: 10/10 (30 May 2002)

Clearly David Lynch's best film to date and clearly a Lynch puzzler, this film is like a companion piece to "The Lost Highway" in many ways. Symbolically, it is the destination. It's also a female version. (BTW, what's with the Laura Harring fuzzy pudenda scene? Was that the result of the producers, the director, or Blockbuster? The DVD version I rented has a scene in it in which a very badly airbrushed pubic region almost steals the scene. It was distracting, whoever did it.) There are also symbolic links to "Eraserhead" (in heaven, everything's all right); "Twin Peaks" (midget in bordello/in movieland); and even a symbolic link or two to Ingmar Bergman's (sp?) "The Silence." and "Persona." Do we even have an homage here to "Pulp Fiction" in the Winkie's scenes? And do we have a little inside joke about Hollywood cops and "Dragnet"? I know someone will say that I'm digging pretty deep, but I couldn't help making these connections while I watched the film.
Naomi Watts' performance is staggeringly excellent. Her acting range is unbelievable! But in a film that made no surface-sense, I kept wondering how Rita/Camilla had such wonderful clothes when she/they?walked away from the crash with just a handbag. Surely Betty/Diane didn't have those kinds of clothes in her/their closet(s). But then again, was Betty with Rita or Camilla or was Diane with Rita or Camilla? I-don't-know's on third. But Naomi Watts! What a great actress!!
And once again Lynch makes the most common everyday objects terrifying. Granted, he has an effective film score to help. But I must say that the throbbing light bulbs made me chuckle. And so what about a story: I thought I was watching "All About Eve" in a very, very, very perverse sense.