excellent, insightful film, if you like the absurd

Rating: Null/10 (4 August 2005)

"The Machinist" is one of those rare films for rare people -- the kind of people that like a little punishment with their crime.
This film is not for the casual viewer or the merely bored. It's rife with literary allusion -- from Doestevsky's "The Idiot" to cinema's "Memento," it's a ripe, ripe film ... if you like allusion, literary contemplation and a little bit of cliffhanger.
If you just like to be entertained on your off days, it might still be a ripe film, all right ... in that it will stink to you if your attention span is too short to hang on until the explanation at the end.
I am surprised that David Lynch did not make this well-done, twisted, sometimes confusing film.