Inland Empire (2006) - Dern stands out in Lynch's nightmarish art film epic

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+ Best Art Film of the Year + Best Character Study of the Year + Best Comeback Actress of the Year: Laura Dern

The brights lights of Los Angeles are glamorous on top, - but below lies terrifying darkness. - So this powerful poster for David Lynch's Inland Empire seems to infer

Hollywood star Nikki Grace wins a lead in a new movie, which, however, turns out to actually be a remake of an old, cursed film, which was never completed in the past.

Inland Empire is written and directed as the 10th feature from Montanan master filmmaker David Lynch (The Straight Story (1999)). It may well be Lynch's last major theatrical work, if we choose not to count Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces (2014), which is made up of deleted scenes from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992).
Laura Dern (F Is for Family (2015-17)) gives a lead performance which deserves praise; fearless and deeply disquieting, it leads us on the epic excursion into a reality that in both fascinating and deeply disturbing ways crackles down for our protagonist. We sense that we are moving in clearly defined story universes in Inland Empire, which are merely presented mystically and in inexplicable ways to us. In this way the film is never pretentious nonsense, (although Lynch novices may think so and are therefore adviced against beginning their journey into the man's body of work with this particular film.)
SPOILER A very specific criticism: There is a scene in Inland Empire of Dern relating stuff to a man with glasses, which is simply too long.
If this turns out to be the last real movie in Lynch's oeuvre, it somehow seems fitting, since Inland Empire must be the most radical, strange and unsettling film of his since his debut, Eraserhead (1977). Both are fiercely original and rare works that require a lot from their audiences and deserve several revisits. Inland Empire is truly an art film, which at times resembles a performance or an exhibited art piece; it has unforgettably unpleasant scenes and an eccentric and original ugly video aesthetic.

Related posts:

David Lynch: Top 10: Best Hollywood-set movies

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Blue Velvet (1986) or, The Strange World 

Dune (1984) - Lynch heads to space, with an (unsurprisingly) strange result

Top 10: The best biopic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

The Elephant Man (1980) - Lynch's deeply moving second feature

Eraserhead (1977) - Lynch's extraordinary, unconquerably strange and surreal debut

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 4 mil. $
= Uncertain
[Inland Empire premiered 6 September (Venice Film Festival, Italy) and runs 180 minutes. Lynch co-financed the film himself, (he has only revealed that it had a budget of under 100 mil. $), and shot it over a 3-year period in California, including Los Angeles, and in Poland, - without a script. The actors were given pages of freshly written dialog on the day of shooting them and never knew exactly what Inland Empire was about. It was shot with a Sony digital camcorder by Lynch himself, - the first time he has worked in digital video instead of film. He also edited it himself and stayed involved in its distribution. It opened #52 to a 27k $ first weekend in North America in 2 theaters, where it peaked #44 and in 15 cinemas (different weeks) and grossed 861k $. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 609k $ and the UK with 542k $. It was likely made for somewhere between 1-5 mil. $, but that span is too great to establish whether it was a theatrical hit or flop. Lynch campaigned for Dern to be nominated for the Best Actress Oscar without luck. The film did win an award in Venice. Lynch has stated on the occasion of his Twin Peaks revival season (2017) that he had made his last feature. In between the two major projects, he has made at least 26 short films. Dern returned in Year of the Dog (2007). Inland Empire is fresh at 73 % with a 7.2/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Inland Empire?

Rango (2011) - Verbinski's amusing family western animation

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1 Time Film Excess Nominee:

Best Animation: Gore Verbinski (lost to Kung Fu Panda 2)

Gore Verbinski's Rango features striking character designs as is obvious from this poster for the film

QUICK REVIEW:

An acting chameleon drops out from his terrarium in the middle of the Mojave desert, where he finds the town Dirt. Here he acts like a hero and gets appointed sheriff. But the town has a pressing water problem.

Johnny Depp (From Hell (2001)) is good and funny voicing Rango and leading a fine voice actor cast: Ned Beatty (Life (1999)), Alfred Molina (Magnolia (1999)), Ray Winstone (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)) and Harry Dean Stanton (Wild at Heart (1990)) among others. Unfortunately, Timothy Olyphant (Deadwood (2004-06)) is sorely miscast as the 'Spirit of the West', an old kind of God-figure.
The beginning of Rango promises a uniquely psychedelic, grand animation; gradually, though, the film instead gets bend towards the absolutely recognizable, formulaic direction, which is a shame. The script is by John Logan (Hugo (2011)), based on a story by Logan, director Gore Verbinski (The Lone Ranger (2013)) and James Ward Byrkit (Coherence (2013)).
Rango makes you laugh, and the special animation style is enjoyable throughout.
Verbinski had previously worked with Depp in the three Pirates of the Caribbean movies (2003; 2006; 2007) and did so again in the mega-flop Lone Ranger. After that affair, Verbinski won't be back as a director again until next year with a much smaller film, titled at the moment, A Cure for Wellness.

Related post:

2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

Watch the trailer for the movie here

Cost: 135 mil. $
Box office: 245.7 mil. $
= Big flop
[Rango was well-received by critics, (Roger Ebert awarded it 4 of 4 stars!), and it won the Best Animation Oscar. It opened #1 with a 38 mil. $ opening weekend in the US, where it became the first 2011 release to break 100 mil. $, grossing 123.4 mil. $ (50 % of the total gross). The film caused some ratings controversy, since several characters smoke in it, but it still retained its PG-rating. Though the film cannot be counted a commercial hit in theatrical terms, its distributor Paramount Pictures were so satisfied with it that they decided to start their own animation department after their deal with DreamWorks Animation elapsed in 2012.]

What do you think of Rango?

Christine (1983) or, Bad Plymouth!

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Text-over-crowded poster for John Carpenter's Christine

QUICK REVIEW:

Arnie is a bespectacled loser, while his best friend is the football lover-boy. But then Arnie discovers Christine, a wrecked 1958 Plymouth, and he fixes her up. - But Christine is more than just a car ...
Christine is a classical horror flick, which, if Christine had been a whisky bottle instead of a car,  could have been called a drama. The best and coolest thing about this high school car horror fare is its look: With cinematography by Donald M. Morgan (Starman (1984)) and the visually masterful, great director John Carpenter (The Thing (1982)), Christine looks rad.
And the 50's music, which must have worked like a childhood-anxiety-provoking element especially for the writer of the novel the film is adapting, Stephen King (The Dead Zone (1983)), is cool. Christine is cool.
Unfortunately, many of the actors are amateurs, and several of the young performances are a bag that's a bit too mixed in quality. Also, a little humor wouldn't have hurt Christine.
Robert Prosky (Last Action Hero (1993)) plays a wonderful mechanic in the film.
Carpenter made this between The Thing (1982) and Starman (1984). He's in his late 60's today and seems to have retired from film-making. 

Related review:

John Carpenter: Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) - Solid action guerilla film-making

Only one of the Christine cars are left 'alive' today, and it has reportedly been restored to glory by a collector in Florida

Watch the cool, original trailer here

Cost: 9.7 mil. $
Box office: 21 mil. $ (North America only)
= Uncertainty

What do you think of Christine?
Name other scary movie vehicles, if you can ... ?