#93: David Lynch's Lost Highway

A mere two months after watching Lost Highway a first time, Meaghan and I sat down Saturday night to watch it again. You may ask what took us two months? Well in the interim, we took advantage of our Lynchian mood by watching the entire second season of "Twin Peaks" which I received as a present sometime last year. Allow me a quick digression before I get back to movie #93.

For those not familiar, "Twin Peaks" is possibly the greatest television show ever. Critically acclaimed and much loved by fans (just check out that 9.5 rating at IMDB), it aired on ABC back in 1990 and 1991. Sadly it only lasted 30 episodes before ending due to poor ratings. I actually watched it when it was originally on the air (somehow my parents decided it was fit for a 12 year old -- thanks Mom and Dad). Counting that, this was the third time I'd watched the show.

The show's hook in the beginning is the mystery of "Who killed Laura Palmer?", the homecoming queen in the small Washington town of Twin Peaks. From that humble beginning, we spin into a surreal and supernatural world where we explore the very nature of good and evil. The show follows the investigation of the FBI's Special Agent Dale Cooper (expertly played by Lynch regular Kyle MacLachlan -- now seen on "Desperate Housewives") as he delves into the world of Twin Peaks. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. If you want to borrow it, let me know. If you want to watch it with someone to help you make sense of the trickier bits, let me know, and we can try to set up screenings somewhere.

If you've seen "Twin Peaks" and think it's strange, it is nothing compared to David Lynch's movies. Free from the constraints of ratings-driven television, his movies are entrenched in the surreal as they jump from one mind-blowing scene to the next. I saw it described somewhere that he makes extremely right-brained films. Attempts to break apart and analyze the plot can leave one frustrated. Instead, you almost have to feel the movie instead of think about it. Being a left-brained person, this is hard for me to do most times, but there's no denying the visceral impact of many of his works. Lost Highway is no different.

Fred Madison (Bill Pullman) is a jazz saxophonist, living a quiet life with his beautiful wife Renee (Patricia Arquette). Like all husbands who marry above their level, he's suspicious, paranoid, and distrusting of her. He "sees things his own way, not necessarily the way they happen". After someone begins leaving creepy videotapes on their front steps that show various parts of their house in the middle of the night, including the couple sleeping in their bed, they go to a party where Fred has a run in with a mysterious man (Robert Blake - yes, that Robert Blake). After that, his life is never the same.

Obviously, that 2nd grade reading of the plot doesn't begin to tell the full story. Without giving too much away, Lynch has said in recent interviews that the film was unconsciously inspired by the O.J. Simpson murder trial of 1996. Keep that in mind if you see it, and you're probably well on your way to understanding most of it. Aesthetically, the movie's spartan sets are shot beautifully and the script and sound design creates a duality between different parts of the film by reusing songs at key points and repeating entire sections of dialogue. In short, it's a masterful, but difficult movie that deserves a watch.

If any of that sounds good, or you just want to see a lot of naked Patricia Arquette, then you should see this movie.

Next up is #94, the 1997 special edition release of The Empire Strikes Back.