Inland Empire (2006)

For my one-year memorial rewatch since his death I chose Inland Empire, Lynch’s final feature-length film. He would, of course, go on to gift us with Twin Peaks: The Return (Season 3 of Twin Peaks) in 2017, but a series is quite a different format than a movie.

I try not to intellectualize it. Watching Inland Empire, probably more than any other Lynch creation, I let the sounds and images wash over me, releasing myself from the mercurial tendency to hyper-analyze. Wake World consciousness is subsumed by the darkly numinous. Subconscious levels of impulse, desire, dread: the uncanny. The irrational mechanisms of a dream/nightmare.

Hold your breath and dive into the watery abyss. As you plunge the depths, and eventually your lung capacity is reached, panic sets in. Am I too far below the surface to make it to the top again? Just when you think you will surely drown, you notice gills have formed on the sides of your face. Take a chance. Open your mouth. Breathe in the water.

“On High in Blue Tomorrows is, in fact, a remake.”