Lynch

Wow, this is a horrible documentary. It's 90 minutes of boredom with ZERO insight.

Lynch is an artistic genius but his verbal shtick wears thin within 10 minutes.

It's takes a third of the film to get to Inland Empire and even then there is nothing of substance.

One of the WORST docs I have ever seen.

If you didn't think David Lynch was weird enough by watching his movies then might I suggest the biographical documentary Lynch. Lynch chronicles David Lynch as he goes about making his most recent film, Inland Empire and the bizarre creative process he went through to make that film. It is a film that attempts to profile a man whose mind I don't think any of us could ever understand. The way Lynch thinks is in a completely different ball park than the normal human brain, and his films show that. After watching Lynch I'm not sure whether the auteur is a genius or a mad man, but I do know that he is a dedicated director who knows what he wants and damn sure gets what he wants.

It is always interesting to see a director in front of the camera in their own natural habitat and surroundings, doing what they do best to produce the things we watch. Lynch plenty satisfies this interest as the focus of the entire film is on nothing else but him. David Lynch is the central figure for the entire documentary and everything is about him, which is only appropriate for a film called Lynch. Throughout the film we get to see and experience what Lynch does and what he is about, but I don't feel like I have any better understanding of the man after watching this documentary.

Lynch is a film with no coherence and no structure. It is essentially just a bunch of clips, all focusing on David Lynch, strewn together in a meaningless fashion. Honestly, I feel the same way about the structure of this documentary as I do about some of Lynch's own films. And maybe that is what the filmmakers were shooting for, a documentary that paralleled the structure of the films it was documenting. Regardless, it only left me confused and perplexed.

If there's one personality trait I can pull from David Lynch after watching this documentary, it is the fact that he is quite pretentious. I was feeling vibes of self righteousness and extreme self importance from everything that Lynch said in this film and it makes it hard to connect with the man. I respect his passion and ambition, but I get the sense that he feels he can do whatever he wants with film. Of course in a way he can, but it is at the expense of others who are getting yelled at by Lynch or those who are left detached because of how distanced and strange Lynch is.

But it is through this that Lynch raises an interesting point of where one separates the artist from the art. I love David Lynch films and I always enjoy his bizarreness and disturbing surrealism, but I don't enjoy David Lynch himself nearly as much. He is a visionary, yes, but too full of himself and too strange to really connect with. He is a man in his own world, but when he brings that world to us through film, it is a pleasant experience.

I wouldn't call Lynch fun or entertaining, but it is definitely strange and it provides an odd insight into David Lynch. This insight doesn't necessarily give us a clearer understanding of the man, but it certainly paints a picture as to why his films are the way they are and why they are all so strange. Because David Lynch, himself, is the ultimate incarnation of strange.

'Lynch' really reminded me of Pennebaker's "Don't Look Back" Dylan documentary. There's no set form or story holding the film together. It's more a series of candid vignettes. David Lynch spins yarns about his days living in Philadelphia, and in Idaho. Cut to: Lynch talking on the telephone, explaining Transcendental Meditation. Cut to: Lynch brooding in a sound studio, upset that he doesn't know what he's doing, and then chews out an employee for not showing up on time.

Nearly all the footage was shot in digital video. But don't let that turn you off. There's a very strong sense of mood and visual style in 'Lynch'. (With a director named 'blackANDwhite' how could the film NOT have intense, creepy, visual flair?)

What pleased me most about the film was the creative editing. Rather than clumping all the Philadelphia stories together, or clumping all the footage shot at one particular time, together - we just see a tidbit. Lynch relates a story form his past. Then cut to Lynch pondering a painting he's working on. This moment will linger for a while, sometimes accompanied by eerie atmospheric music (the sound design is fantastic.) Then we see him going on a photo expedition in Poland, or carving and painting wood in a workshop.

The scenes never grow tiring, because the environment and the activity constantly change.

I've seen some documentaries on David Lynch before, where they interview people on the set, and actors explain how he works, etc. 'Lynch' is NOT that kind of film. 'Lynch' gives you a fly-on-the-wall perspective on what it's like to be David Lynch. It's an ideal film companion piece to the book "Lynch on Lynch".

David Lynch, in my opinion, is the greatest living director in the world. This film is not the most well put together movie I've ever seen but it gets an 8 because it is very interesting to see how David Lynch uses his creativity, hear him tell very interesting stories and seeing him work with his crew. It's a movie that all Lynch fans should look into for those reasons alone. There are some interesting abstractions but ultimately, I didn't think they really fit in with the documentary film that this was attempting to be. Don't expect an amazing, well done film but definitely look forward to learning much more of the mysterious and talented David Lynch!

The subject of this documentary is David Lynch's creation of Inland Empire, one of his more challenging and powerful films. The documentary is as incoherent as the film itself if you are not someone who inherently understands Lynch. Do not look to this film for explanations or insight of the man himself. Instead, look to it as an example of how the genius makes his art.

Lynch speaks almost constantly throughout the documentary. His speech is an endless flood of description, direction, and command. It should be no surprise to those who 'get him' that every second of film he uses is meticulously designed, imagined, visualized, created and very inspired.

Lynch/Lynch 2 is a perfect companion to a complex and intense experimental film. While its plot is much more linear than that of the feature, it offers a rare example of true genius at work.