David Lynch owes me £10.99! August 20, 2007
Posted by ghostof82 in : Film General , 4 commentsI’ll be the first person to cut David Lynch some slack. BLUE VELVET is a classic, I loved TWIN PEAKS, and I believe that DUNE is one of the most frustratingly flawed films that was ever made. MULHOLLAND DRIVE is, I believe, his masterpiece and one of my favourite films. I thought with that last film that Lycnch had finally cracked it- how to make a strange, mysterious Lynchian film but also cross into the mainstream. But last night I sat through his latest film, INLAND EMPIRE… and Mr Lynch, sir, I may have lost three hours that I’ll never see again, but at the very least, I want my money back.
Now defenders of David Lynch -and in the case of TWIN PEAKS, I was one of them- like to stress that the man is a genius, a cinematic daredevil who breaks conventional boundaries, but here I’d like to accuse him of ignoring the basic cardinal rule of moviemaking. Call it plot, story, narrative- a film surely should have one, no matter how convoluted or weird it is?
I dare say fans wll decry my heresy and state that INLAND EMPIRE isn’t a film at all, its a work of art. Well, silly me for buying a DVD expecting to enjoy three hours of storytelling in which, no matter how weird it got, I could have fun attempting to unravel the mystery/plot.
In hindsight, well, yeah, even with my affection for some of his past films, I really should have known better- I guess I’m not the first or last to be burnt by loving MULHOLLAND DRIVE and hoping for more of same. At least MULHOLLAND DRIVE had a genuine plot and mystery that a viewer could attempt to solve. INLAND EMPIRE is, frankly, a sprawling mess, an assault on any goodwill that his previous film may have gained him. Throughout this turd of a movie I could feel Lynch sticking two fingers up at me thoroughout. I just don’t think he cares about his audience. INLAND EMPIRE is a confusing mess, a trainwreck of a film. Fans can cry that his adoption of Digital Video is another of his bold moves but shooting this thing on video doesn’t even work- it just sends Lynch flying off the rails shooting so much footage that it seems he doesn’t know where to stop, and frankly it just looks plain ugly. Perhaps the point of the film is to send movie fans screaming from Hi DEf and DVD back to the sanctuary of good old blurry VHS, because thats what this film cries for.
The film is ugly, noisy, pointless, far too long and good lord I bet my DVD player felt dirty after playing it, hell, I almost apologised to the poor thing. There’s no saving graces for this awful assault on moviemaking. Mr Lynch, sir, I expect the cheque with heartfelt apology in the mail… after MULHOLLAND DRIVE, I could forgive you so much, but INLAND EMPIRE… no, sorry, INLAND EMPIRE is, frankly, unforgivable.
Back to BABYLON 5 August 7, 2007
Posted by ghostof82 in : Film General , 1 comment so farIt was with some trepidation last night that I watched BABYLON 5: THE LOST TALES, a direct-to-DVD ‘movie’ that is a trial of sorts for a continuation of the B5 saga. The word ‘trial’ is perhaps the most important here, as, depending on sales of the DVD, there may or may not be future installments of Lost Tales. Ironically this is a bit of a problem as it serves as a millstone over the production- basically the whole exercise screams ‘trial exercise/proof of concept’ throughout, as if the viewer is watching a workprint. I could imagine this show being an extra on a major film DVD rather than a feature in its own right. The show has only a handful of sets (partial at that) and a cast that hardly reaches double-figures (and that includes the extras!), and is so basic it was likely filmed in less time than a single episode of B5 used to over a decade ago. Indeed, I doubt the budget ran much more than what B5 had in it’s original run.
That said, this is B5, and it’s great to see some of the old faces again, and the station herself has never looked so good. Old fans will get a tingle in the spine as the pre-credits sequence kicks in with Christopher Frankes’ marvelous music and G’Kars narration. The story is so limited by the budget and filming constraints that it is woefully inferior to the B5 we remember at it’s height, but again the words trial and proof-of-concept ring throughout. What we are watching here is not a proper continuation of B5, it’s really a work-in-progress, a glimpse of bigger and bolder adventures that we may get to see if this project proves commercially successful. I only wish that Warner Bros had showed more faith in the project by injecting more money and resources but hopefully all that will follow next year.
It’s frustrating, illuminating, it’s new B5 folks, and fans will get a kick out of it, regardless of the limitations. If this DVD doesn’t perform as well as hoped and this becomes the shows swansong, then hell, it was a nice final treat for the fans. I really enjoyed it, and recommend it to fans of the show. Besides which, the extras include two memorials for Andrea Katsulas and Richard Briggs which fans simply have to see. Any new B5 is less for missing them, and its nice to see them represented on this DVD as a mark of respect for what they gave and meant to the show.