An amazing and unshakeable experience.
Inland Empire (2006)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:24
Fresh:13
Rotten:11
Average Rating:6.6/10
Consensus: Typical David Lynch fare: fans of the director will find Inland Empire seductive and deep. All others will consider the heady surrealism impenetrable and pointless.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for language, some violence and sexuality/nudity.
Runtime: 2 hrs 59 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Dec 6, 2006 Limited
Synopsis: With INLAND EMPIRE, David Lynch--creator of such mind-bending works as ERASERHEAD and LOST HIGHWAY--delivers his most avant-garde, abstract, and impenetrable vision yet. A three-hour fever... With INLAND EMPIRE, David Lynch--creator of such mind-bending works as ERASERHEAD and LOST HIGHWAY--delivers his most avant-garde, abstract, and impenetrable vision yet. A three-hour fever nightmare of a motion picture, INLAND EMPIRE takes the basic structure of Lynch's 2001 masterpiece, MULHOLLAND DRIVE, and spins it even further out of control. A blonde actress (Laura Dern) is preparing for her biggest role yet, but when she finds herself falling for her co-star (Justin Theroux), she realizes that her life is beginning to mimic the fictional film that they're shooting. Adding to her confusion is the revelation that the current film is a remake of a doomed Polish production, 47, which was never finished due to an unspeakable tragedy. And that's the only the beginning. Soon, a seemingly endless onslaught of indescribably bizarre situations flashes across the screen: a sitcom featuring humans in bunny suits, a parallel story set in a wintry Poland, a houseful of dancing streetwalkers, screwdrivers in stomachs, menacing Polish carnies, and much, much more. By the time the film's electrifying closing-credit sequence arrives, even diehard Lynch fans will be gasping for air. What most glaringly differentiates INLAND EMPIRE from Lynch's previous work is the format on which it was shot. This is the first time that he has chosen to shoot on digital video, as opposed to film, and while the decision is jarring at first, the grainy imagery nonetheless casts a creepy, haunting spell. Laura Dern's multi-fractured performance is downright heroic. She gives the film the human grounding that it so desperately needs. Not for the fragile or timid, INLAND EMPIRE is a full-blown assault to the senses. [More]
Starring: Jeremy Irons, Laura Dern, Justin Theroux, Harry Dean Stanton
Starring: Jeremy Irons, Laura Dern, Justin Theroux, Harry Dean Stanton, Scott Coffey, Ian Abercrombie, Terry Crews, Grace Zabriskie, Julia Ormond, William H. Macy, Naomi Watts, Nastassja Kinski, Diane Ladd, Mary Steenburgen
Director: David Lynch
Director: David Lynch
Screenwriter: David Lynch
Producer: David Lynch, Mary Sweeney
Studio: 518 Media Inc.
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Reviews for Inland Empire
A bucket of Lynchian leftovers, stirred slightly and left to ferment in the dark.
You may find Lynch's experimentalism and willful obscurity to be the work of a poseur, ultimately pointless drivel. I can understand that, but I think you would be wrong.
A can't-miss experience and likely one of the year's very best films.
Lynch's brilliant and bizarre films have often come to us as a puzzle wrapped in an enigma, but his latest is enshrouded with two layers of 'who cares?'
A free-fall plunge through David Lynch's imagination, a curious and often astonishing place. The film is dazzling and bewildering in equal measure.
Inland Empire is full of good and bad girls, but [Lynch] gives this obsession an interesting spin by having most of them played by the same actress.
While you suspect Lynch's digital video acumen will flower into something extraordinary in coming projects, this one's intermittently extraordinary at best.
It's worth watching as yet another example of Lynch's extraordinary collaboration with Dern. It may be overstating things to call her performance heroic, but it's nothing if not brave, as she dares to embody Lynch's most brutal impressions of Hollywood.
...The film, which begins promisingly, disappears down so many rabbit holes (one of them involving actual rabbits) that eventually it just disappears for good.
The way to watch it is to skip uneasily along its surface and steel yourself for those moments when Lynch pulls you into the vortex. More than any working filmmaker, he knows the dreamlike power of undertow.
Inland Empire might be David Lynch's masterpiece -- or it might just be a total mess. Either way it's vintage Lynch and designed exclusively, it seems, for hardcore fans -- or perhaps solely for the director himself.
Not only is the storytelling murky, so is the picture quality. Video technology may have enabled the director to experiment with long takes and extreme close-ups, but it also yields a movie that's dull on several levels.
What is Inland Empire -- which Lynch is understandably distributing himself -- about? What is it trying to say? If you figure that out, let me know.
I can't totally recommend Inland Empire. But something tells me I'd be a fool to totally dismiss it.
David Lynch's extraordinary, savagely uncompromised new film is as cracked as Mad magazine, though generally more difficult to parse.
It's an experience. Either you give yourself over to it or you don't. And if you do, don't miss the end credits.
Lynch serves up enough irrationally disturbing images for 100 classic Asian horror films, and the bedraggled Dern is so overflowingly open that you can’t dismiss the movie as an arty exercise.
Inland Empire is so locked up in David Lynch's brain that it never burrows its way into ours.
Latest News for Inland Empire
December 12, 2006:
2006 NYFCO Awards Announced!
It's that time of year again: Right before the fancy awards are doled out, all the different critics' groups chime in with their favorite flicks of the year. Here we have the... More...
December 09, 2006:
trailer and trailer review ![]()
More...
December 07, 2006:
Critical Consensus: "Apocalypto" Is Bloody Good; "Blood Diamond" Needs Polish; "Unaccompanied" Is Minor; "Holiday" Is So-So
This week at the movies, we've got declining civilizations ("Apocalypto," directed by Mel Gibson), conflict diamonds ("Blood Diamond," starring Leonardo... More...
November 14, 2006:
RTIndie: A News Wrap-Up, Plus David Lynch's Latest Antics
Faced with "Volver" performing well (again) and "Babel"'s expansion into wide release (big time), "The Queen" lost a bit of box office momentum... More...
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 66% 66% | Public Enemies |
| 83% 83% | Harry Potter and the H… |
| 44% 44% | Night at the Museum: B… |
| 75% 75% | Julie & Julia |
| 32% 32% | Terminator Salvation |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 88% 88% | Inglourious Basterds |
| 78% 78% | The Hangover |
| 49% 49% | Taking Woodstock |
| 26% 26% | The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard |
| 47% 47% | The Girl From Monaco |
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