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Inland Empire

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Inland Empire (2006)

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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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Release:

Aug 14, 2007

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Reviews for Inland Empire

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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An amazing and unshakeable experience.

Full Review Source: Toronto Star | comment Comment
05/04/07
Geoff Pevere
Geoff Pevere
Toronto Star
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A bucket of Lynchian leftovers, stirred slightly and left to ferment in the dark.

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
05/04/07
Liam Lacey
Liam Lacey
Globe and Mail
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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.

Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press | comment Comment
04/13/07
Terry Lawson
Terry Lawson
Detroit Free Press
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A can't-miss experience and likely one of the year's very best films.

Full Review Source: Detroit News | comment Comment
04/12/07
Tom Long
Tom Long
Detroit News
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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?'

Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | comment Comment
02/15/07
Colin Covert
Colin Covert
Minneapolis Star Tribune
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A free-fall plunge through David Lynch's imagination, a curious and often astonishing place. The film is dazzling and bewildering in equal measure.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
02/09/07
Walter V. Addiego
Walter V. Addiego
San Francisco Chronicle
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With Inland Empire, the whole thing feels stuck in Lynch's noggin.

Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution | comment Comment
02/08/07
Steve Murray
Steve Murray
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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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.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
01/26/07
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
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While you suspect Lynch's digital video acumen will flower into something extraordinary in coming projects, this one's intermittently extraordinary at best.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment 1 Comment
01/26/07
Michael Wilmington
Michael Wilmington
Chicago Tribune
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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.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment 1 Comment
01/11/07
Ann Hornaday
Ann Hornaday
Washington Post
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...The film, which begins promisingly, disappears down so many rabbit holes (one of them involving actual rabbits) that eventually it just disappears for good.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
12/15/06
Carina Chocano
Carina Chocano
Los Angeles Times
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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.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
12/08/06
Ty Burr
Ty Burr
Boston Globe
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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.

Full Review Source: Associated Press | comment Comment
12/06/06
Christy Lemire
Christy Lemire
Associated Press
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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.

Full Review Source: Newark Star-Ledger | comment Comment
12/06/06
Lisa Rose
Lisa Rose
Newark Star-Ledger
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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.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment 1 Comment
12/06/06
Lou Lumenick
Lou Lumenick
New York Post
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I can't totally recommend Inland Empire. But something tells me I'd be a fool to totally dismiss it.

Full Review Source: Newsday | comment Comment
12/05/06
Gene Seymour
Gene Seymour
Newsday
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David Lynch's extraordinary, savagely uncompromised new film is as cracked as Mad magazine, though generally more difficult to parse.

comment Comment
12/05/06
Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis
New York Times
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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.

Full Review Source: Village Voice | comment Comment
12/05/06
J. Hoberman
J. Hoberman
Village Voice
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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.

Full Review Source: New York Magazine | comment 1 Comment
12/04/06
David Edelstein
David Edelstein
New York Magazine
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Inland Empire is so locked up in David Lynch's brain that it never burrows its way into ours.

Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | comment Comment
11/29/06
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly
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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 Opens in new window
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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
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