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Inland Empire (2006)
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Reviews Counted:98
Fresh:70
Rotten:28
Average Rating:7.1/10
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: 15 [See Full Rating] for language, some violence and sexuality/nudity.
Runtime: 2 hrs 59 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:09-03-2007
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.
Reviews for Inland Empire
It is challenging but simultaneously exhilarating as we travel through this never-waking nightmare.
Sprawls onto the screen as if it had escaped directly from within David Lynch's mind, not like an alien creature let off its leash for the first time.
...ideal for those who thought [David Lynch's] Mulholland Drive was too simple and straightforward...
It's also too long and too reminiscent of Lynch's other work. But die-hard fans will find things to like.
Inland Empire opens and contracts in your imagination while you watch it -- and you're still watching it well after it's left the screen. It's a long but thoroughly absorbing three hours.
Suffice to say that three hours of hallucinatory audacity passes a lot faster than you might expect.
A bucket of Lynchian leftovers, stirred slightly and left to ferment in the dark.
Something like an avant-garde telling of the myth of Eros and Psyche.
A three-hour practical joke without a punchline, at once maddeningly obscure and infinitely boring.
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.
The most Lynchian of all his films. It may also be the most maddening -- or the most brilliant. Or possibly both.
If Hollywood is where dreams go to die, Inland Empire is what it looks like when their lives flash before their eyes.
"Inland Empire" represents Lynch at his unfettered best as well as his undisciplined worst.
Inland Empire is self-indulgent and overlong and guaranteed to try the patience of all but the most devoted Lynch fan. But for all that I don’t regret having spent three hours wallowing in its eccentricity.
Lynch and Dern collaborate on a stark impression of the duality of acting... that reveals Lynch's empathy and Dern's utter fearlessness.
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:
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December 07, 2006:
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November 14, 2006:
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