Movie Review
Lost Highway
David Lynch is known for confusing his audiences, and there’s no more confusing of his films than Lost Highway, I think. The plot revolves around a husband who’s convicted of his wife’s murder under suspicious circumstances and then at the mid-way point of the film (and here’s a “spoiler alert”. Let that sink in for a moment or two. There’s a spoiler coming. Watch out if you haven’t seen the movie before. Got it? Spoiler.) Ahem, The second act begins when he transforms into an average Joe mechanic... Like I said, it’s confusing.
I was looking the movie up on Wikipedia for the purposes of this review and one interesting thing came up which was that it features the last screen appearances by Richard Pryor, Jack Nance and Robert Blake. It’s also the first on-screen appearance of Marilyn Manson… Coincidence? I think not.
This is a cult movie and I know there are a lot of people who get a lot out of it but it’s really not for me on the whole. It’s a case of style over substance. The characters serve their purpose as mysterious figures that mysterious things happen to but they aren’t all that multi-dimensional. The film looks good but moves slow, and the soundtrack is by Trent Reznor. So it’s a lot of mid-90’s industrial music that’s never been my cup of tea.
Sometimes Lynch’s critics make a point to say that he’s just being weird for weirdness’ sake, which I don’t always think is the case, but in terms of Lost Highway, that’s the overall impression that I walk away with. At least that he wasn’t too worried about having any semblance of logic as long as it had the illusion of it.
So, if you love Lynch a whole lot, then you’ve probably already seen this movie at some point and would probably enjoy going to see it another time around at a cinema. If you’re not crazy about the guy or don’t know his work all that well yet then I’d recommend going to see another of his films first. My choices would be Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart or Eraserhead; Or if you want something a little less weird but just as awesome, check out The Elephant Man.
- Nathan Kearney