All right, here's one:
"David Lynch is completely overrated."
I first heard this uttered from a friend in cinematography who has a somewhat unusual taste in film, so I didn't take his words with much salt, but after watching a good portion of Lynch's '90s output, I gotta say:
David Lynch isn't just overrated, he's downright awful as a director.
Now, I know you're probably thinking I'm being a blaise curmudgeon, but I really like some of his work. Especially Eraserhead and The Elephant Man. He was able to cinematically capture the existential quandaries of life without resorting to the usual avant-garde cliches that can be pervasive with this medium. But the rest of his directorial "masterpieces" aren't inspiring in the least.
Mulholland Drive was a messy attempt at uniting vignettes; the ending is absolutely ridiculous and doesn't proffer any of the same satisfaction of the resolution in Eraserhead (the scene where his brain is returned to penciled form). Plus, the film wouldn't have caught half the eyes it did if Naomi Watts kept her clothes on the whole time.
Wild at Heart, while reclaiming the wondrous spirit of Nick Cage in the Coen brothers' masterful Raising Arizona, is otherwise just a sex-soaked turd. The "spiritual epiphany" is complete non-sequitur and pretty much ruins whatever warm and happy ending was owed. I have to say, Willem Dafoe is absolutely paramount as the irrational antagonist, it's just a shame he couldn't be introduced earlier and made the mother/daughter conflict at least somewhat interesting. Also relies on a nice rack to beef up the ratings.
Blue Velvet is Lynch's attempt at placating the cautious filmgoer while retaining some surrealistic ablation. It fails miserably at both. Also has some titties, but none memorable enough to care about. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me simply didn't make sense, at least as a standalone film. Plenty of boobs to be had, but the reasons for seeing them are lost on me. Dune and Lost Highway just sucked. There's really no excuse for either of those films to have existed in the first place.
I've never seen Inland Empire, and I don't plan on it. This guy's one overrated dud for me.
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