Review: Inland Empire (2006), directed by David Lynch

Inland Empire is Directed by David Lynch and Stars Laura Dern

Review: Inland Empire is not nearly the best David Lynch movie, but it sure is the strangest. It bounces from loosely connected vignettes at a moments notice. Lynch finds a groove with help from a trio of solid performances, headlined by Laura Dern as the main character capable of morphing when required.

inland empire david lynch movie 2006 — Laura Dern in Inland Empire (2006), directed by David Lynch

Inland Empire Review

The first time I saw Inland Empire, I remember being extremely frustrated with it. David Lynch’s cryptic storytelling is a style that I can generally get behind, but at a runtime of 180 minutes, much of which is complete and utter nonsense, I originally despised what I thought was Lynch’s decision to boil his own absurd, enigmatic style into self-parodying chaos.

But I’ve had a slight change of heart. While Inland Empire is still one of David Lynch‘s more rigorous texts, the individual segments in the second and third hours are bizarre and intriguing enough to keep you invested, despite the building feeling that Lynch can’t help himself from adding more and more and more.

The movie loosely follows Nikki Grace (Laura Dern), an actress that has recently scored a leading role in a film directed by Kingsley Stewart (Jeremy Irons) and co-starring Devon Berk (Justin Theroux). Unbeknownst to the two leading actors, the script is a remake of an older Polish picture, one long thought to be cursed. Nikki and Devon soon start an affair, and the pressure of the film and her personal life begins to weigh on Nikki. From there, her perception of reality and her own imagination begins to blur, and the film descends into long stretches of absurd, experimental, and often psychedelic vignettes.

The straightforward narrative takes up the first hour of runtime – much longer than I remembered. It’s surprisingly easy to keep up with considering Lynch hasn’t made may attempts to stay linear since the mid-90s. Inland Empire fits snuggly with a few of his prior releases like Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway.

But those two movies accomplish more with less. Inland Empire is a continuation of those cryptic stories, but it doesn’t carve its own path out nearly enough. As if David Lynch is slightly devolving rather than evolving. That’s a tall task, though, considering Lost Highway is one of the best releases of the 90s and Mulholland Drive is one of the best movies of the 2000s.

The performances are where Inland Empire earns a lot of bonus points. Laura Dern manages to shift focus with each smaller, contained detour. Her job requires a lot of physicality and shapeshifting, all of which she pulls off despite a high degree of difficulty. Justin Theroux and Jeremy Irons deliver in their smaller roles, setting the stakes early on and staying reliable in a movie with a very specific tone.

Inland Empire is not nearly the best David Lynch movie, but it sure is the strangest. It bounces from loosely connected vignettes at a moments notice. Lynch finds a groove with help from a trio of solid performances, headlined by Laura Dern as the main character capable of morphing when required. Needless to say, don’t expect to feel as though you “understand” Inland Empire by the end of its three hour runtime because it’s intended to confuse and confound you.

Score: 6/10

Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller

Watch Inland Empire (2006) on Max, The Criterion Channel, and VOD

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