lynch always rides the line of my indulgence more than anyone else: with something like MD or Lost Highway, I'm fine with shit being spontaneous/not making sense because they make dream-sense; there's an aesthetic and mythological coherence, even if some elements are never explained, defy explanation, or are deliberately, aggressively inexplicable. Lynch is the only person who's ever filmed what dreams are like, and I love him for that. my personal aesthetic prizes coherence and intentionality to an insane degree, and Lynch is a good antidote for it, personally.
but with Twin Peaks S3, at least in these episodes, it starts to feels a little abusive for me, because that dream-sense is being kinda mulched and remythologized (in part because of the 25-year gap and deaths and contracts, which is why the dwarf who was the arm is now a tree and there's an evil twin tree of the arm-tree, which was the statue, okay?), but we're simultaneously asked to treat the strikethroughs and reshuffling of the mythos scrolls with serious attention—most notably with the glaaacial start to ep3, which felt like much earlier Lynch and was honestly kinda tedious to me in this context. I liked everything much more once Coop actually returned. (and I loved the idea that Evil Cooper made a third, dummy Coop to avoid having to return?)
it's like we've previously been drilled on Black Lodge stuff, and even been invited to read or watch ancillary material/deleted scenes to get a deeper sense of it, but then it just got wrangled and wrung out to fit Lynch's 2017 aesthetic whims anyway. and right now it just feels out of joint and even embarrassed by its preceding material (FWWM felt the same way, but it was still at least an arm's length from the world and people of S1/S2). put yet another way: Mulholland Drive, which is my favorite Lynch overall, feels like a Magic Eye puzzle where you can keep texture and form in suspension simultaneously, and they sustain one another. but in S3 Lynch is asking me to stare at the mess of blots for too long. the blots are cool on their own merits, but they're very different colors and shapes to what came before. to me, they're very different even to "Beyond Life and Death" or FWWM.
but that's only three episodes in, and I get that this is a 583-page thread.
(there's some other more granular criticisms re: the deployment of egregious violence/gore, especially against [sexualized] women. I'm guessing people would bristle and talk about that stuff being reflexive commentaries upon those things!! ... which is another way of saying Lynch always gets to have his cake and eat it.)
i never read lynch's stuff with violence against women as like, commentaries on same in other media, but i think based on stuff like most of Blue Velvet and that anecdote about him as a kid seeing that distressed nude woman, it seems more like that's something that genuinely disturbs/upsets him
at least in my experience, that seems to be why lynch-y violence/scary stuff is uniquely distressing/scary in film, because it seems to come from such a raw deep intuitive place and he's insanely good at maintaining that feeling in the final product.
though i'm also not really versed in FILM THEORY stuff at all that's just what it feels like to me. but yeah it'd certainly be hard for him to not be aware of how it could come off, so he may be taking that into account as well
Much Honoured Lord Nefarious wrote:rainbowbattlekid you can kindly get the FUCK out of this thread while the adults have actual STAR WARS discussions.
i watched this a billion times already and the soundtrack is on repeat
i need a decade off
Slartisfgh is never mentioned in The Bible, but it is here, during one of the early battles, that Matthew spontaneously became liquid. Radiation trace: negligible
i probably watched the first four episodes about five times each - those were a tough two weeks waiting for the fifth episode - and then 8 twice. needed to give myself some distance before diving back in and i think i'm ready. if only to see just how much better the blus look than showtime streaming.
i can understand someone feeling cold after the first three episodes. i think in many ways they are the most sparse and clinical episodes. (although if you aren't down with the opening of episode 3 then there may be serious hindrances to you enjoying this). i hesitate to use the word "warm" but as the season progresses it does thaw from the glacial pace and tone of those first eps. wally brando might be the turning point (that's in ep 4, right?).
i agree that some of the red room material in those first eps feels...almost clunky. like, we're being given explicit definitions and explanations of lodge lore (particularly in the evolution of the arm's speech to coop) when all of that has worked much better in an elliptical way. i don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say that you shouldn't be worried about that because the red room material drops off after those first few eps - used more sparingly and also with more fog surrounding the actual machinations
Poptone wrote: i agree that some of the red room material in those first eps feels...almost clunky. like, we're being given explicit definitions and explanations of lodge lore (particularly in the evolution of the arm's speech to coop) when all of that has worked much better in an elliptical way. i don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say that you shouldn't be worried about that because the red room material drops off after those first few eps - used more sparingly and also with more fog surrounding the actual machinations
this is how i felt about those scenes, but just the dialogue. what actually went down in all those red room scenes was dead on.
Slartisfgh is never mentioned in The Bible, but it is here, during one of the early battles, that Matthew spontaneously became liquid. Radiation trace: negligible
the pacing of dougie is what balances how we immediately just jump right into it also the entirety of buckhorn
Slartisfgh is never mentioned in The Bible, but it is here, during one of the early battles, that Matthew spontaneously became liquid. Radiation trace: negligible
i haven't had many season 4 dreams/nightmares yet, but i will post every one of them when they hit
Slartisfgh is never mentioned in The Bible, but it is here, during one of the early battles, that Matthew spontaneously became liquid. Radiation trace: negligible
Poptone wrote: i agree that some of the red room material in those first eps feels...almost clunky. like, we're being given explicit definitions and explanations of lodge lore (particularly in the evolution of the arm's speech to coop) when all of that has worked much better in an elliptical way. i don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say that you shouldn't be worried about that because the red room material drops off after those first few eps - used more sparingly and also with more fog surrounding the actual machinations
this is how i felt about those scenes, but just the dialogue. what actually went down in all those red room scenes was dead on.
yeah, that's a good distinction to make. everything still looks incredible and the broad strokes of what's happening i'm 100% with
in the last few eps the speed at which things go from to is truly astounding
Slartisfgh is never mentioned in The Bible, but it is here, during one of the early battles, that Matthew spontaneously became liquid. Radiation trace: negligible
bongo wrote:im still too fucked up about it being over
and im too fucked up/gutted about how it ends
i'm gonna spoiler this since iambic's in here and i don't wanna ruin anything for him:
i have no doubt that 18 will still feel like a cold sweat fever dream but i've really come around on how depressing/defeatist i first interpreted it as.
yes, coop fails due to hubris but he truly is a mind forever voyaging. will he be in a teapot next time we see him? quite possibly! but maybe he'll be chilling with the fireman quaffing some metaphysical coffee. maybe he and "carrie" will wander the pocket dimension until the universe collapses back in on itself. at any rate, he'll still be pushing at the boundaries of space and time and taking in experiences unknown to humanity. coop wants a family and a happy ending but Coop prime would never truly be happy staying in one place.Toggle Spoiler
diane looking like the red room is the biggest clue that coop never escapedToggle Spoiler
Slartisfgh is never mentioned in The Bible, but it is here, during one of the early battles, that Matthew spontaneously became liquid. Radiation trace: negligible
Poptone wrote: i have no doubt that 18 will still feel like a cold sweat fever dream but i've really come around on how depressing/defeatist i first interpreted it as.
yes, coop fails due to hubris but he truly is a mind forever voyaging. will he be in a teapot next time we see him? quite possibly! but maybe he'll be chilling with the fireman quaffing some metaphysical coffee. maybe he and "carrie" will wander the pocket dimension until the universe collapses back in on itself. at any rate, he'll still be pushing at the boundaries of space and time and taking in experiences unknown to humanity. coop wants a family and a happy ending but Coop prime would never truly be happy staying in one place.Toggle Spoiler
yeah, i mean i kinda feel this. still though, fucking hell ...
yeaaaaaaaaaaaa american nostalgia love it suburban living civilized families this could be my life
it helps if you keep telling yourself "i bet pete caught some real big 'uns that february morning and fried them up for an amazing supper with josie"Toggle Spoiler
but yeah that pit is growing in my stomach once again just thinking about the episode. nothing has made me feel that desolate since...well, since the S2 finale originally aired.
Poptone wrote:(although if you aren't down with the opening of episode 3 then there may be serious hindrances to you enjoying this).
I'm talking about Coop in the purple ocean/sewed-eyelid-lady/spaceship/lever/into the socket part, which felt like Eraserhead but in a not good way, and also felt out of place and also kind of monotonous. and the trashy digital effects in general took some getting used to, like Inland Empire is leaking into this world in a not good way. it probably didn't help that I rewatched all of S1/S2/FWWM before undertaking this, so the chiller cinematography of those was very fresh in my mind.
hey this is my favorite movie since Mulholland Drive!
oh i think it's an incredible, near-perfect film but it made me want to draw a warm bath and open my wrists. i felt like shit mentally for a good two days after watching that.
Poptone wrote:(although if you aren't down with the opening of episode 3 then there may be serious hindrances to you enjoying this).
I'm talking about Coop in the purple ocean/sewed-eyelid-lady/spaceship/lever/into the socket part, which felt like Eraserhead but in a not good way, and also felt out of place and also kind of monotonous. and the trashy digital effects in general took some getting used to, like Inland Empire is leaking into this world in a not good way. it probably didn't help that I rewatched all of S1/S2/FWWM before undertaking this, so the chiller cinematography of those was very fresh in my mind.
see, i adore *all* of that - it feels so alienating and overwhelming; it's like coop dropped into R'lyeh
i'm surprised you're calling out trashy digital effects given that consciously "bad" FX have always been a lynch hallmark.
Inside Llewyn Davis makes me feel like I'm insane because it's so clearly, to me, like a repetitious/hellscape/third policeman thing, and no reviews or commentary that I've ever read mention this?
It's a dull thing to say (it reminds me of Nier fans telling you not to judge the game until route E), but my feeling is that every single thing you've complained about serves a purpose.
Poptone wrote:i'm surprised you're calling out trashy digital effects given that consciously "bad" FX have always been a lynch hallmark.
s1/s2 are full of dumb things like Josie in the doorknob, but they feel appropriately dated. they also have kind of an old filmic naturalism to them, versus the up-the-nose digital tackiness of Inland Empire (which I love in that movie). but it was just kind of jarringly anachronistic in 2017? even at the end of the title sequence, the CG zig-zag floors feels like a radical departure.
otoh, I love the set for the glass box/observation area.
iambic wrote:Inside Llewyn Davis makes me feel like I'm insane because it's so clearly, to me, like a repetitious/hellscape/third policeman thing, and no reviews or commentary that I've ever read mention this?
it's especially weird that people didn't really look at it that way given that the Coens had just made A Serious Man a few years earlier
Last edited by deadbass on Thu Jan 25, 2018 4:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.