Tag Archives: David Lynch

POD 366, EP. 102: GOODBYE DAVID LYNCH — A MEMORIAL PODCAST

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Discussed in this episode:

“Penguin” Pete Trbovich’s  written appreciation: “RIP: David Lynch — In Heaven Now, Where Everything is Fine”

The Cell (2000): Read Giles Edwards’ review. ‘s trippy “inside the mind of a serial killer” film arrives on 4K UHD in a new restoration. Buy The Cell.

Ed and Rooster’s Great Adventure [AKA Ed and Rooster’s Big Adventure] (2025): Two seagulls investigate alternate realities. A real amateur oddity, a Google Play rental seems like the only way to see this at the moment. Ed and Rooster’s Great Adventure official site.

Feed (2005): Read Pamela de Graff’s review. This perverted movie about weight-gain fetishists gets what we presume is its Blu-ray debut. Buy Feed.

Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003): Read Caleb Moss’ review. Part one of ‘s martial arts homage arrives on 4K UHD this week (although it’s listed as out of stock as of this writing). Buy Kill Bill Vol. 1.

Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004): Read Caleb Moss’ review. The companion piece. Buy Kill Bill Vol. 2.

Love and Crime (1969): A rarity from : an anthology telling the stories of four female killers, out now for the first time in North America on a Blu-ray from 88 Films. Buy Love and Crime.

Myth of Man (2024): The Winans (Ink ) are back with another mystical low-budget fantasy that should be plenty weird. Expanding into major markets this week after some early previews, with scattered screenings continuing through February. Screening info at the film’s homepage.

Rumours (2024): Read Gregory J. Smalley’s review. G7 leaders encounter giant forest brains and exploding, masturbating zombies during the apocalypse in this outrageous surrealistic satire from and the Johnsons, now on Blu-ray. Buy Rumours.

The Substance (2024): Read Gregory J. Smalley’s review. Coralie Fargeat’s outrageous  beauty satire got a home video release in all formats two days before it landed five Oscar nominations. Buy The Substance.

Sundance Film Festival: A quick scan revealed nothing especially weird debuting at Sundance this year; we’ll keep our ears open to hear if anything generates an odd buzz in the coming days.  Sundance Film Festival official homepage.

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE:

Next week we return to normal on Pod 366 with Gregory J. Smalley and Giles Edwards running through the week’s new releases. In written reviews, Shane Wilson adds his two cents to the pile of 366 opinions on Hundreds of Beavers (in conjunction with it’s wide Blu-ray release), while Greg reveals the winners of the Online Film Critics Society’s annual awards (and tells you how he voted, as well). Onward and weirdward!

CAPSULE: THE BLUE ROSE (2023)

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The Blue Rose is currently available for rental or purchase on-demand.

DIRECTED BY: George Baron

FEATURING: Olivia Scott Welch, George Baron, Danielle Bisutti, Nikko Austen Smith, Viola Odette Harlow

PLOT: Los Angeles detectives Lilly and Dalton investigate a savage murder and fall into a dream-laden conspiracy.

Still from The Blue Rose (2023)

COMMENTS: It was unplanned, but I ended up waking from one surreal nightmare and immediately stumbled into another. (There’s a lesson to be learned here, perhaps, about the dangers of napping just before watching a David Lynch fan-film.) With his directorial debut, George Baron—not quite twenty years old—has planted his flag firmly in the murky grounds of dream-logic and accented reality, boldly avowing his love of all the flavors of Lynch: bright colors, dark secrets, stylized milieux, and muddled plot structures. Indeed, everything I’ve come to associate with the Montanan Mæstro is on display here, for better and worse, with even the the film’s name and recurring visual motif lifted from the mysterious gent from America’s mountain West. The first question to ask yourself before watching The Blue Rose is: do you like David Lynch movies?

Presuming the answer is in the vicinity of “yes”, do continue; but bear in mind that this is a debut, from an enthusiast, working more from his heart than his head. This is for the best, though; a coldly clinical take on the whole Lynchian thing would make for something both incomprehensible and tedious (as opposed to merely incomprehensible). I’m something of an idiot when it comes to interpreting this kind of thing, so I shall forego plot remarks in favor of a pithy description of the plot’s vibe: The Blue Rose story travels along the narrative line at the intersection of Mulholland Drive and Blue Velvet, with the gee-shucks young detectives (one of them, Dalton, played by George Baron—with none other than Ray Wise as papa detective) traveling a Twin Peaks-y inscape during the heady days of Wild At Heart-spun 1950s Los Angeles, with a subplot involving an Eraserheadful baby. There’s probably Lost Highway kicking around in there somewhere, but frankly, there’s a lot going on.

Which is good, because not everything going on here works, so that when you find yourself trapped in a scene or sub-story scenario, you can comfort yourself in the knowledge that sooner or later you will emerge into a new one, with everything tying up far more nicely than Inland Empire could ever dream of. The acting is uniformly uneven, but the two leads are generally on the mark; George Baron’s detective, in particular, has an interesting arc wherein he encounters an alternate, feminine, version of himself during an insane asylum art-installation human showcase. And such—among many—cruel machinations give the cinematography a chance to shine: although the action on-screen is tedious on occasion, the props, costumes, and color-schemes always demand attention.

And speaking of attention, I am interested where this kid (if you’ll pardon my old-man speak) ends up going after this. With a little luck, he’ll find his own path to pursue, as it’s already clear he knows the nuts-and-bolts of filmmaking. But, even if he merely refines his Lynch-pirations, retreading the ground already walked by the auteur, it would be no bad thing to have a younger storyteller on-hand to continue that particular tradition.

So, Mr Baron, hopefully we’ll see you when next we dream in blue.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

“…not for all tastes (it’s Lynchian-like weird)... mostly effective as an unconventional visionary film on Hollyweird. It delves into its narrative with the Lynchian Blue Velvet touch for dealing with mysteries, as it takes us down a nightmare-like scenario with only a few stumbles.”–Dennis Schwartz, Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews (festival screening)