Viewed – 13 December 2011  DVD

Of all movies in the career of surrealist auteur David Lynch, the movie version of the acclaimed if short-lived television series Twin Peaks, is possibly the most misunderstood.  Fans of the show turned against it in their droves, and critics just didn’t get it.  Yet some, including British critic Mark Kermode consider the movie possibly the true masterpiece of the director’s career.

This explores the last seven days of tragic high school sweetheart Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), lifting the curtain on her squeaky clean persona to reveal a life of drug taking, promiscuity and nightly rapes at the hands of a creepy man known only as Bob.  Lynch’s expose of the final days of a character whose story was at one time the most talked about on tv, is an unsettling, unhinged nightmare behind a mask of American small town innocence.  Sheryl Lee, a much underrated actress in my opinion, may deliver a performance that boarders on crazy, but beneath the hysterics there breathes real emotion.  The movie itself is confusing at times and like much of Lynch’s work, offers few answers, even if you’re a fan of the TV show, yet the atmosphere, the startlingly disturbing imagery and haunting soundtrack creates a truly mesmerizing, and often quite hypnotic cocktail.

This is a movie you feel and experience above anything else.  It’s scary, somewhat perverse and will linger in your head, but above all else it’s classic Lynch, and although not as brilliantly crafted as some of his other movies, and suffers from a lack of restraint almost from the off … it is still well worth your time.

Verdict:  3.5 /5

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• David Lynch- Crazy Clown Time (gearslutz.com)
• Twin Peaks (mmmgooey.wordpress.com)
• David Lynch’s ‘Blue Velvet’ Remains An All-Time Great Film 25 Years Later (businessinsider.com)