If Lana Del Rey’s music had to be defined by one drive (other than driving fast), it would be the pursuit of freedom. Inextricably tied to the failed promise of America, Lana’s conception of freedom is lawless, wild, and always elusive. Continue reading
Tag Archives: David Lynch
Another Dream Comes True in The Villages!: A Savage Journey into the American Dream in “Some Kind of Heaven”
Who among us can deny the alluring draw of golf carts circling and darting here and there in formation set to the rhythm of their instructor’s whistle and shouted directions, “Ted! Ted!!”? Certainly not me. Only a couple seconds into Lance Oppenheim’s intoxicating documentary Some Kind of Heaven, which opens with the faint sounds of … Continue reading
You’re Going To Be A Star! Big Star!: Filthy Dreams’ 10 Most-Read Essays of 2020
*jingle jangle jingle jangle* Oh why hello there, dearest Filthy Dreams fanatics! Do you hear what I hear? Are those bells? Are they tolling for us? Well, hell’s bells! I guess it’s time to start ringing in the New Year! Ah…2020. Do we even need a look back? I don’t know about you, but to … Continue reading
7 Film/Videos To Trigger Your Shut-In Summer Meltdown This Memorial Day Weekend
Well, hello there, dearest Filthy Dreams readers! What’s that? You’re bored after ten-ish weeks of quarantine? Is that how long it’s been?!!! What month is it? I thought it was still March! Or May! Or November! And I know. I know. It’s just so difficult to be in lockdown, sheltering in place, staying at home, … Continue reading
Can David Lynch Resuscitate the Theater of the Absurd?
David Lynch’s short film released on Netflix, What Did Jack Do?, works as both a gift to Lynch fans and a troll on Netflix viewers. In the film, Lynch portrays a detective who diligently interrogates a monkey suspected of homicide. Shot in black and white, Lynch stages a minimal scenery: a table top illuminated by … Continue reading
I Want My Later Career To Be A Vaudeville Act With A Monkey Like David Lynch’s “What Did Jack Do?”
David Lynch has never sold out. I know using the term “sell out” makes me sound like an angry Goth kid furiously smoking behind the school dumpsters yelling “POSEURS” at anyone who walks by in the wrong band T-shirt. Hey, if the shoe fits. But when we live in a time when outsiders desperately want … Continue reading
Weeping At The Seeping Beauty Of Band-Aids At David Lynch’s “Squeaky Flies In The Mud”
Can Band-Aids be beautiful? Yes, those uncannily flesh-colored, rubbery, sticky and potentially slimy strips that cover any number of sores, scratches, abrasions and ruptures. When singular, Band-Aids are startling, but bunched together, they coagulate into a congealed mass, yellowing with slough, dead skin, sweat, and scabs. Physically repulsive, tactically terrible, sure. But, aren’t they just … Continue reading
Transcendental Style on Television: Nicolas Refn’s Problematic Series Is A Massive Leap Forward for Streaming Aesthetics
In his text Transcendental Style in Film, the critic turned auteur Paul Schrader observed a formal connection between several mid-1900s filmmakers, particularly Yasujirô Ozu, Robert Bresson and Carl Thedor Dreyer. “Transcendental film,” Schrader argues, “seeks to maximize the mystery of existence; it eschews all conventional interpretations of reality: realism, psychologism, romanticism, expressionism, and finally, rationalism.” … Continue reading
It’s Just A Sweet, Sweet Fantasy, Baby: Danny Ferrell’s “Honey”
This week, a clip from the production of Twin Peaks: The Return was resurrected and made the rounds on Twitter, featuring auteur David Lynch losing his proverbial shit over the rapid manner in which directors are expected to work in today’s film and TV industry. Lynch being Lynch, he didn’t care about simple budget concerns or time constraints, eventually yelling in his folksy tone while angrily drawing on a cigarette, “We never get to go dreamy or anything!” Continue reading
Filthy Dreams’s Fanatical Superlatives Of 2018
Why hello there, faithful Filthy Dreams readers! What’s that? You’re in the mood to rank moments from the past year with no real basis except for your own fervently subjective but strongly felt opinions? Me too! I’m ready to get zealous and list, wrap-up and rank anything and everything that happened in 2018 with fanatical … Continue reading