Lost Highway (5 Stars)

David Lynch is dead.

I read the news late last night, and it hit me like a bombshell.

He's best known for the TV series "Twin Peaks", which he made in 1990. I didn't watch it until 20 years later, but I was already aware of it. I had friends who talked about it. Based on their descriptions, I thought it was nothing for me. I couldn't have been more wrong.

The first film I watched made by David Lynch was "Mulholland Drive". I forget when. Probably round about 2004. After that I bought all his films in quick succession. "Lost Highway" immediately became my favourite film, knocking "Donnie Darko" off the top spot. I've often changed my mind about my favourite film, but it doesn't look like "Lost Highway" will be removed from the top spot any time soon. It's a masterpiece.

"Lost Highway" isn't an easy film to understand. There are different theories about its meaning. The most commonly held opinion is that it's a story about a man who's killed his wife and spends his final days lying in his cell making up a fictional story about her while he waits to be executed. The other theories are variations on a supernatural time loop. Interestingly, in an interview David Lynch said that he'd read the explanations of "Lost Highway" in forums and nobody had got it right. I'm glad that he rejected the fictional story theory, because it always seemed absurd to me. That leaves the many variations of the explanations based on a time loop. I have my own explanation, which I've never read in any online forum, so maybe I'm right.

On the other hand, a friend of mine who also loves "Lost Highway" says that there's no explanation. He says that David Lynch makes films for himself and doesn't intend them to be understood.

Lynch has hardly made any films in the last 25 years. His only major work was a third season of "Twin Peaks". Maybe he was put off by the poor reception of his last film, "Inland Empire". 

But now he's gone.

David Lynch
January 20, 1946 – January 15, 2025

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