I just watched Inland Empire, and could not be more disappointed. I am a fan of David Lynch. He, and Dario argento(his earlier films), I consider to be the best directors. However, this movie really is a departure from what we have come to expect of David Lynch.<br /><br />Let's have a look at a few of his hits: Twin peaks: The TV series, well, even the episodes he directed were all very good. However, the last episode of twin peaks really dragged as it just went between different rooms, becoming quite comical.<br /><br />Mullholand drive: Made for TV originally, then made into a movie. Lynch was forced to stay within boundaries, which seems to work well for him.<br /><br />Inland Empire: David Lynch became far too self-indulgent. After the initial walk into this movie, where we are introduced to Laura Dern's character, where we learn that she is an actress, desperate for a new role in an upcoming movie. We learn there is a curse on the movie, where the last two leads of the movie died. It has an interesting enough build up, until it goes completely off course. The entire last two hours of the movie become nothing more than Laura Dern walking through hallways, even more corridors than in Alien 3, but without the excitement of the Alien.<br /><br />The score/music is really off as well. I would say that in the past, David Lynch's directing and visual style has come first, followed always by a solid score, and memorable songs. However, in this movie, the first thing I noticed was that we would be introduced to a pretty bland scene where not much happens, only to be shaken by the overly loud and intrusive score. For example, a light flickers... not that exciting, right? Well, it's not, but the music is so loud and alarming that it convinces us that the scene is intense. Several similar scenes that aren't very scary visually, are meant to be scary due simply to the music informing us to feel this emotion. I know this from the girl sitting in front of me, who wasn't scared by the initial images of things, but by the blaring music that would follow informing her to be terrified. And the songs that play... one example in particular is a key scene that takes place on a street. A Beck song begins to play. Okay, for one this is a David Lynch movie known for setting mood. Based on the gritty style of directing, and the Beck song playing, it takes anything serious from the scene and quickly made me think it was a trailer for the latest movie starring Eminem, on da' streets yo! <br /><br />As for Acting, I really believe Laura Dern did all she could do. She was given a very vague role...well, I should say roles. She plays an actress, a hooker, a house wife. However, unlike all of Lynch's previous films, this movie lacks any romance, and a strong female that you care about. Just as you are in the position of starting to care about her character, we are quickly taken to a dream world where no more is known about her. If anything, after we go to the little dream world that takes over the entire last 2 hours of the film, anything we have learned or liked about her are quickly killed as the film tends to focus on her as an abused, sadistic, and bitter woman.<br /><br />As for the visual style, I would say it is non-existent. There are no beautiful shots, and this is not even due to the digital video. I believe that David Lynch was so caught up in himself, that he thought he wouldn't need the beautiful film making that made him famous. Rather than great shots and angles, we are delivered very straight forward scenes, usually in a hallway of some form. And on top of that, the later portion of the movie tends to have scenes right out of a mafia movie of older men sitting around tables talking about things that would otherwise be boring in a movie without the occasional offing of someone, like in any typical mobster movie. However, we don't get that in this movie, so all of these scenes have no payoff.<br /><br />The worst part of the movie is the length. I am one who believes that in general the average length of a movie should be 90 minutes at most. There are some great epics that can be 3 hours long, on the rare occasion. However, majority of movies start losing steam fairly early on, like Inland Empire. Considering it seems to be nothing more than about twenty of minutes of real movie, followed by a bunch of stock footage filmed by David Lynch. It makes me think of the movie Ed Wood, where he is looking over stock footage of I believe an explosion and buffalo running and thinking of ways to put that into a movie. That is what I got of this movie. Let's film a bunch of footage, then put it together so it seems very dream-like, and use Lynch's name to sell it as a very artsy work of art. At least make it original, I mean, this felt like a dozen of other straight to video movies I've seen that upcoming filmmakers have made.<br /><br />I for one, am a fan of David Lynch, as I have been of Dario Argento's part work. However, I will not continue to be a fan of Lynch's work if it will be nothing more than him filming anything that comes to mind in Digital Video and throwing it together. He made his fans by giving us beautifully made, well filmed movies. If you are going to use DV, then at least make it interesting. If not, then go back to film, please, and give us a boring but beautiful movie.