I've my own opinion about Lynch. He's a rather crude arranger, while being a sublime painter at the same time. His ambition is to portray, portray philosophical aspects of life and he uses first a layer of abstraction, a net of relations that correspond to the philosophical aspects in question and then a colouring and flavouring of the pieces in this net.<br /><br />The likability of the outcome depends mostly on the last step, whereas the first step is the foundation of any real artistic claim. All of Lynch's films I've seen, four in total so far, follow this procedure and none of them does flat out fail.<br /><br />"Inland empire" is about captivity in time, even if you said to yourself that you had understood nothing about the film, you would subscribe that. When it comes to Lynch, look at what is there, evidently, and don't try to look out for things that aren't there. Is Vladimir Harkonnen's sadism subtle? No, nothing is, Lynch doesn't need that, he's a crude arranger, subtle is only the look on things, the things themselves are crude.<br /><br />So, how can you be caught in time? That's a philosophical question and all that "Inland empire" wants is to transport an idea of how you can be so! Actually, I haven't seen one film of Lynch whose philosophical questions wouldn't be covered in Schopenhauer's work, but I like his films still, because he always goes a step further, personalises the questions, links them to his own life.<br /><br />I could go on and decipher "Inland empire", it wouldn't be that hard, knowing the answers, but that shouldn't be my job here. Let me just point to some essential elements. You stand before your future or past and you can't link to it. People are seen in very different settings, under very different influences, and they fill them out, sometimes grotesquely passive, the sets range from marble mansion, over Polish province to Californian sidewalk. You also see fighting spirit, surprises. It is important though that battling remains in a larger cage too, there's no development here like in "Wild at heart". There's a film in the film and you often don't know whose script you follow. Finally, there is salvation, again linked to fertility, but this time not as a natural conclusion, but as an act of will, a decision to break out of ones captivity in time.<br /><br />In the flowing of time, take a break.