Let me start by saying I've admired every single Lynch film to date, and I've seen all his feature filmsnot only all the original work, but also the non-auteur stuff (like "Elephant man," "Straight Story," and "Dune") as well.<br /><br />Moreover, "Mulholland Drive" is on my short list for best movie of all timea hands down perfect piece of art. And I really liked "Lost Highway" and even found "Eraserhead" engaging.<br /><br />However, I must say the first 90 minutes of "Inland Empire" ranks as some of the most boring and pretentious film making in the short history of the art. I can't speak for the rest of the movie--as 90 minutes of unrelieved murky shots of Laura Dern looking distressed, while the dialogue-obscuring sound track of a B-movie organ drone desperately tries to create some kind of suspense--was all I could stand.<br /><br />Lynch's images have always been arresting, sometimes even pretty. But he seems to want to play against that here, creating choppy, grainy, bad-home-video-style visuals that just beat down the viewer trying to let them flow. Hey! art should require its audience to work for its pleasure and meaning; but the effort required here is just too much for me.<br /><br />I think film should tell a story with pictureshopefully a complex story with emotionally and intellectually engaging pictures. But this film is just ugly chaos.