Twin Peaks: Season 3

Ooookayy then...

Not really what I was expecting. When I say the word conflicted, I don't think I've ever meant it more in my entire life. I do want to say first and foremost I am not going to be one of those people who lauds this season but I'm also not a person who is actively hating this season either. Cause it did hold my attention and interest for the ungodly 18 hour runtime mainly due to the very simple question of, "Where is this going?" and the thing is you're not gonna get much. I think this honestly is my Inland Empire where I don't really get it and I don't know what to do with it. It's rather interesting to watch this season because you think, my God 18 episodes at an hour a piece soooo much must happen! And it...just does not. I can sum it up in three instances, Cooper gets out of the Black Lodge physically but not fully mentally, Gordon Cole is slowly piecing together more on the Red Room and the return of Cooper through murder investigations, and we follow the evil doppleganger of Cooper as he tries to circumvent being trapped in the Black Lodge again. Now I'm going to share with you a technical term of writers that you typically do not see in media: non-sequitur, is the word I would describe this season as. Essentially it means that the very next scene to anything has no bearing or impact in the long run. But to be paradoxical for a second, is a non-sequitur still a non-sequitur if it continually happens again and again? Because when I tell you that this season at least 80% of the time feels like filler cul de sacs I'm really not exaggerating. This season meanders, and plods, and wanders to a limit where most people's patience would burn out before they got a quarter of the way through it. But as I said I was too intrigued and curious to ever call it quits! I was shocked, puzzled, laughed, and cried at moments that kept me engaged to the end of it all but I safely can say this is not for everyone if not the vast majority of anyone. Yet the production and David's full time creative mind is on solid form, broadening the horizons of the world to the point where I'm not even fully sure it can be called Twin Peaks anymore due to how little we are in that town (yeah I'm sounding like one of those people I knowww), it does admittedly lose a bit of the magic with it's post 2010 look yet it still looks pretty gorgeous at times, the music is the absolute highlight of the entire season for me without a shred of doubt almost to the point where I want to say to hell with the show buy the soundtrack, the new additions and returns of the old cast are still handled very well albeit criminally short for our returning castmates, and it does have entertaining moments. Now was I fully expecting some hardcore nostalgia riding into the aftermath of the season two finale? Frankly, not even a little bit. I had faith in David to continue this strange torpedo while still bringing something entirely fresh and new to the story without having to really tread over familiar ground beyond the town of Twin Peaks itself. And I eventually did get that! 14 episodes in out of 18, and hell Cooper isn't fully back to 100% until episode 16! It still wasn't too little too late for me at that point, but I am almost fully endorsing the most disputed of golden calfs in any fandom ever created, the fan edit. I have only touched a fan edit one single time and it was for The Hobbit trilogy and the one I found honestly is the only way I will watch it from now on. I'm at least trying to give you a different angle to approach this finale. Coming from an individual who's patience is near boundless and can easily sit through higher than average runtimes, 18 hours is shockingly unnecessary for this. There are a virtual army of The Return truthers out there who will praise and gush over this series without so much as an average opinion on any aspect, and I envy those people. The oh so simple easy way to throw out terms like, bait & switch or unmitigated high expectations, to flow from my lips is striking but I don't really feel that. No one, I repeat no one could make a television series like this on accident, there is something to it that David wanted to convey. Just because I don't get it doesn't mean it's bad. I don't know entirely what I'm feeling though at this time. What do I even rate it? A big fat question mark would be appropriate but I try to center myself on something. As a whole, both of production and story, I'm gonna give it a 7/10. May have broken new ground ten years on since starting this show, cause television series ratings do not go down each subsequent time on this website. I don't even like that this was what it came to be, but what can I do to change it? Nobody can change it. You either accept it or deny it. I'm willing to accept even if not happily. But it certainly does not diminish or taint my love for David and the creations he has brought to this world and I'm happy to have gotten through this show regardless. I hope you all have more days of beautiful blue skies and golden sunshine all along the way. Everyone have a great day!

Wild At Heart

Ideas truly are beautiful and abstract.

To say the death of David was a crushing blow would be an understatement, I've never really had a favorite director ever in my life but David easily was one of my favorite people on this planet. And I'm not sure if I have ever reviewed every movie from a director before but we are gonna wrap up David's theatrical films this week. Wild At Heart might honestly be my favorite movie of his, Blue Velvet was great, Mulholland Drive was interesting and complex, and even Eraserhead had strong appeal for me, but this movie for one reason or another has my love more than the others. Following a deeply passionate couple Sailor and Lula, who decide to make a trek to California while being trailed by men hired by Lula's own mom to stop them from being together is a simple but very endearing story. I buy the romance between the two, these young, foolish, sex crazed kids who truly are wild at heart and have a us against the world mentality speaks to me deeply. Of course it has all the wonderful beautiful quirks of David's writing and I was shocked to know it was a novel first, and I think I came up with a satisfactory term for his movies after all this time. David Lynch movies are weirdly engaging, this movie being no exception! The fact alone Nicolas Cage is in a David Lynch movie should be all the reason you need to watch this to begin with, with this swagger and voice almost a breathing return of Elvis Aaron Presley and a persona fit to burst with energy it's hard not to get swept up in the scenes. Same goes for Laura Dern who went against all types and personal restraints as Lula, and I'm not just saying this because she gets nekkid a bit in this movie but she has never looked more attractive and electric on the screen and I adore Tidbit! She really is solid gold in this movie and truth be honest may be my favorite performance of her career. I was a bit stunned to see so many Twin Peaks alumni present here and memory fails me which was coming out first in 1990 but it was a blast to see Sherilyn Fenn, Grace Zabriskie, Jack Nance, and Sheryl Lee pop up for a bit. Even Isabella Rossellini and Harry Dean Stanton are in the cast, you love to see continuity between productions and lord knows seeing friends make movies will never get old to me. The setting around Texas makes a native like me happy and the dust filled empty streets and sun blasted buildings almost give it a modern day western vibe at times. The editing has a lot more emphasis on flashbacks and a strong fascination with flames, which just goes to show no matter how many of David's films you have seen not a single damn one looks or even feels alike but still strangely has that aura where you couldn't mistake it for anyone else's movie. The Angelo Badalamenti score has that almost speakeasy sound to it but can clobber you with eerie punctuation to certain imagery, but it's lovely as always and the music choices are varied and unique. It was a fascinating ride to be on for this and not just because of the horrible news, I really had no clue where it was going but easily had the backs of our two leads all the way. I'm sure this probably is one of David's least talked about films, even though I knew next door to nothing about it but it's kinda leaning on my #1 spot in the filmography. But let me be clear that is a subjective stance and not an objective stance, if someone told me Blue Velvet was objectively the best David Lynch film I doubt I could argue much, but for my money Wild At Heart was just the right kind of engaging, entertaining, and funny that I needed in this time and place in the world. 4 stars, 8.5/10, and next time we touch on the movie that seems to have the most divisive rift of all David’s films with Inland Empire.

Jurassic World Dominion

Alright, not a bad way to end. Now don't f*** it up and make another movie 30 years later.

Yeah, it took until the 3rd movie of the Jurassic World series to give us a jurassic world but honestly it all could have been handled much poorer. Now the plot I am about to describe might sound like they done goofed severely, because the movie's central dilemma isn't about dinosaurs. It has dinosaurs in it and they utilize them all very well, but our respective teams of old cast and new cast are brought together through the machinations of a corporate business that has developed a creataceous strand of locusts that can bring global catastrophic damage, while also kidnapping Blue's hatchling and Maisie. I know, I know, they could have made it anything but corporation baaaaad, but truthfully I was rolling with it enough to like the movie's other aspects. As I said, beautifully done how they show the world coexisting with dinosaurs and while it's not the full focus it is spotlighted long enough. I actually applaud the movie for going all out, trying to explore as many facets, angles, and situations with this backdrop of then extinct creatures in today's world and they wanted to go balls out for it and they somewhat succeed. I can appreciate that. Do I need to talk about cast? We have Laura, Sam, and Jeff back and I'll give you a twenty if you can guess how they were. It might seem like they don't have much to do and are brought back for the novelty, but it is nice to see them together again and they can have fun with it. Chris, Bryce, and Isabella still do good, particularly with Isabella getting that teen angst and attitude down to a pitch perfect science. And...as upset that I am we didn't get much Daniella Penada beyond one scene we have another new addition. Yes, hi, welcome to another edition of The Crush Chronicles vol. 98, where I now say...oh my God. DeWanda Wise, holy moly. That woman is literally so beautiful my soul ached every time I gazed at her, and she was a fun add to the cast even if everytime she was on screen I couldn't look anywhere else. A small price to pay. Moving swiftly on. Colin Trevorrow, yes the director of the Episode 9 that never was and got an upgrade from co-writer of Fallen Kingdom straight to director's chair, fairly good work I found he did. He takes advantage of nature scenery to the max, knows when to bring the movie down but also ramp it up effectively, overall did solid competent work. Better than Fallen Kingdom? Uh, no shit. So now the question becomes where does it rank for me? It's better than Jurassic Park 3, World, Fallen Kingdom, so it's top 3. But remember what I said last time. 3 stars, 7/10, from the ancient pass to the space faring future and beyond next time.

Blue Velvet

My first official David Lynch review, but not my first of his movies. That goes to The Elephant Man.

I'm actually really pleased with this movie. It was friggin' weird at times but I'm so happy to have seen it. Set in an idyllic North Carolina town a young man named Jeffery finds a severed ear and soon gets roped into a bizzare plot of kidnappings, sex, and batshit situations and characters. It's a wild trip, and I can't even imagine the audience reactions in 1986. Hell the producer Dino De Laurentiis had such faith in Lynch and the film that he repurposed a production company to distribute the film because no major studio would come near the thing, that is something you can't say about a lot of people in the film industry nowadays, that's pretty grand. The critical reception didn't really start strong until well after the film was released, but strictly on a first viewing basis I very much enjoyed it. I like the whole 50s aesthetic they present in terms of visuals and music, this isn't the first time a film has presented a perfect small town with a dark underbelly but they handle it very well and the music is very jazzy noir-ish centered which you know I'm a sucker for. I think the performances is what really sells the movie, though of course the story and direction are really dang good. Kyle MacLachlan is a very good lead and juggles the weird mix of emotions pretty much flawlessly, Isabella Rossellini has that perfect edge of vulnerability and I'll give major props to anyone who can go full nude cause I certainly wouldn't have the heart for that I mean talk about bravery, friggin' Laura Dern is in this movie which came out of left field but I'm so damn happy to see her in any movie she's a total cutie in this and I simply adore her, oh my God we get to talk about Dennis Hopper now. Dude. Dude. Whoa. There's no words to describe his performance, it's...um, wow. If ever there were a reason to see this movie, he's it. Wild. They handle the mystery good too, like you're never really sure who's in on it and who's not. Are the cops corrupt and maybe aiding the kidnappers? Maybe. Is there gonna be a heel turning character? Who knows? Will evil win the day in a downer ending? Have to see it for yourself. It's a fine movie, never trying to be more than it is but still having that unmistakeable David Lynch quality to it. 4 stars, 8/10, and I'm so getting the title theme for this movie!

Well it's that time again my friends. A new movie based on a Universal Monster hits theaters this Friday, and while my Dark Universe may be dead and buried no one's ever really gone...

Jurassic Park

I can't even believe it! You know, it only took 3 years, over 350+ reviews, and only now have we got to Jurassic Park. Most people ask, why do they always remake or make sequels to classic films? The answer to that question is so that I can finally talk about Predator before the new Predator movie comes out.

So, because it's fun to talk about and to enlighten the 5 of you who have lived under a rock since 1993, how is Jurassic Park? Quite good I would say. Because you know it only ushered in a new age of special effects, and showed Spielberg could still bring blockbuster dollars and serious film material even 20 years after he got famous. But beyond the spectacular special effects, if you really just take a few steps back or more like a Superman leap backwards and watch this movie as if it were your first time you notice a lot. They do an incredible job with the dinosaurs, not only with the special effects but how they use them. You never see a dinosaur unless it is absolutely necessary, the first scene you see trees giving way, splitting apart, and you think oh shit here it comes. But it's a container that holds a dinosaur. And you get hints, an eye, this guy being dragged in the cage, shrieking and snarling sounds. That's really it. It makes you wonder what on earth that thing was! You didn't know first time, no way no how, even if you read the book. So there is lots of buildup throughout the film even after you see the dinosaurs, the moving through the grass leading to the Triceratops, the booming of the footsteps of a T-Rex, the feeding of a cow to a paddock of Velociraptors, it takes it's time which makes the wonder of these creatures unbelievable. Spielberg was on his high game, like ridiculously high game in this movie. True there are some kind of dumb things in this movie, but it does such a good job stringing you along you never notice until you dive deep in the analysis, and for what faults it does have it has some scenes that make you forget the stupid things. Who cares if they sent Samuel L. Jackson alone to turn a fusebox on when dinosaurs are running amok, when you get the perfection of the T-Rex scene. Both of them. You can forgive a lot because the craft, and execution, and little moments make this a great movie. And another thing I noticed is, there are a lot of wonderful little character moments, you need to look for them though but they are there on the screen. Like when Lex trips and Alan catches her, she holds his hand despite the fact he wants to let go cause he's not a fan of kids. Or seriously probably the best bit of acting in the whole movie, when they watch the cow being fed to the Raptors that look that Hammond gives to Alan while he watches is seriously the most intriguing and yet almost the most terrifying part of the movie. I mean obviously the guy needs to be some flavor of crazy to make dinosaurs, but God dang he seems almost deranged in that scene. I love the acting in this movie! Sam Neil is a wonderful lead, Laura Dern is just awesome in general, Jeff Goldblum is correct in every statement in this movie and who doesn't love Ian Malcolm I ask you, and Richard Attenborough like I said is the most interesting character in the whole film. There's tons of great stuff in this movie, some more noticeable than others, but still worth repeated viewings for all your life. PS. Those Velociraptors could be the most terrifying thing I have ever witnessed in film.

You know what really surprised me? Steven Spielberg came back to direct The Lost World, all these years I swore it was a different director. I'm extremely curious to see it again after so many years, but we will wait for that until tomorrow.