Eugene Weekly : Movies : 3.22.07


.MOVIE LISTINGS | MOVIE REVIEW ARCHIVE | THEATER INFO

 

INLAND EMPIRE Written and directed by David Lynch. Cinematography, Odd-Geir Saether. Starring Laura Dern, Justin Theroux and Jeremy Irons. Studio Canal, 2007. R. 172 minutes.

What’s true of the 1960s can be said of a David Lynch film — if you remember it, you weren’t there — and that isn’t always a good thing for filmgoers. A Lynch film is an experience. You don’t sit back and relax into the familiar; you plunge ahead into a rich surrealistic fantasy. Cars are often present, sociopaths are a given and little people, blonde women and telephones predominate. Recently, his films have tended to fracture at key moments, like glass that’s been heated too quickly, and Lynch’s ability to recover from the narrative split is directly related to the success of his films. It’s as if he enjoys digging philosophical holes just to see if he can climb out. Read more…

 

Premonition Directed by Mennan Yapo. Written by Bill Kelly. Starring Sandra Bullock, Julian McMahon, Nia Long, Kate Nelligan, Amber Valletta and Peter Stormare. TriStar Pictures, 2007. PG13. 110 minutes.

Unlike Sandra Bullock’s last time-twisty film, The Lake House, which was a sweet bit of fluff, Premonition is a Meaningful movie. And I’m going to indulge in Meaningful Capital Letters, the way Klaus Badelt’s score indulges in Meaningful Strings of Doom and director Mennan Yapo indulges in Meaningful Slow Shots to convey … well, what, exactly? Maybe to convey the fact that Premonition‘s house-of-shuffled-cards story isn’t strong enough to move the film along; horror-movie conventions (Why doesn’t that girl turn around? Is there … something wrong with her face?) and the misapplication of importance on Seemingly Everyday Happenings are required to give this piece of hoo-ha anything resembling forward momentum. Read more…