Inland Empire was the first or second David Lynch movie I ever saw. I was twelve or thirteen years old and watched it in a musty basement with my mother and brother. The experience was a long and off-putting  but it was also one of those fundamental moments where my perception of what a film could be was completely altered. I still remember sitting, jaw-hung, as I watched that weird little rabbit family on the screen.

I, of course, have not seen the movie since.

A decade later I attended the Austin Film Festival as part of a group outing orchestrated by my Writing for Television professor. One of the other attendees and I started talking about David Lynch — as film freaks are prone to do upon first introduction. He argued to me that Inland Empire was completely pointless, a waste of time and money that had nothing to say and therefore no value.

I argued my heart out, despite only retaining my emotional feelings about the film — I had zero concrete memories of the film to really draw from. But it was important to me all the same. We argued for thirty or so minutes, then got drunk and went to a club where a dude that looked like Dave Franco tried to sell us coke in the restroom.

Anyways, I need to see this movie again. Maybe you should revisit it with me.

Inland Empire
2006
dir. David Lynch
180 mins.

Screens Saturday, 12/17, 11:00 AM @ MFA
Part of the ongoing series: Woman Inherits the Earth: The Films of Laura Dern.