Lost Highway (1997)

Absolutely Fantastic

A different way of telling a story

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

By far one or lynch's best movies. When I watched Lost highway for the first time round I was left confused. When it came to watching it for the second time round it all made sense. Lost highway is a film full of mystery/romance /crime perfectly blended together. Lost highway is one of the very few films I recommend to people. In my opinion lynch's second best movie !

Lost Highway is another Lynch film that captures the blurred line between dreams and reality. There's something about the way David Lynch's mind works that allows him to completely control the grey area that stands between normal feelings and insurmountable fear or discomfort. A lot of times he does so with the aid of using dream-like elements for the narrative. In the case of Lost Highway, the dream is really more of a nightmare, as the themes explored in this "story" can be pretty dark or just overall pretty scary. Yes, Lost Highway is definitely a horror, and an effective one at that, at least to me.Whenever I try to recount the main events of the film's plot, I really can't make out a singular cohesive story. I can read analyses for this movie and probably figure out the baseline narrative but while watching the movie, I really did feel like I was subjected to a series of anthology scenes or something. In other words, a good portion of Lost Highway is just a bunch of surrealistic events happening one after another. This is not to say that Lynch dropped the ball on storytelling for this one though. I actually think, by going for such a fragmented and irregular plot structure, he creates an even more interesting story, as he always does. For Mulholland Drive, I talked about how we're presented different parts of the narrative that eventually flips. It's not very different in Lost Highway except that the pieces of the narrative that we're given are even more of a mystery, which makes the film so good and almost satisfying. David Lynch seems to constantly play with our expectations and feelings about what is supposed to, or could happen throughout the movie.I also really love David Lynch's brand of horror. Somehow he's able to mix ambient music with artsy, still camera shots (upon given context) to create extremely unsettling scenes. The mere fact that there isn't a solid story to fall back on (while watching Lost Highway) after an intense scene can be scary in itself because the audience's expectations for what happens next could just go off the rails.

Fred Madison (Bill Pullman) is told that "Dick Laurent is dead". He plays the saxophone. He and his wife Renée (Patricia Arquette) are hounded by someone unknown. A mystery man, supposed to be a friend of Dick Laurent, meets Fred at a party. Fred is jailed for brutally murdering Renée. In prison, his identity changes to Pete Dayton (Balthazar Getty). Pete is released for being the wrong guy. Sheila (Natasha Gregson Wagner) is his girlfriend. He's a mechanic working at a garage owned by Arnie (Richard Pryor). Gangster Mr. Eddy (Robert Loggia) needs his car repaired and Alice Wakefield (Patricia Arquette) is his mistress.David Lynch has made something confusing. Following this logically may be a fool's errant. The problem is that it's not terribly compelling either. It grinds along like a car stuck in first gear. It is impossibly slow with an unknowable story. When the switch happens, the movie goes into a WTF restart. I'm not sure I care about the first part. At least, the second part has the great Robert Loggia.

"Lost Highway" is undoubtedly one of David Lynch's masterpieces. All of Lynch's films are challenging. He rarely uses a linear plot structure and the line between what is real and what is imagined is usually blurred. "Lost Highway" is one of the most difficult films to interpret, but it can still be enjoyed even if you don't fully understand everything on the screen. The acting is very good. Pullman pulls off Fred's nervous demeanor perfectly and Arquette is suitably mysterious. I particularly liked Robert Loggia's performance and he oozed menace every time he was on the screen. Robert Blake as the Mystery Man sent shivers down my spine and he didn't always seem human. As well as a cameo from Marilyn Manson, watch out for a glimpse of Henry Rollins as a prison guard. The choice of music perfectly matches the mood. We hear from Rammstein, Trent Reznor, Marilyn Manson, Lou Reed, This Mortal Coil, and many others. The whole thing is held together by Angelo Badalamenti's haunting score.The mystery man is truly the most fascinating aspect of this movie. In my opinion, he is Fred's idea of the "devil". He has supernatural powers and he feeds off the sins of mortals. The scene at the party is one of the creepiest movie scenes I've seen, yet at the same time it is hilarious. The way the music and party noise fade when the mystery man and Fred walk up to each other created a bizarre and surreal exchange. Another great scene of the movie is when Mr. Eddy and the mystery man call Pete together. "Yeah Pete, I just wanted to jump back on and let you know I'm glad your OK!" Click. That was great. And of course, I can't talk about the great scenes in the movie without mentioning the "tailgating" scene. Robert Loggia (Mr. Eddy) is a master. "Lost Highway" is a must-see. I still don't have all the answers and I know they'll never come. But it's the mood and eerie visual images (the reverse shot of the exploding cabin, like a premonition)that make this film so brilliant (and some awesome music tracks). This film will haunt you for years to come.Overall rating: 9 out of 10.