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You might have seen this go out on our podcast feed a couple of days ago but with David Lynch's passing, I decided to cut together our David Lynch discussions from previous movie catch-ups in tribute to him.

Listening back to these conversations, I am motivated to finally get around to watching more of his work so I'd love to hear what some of your favorite Lynch movies are. Ryan makes a pretty good case for The Straight Story in both segments so I may start there.

Files

Discussing David Lynch

Last year we had a discussion on a few David Lynch movies at the end of a Movie Catch-up, including The Elephant Man, Eraserhead, Lost Highway, and Inland Empire. We figured some of you might have missed this conversation and wanted to re-post it in tribute to him. Also included is a discussion we had on Blue Velvet on a later episode. Here's the full episode from April 2024: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQEEPZWzN_I Song used: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAdFHwGlAQQ Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/almostcultclassics. You can also find us on X: Joe: https://twitter.com/joeramoni Ryan: https://twitter.com/ryanlancello And don't forget to check out our website and merch store: https://www.almostcultclassics.com

Comments

Lux Anatis

Lynch was one of the first names I can remember that came from behind the camera before I really understood that movies are works of art made by people. I finally watched his entire filmography about a decade ago and came away with Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, and Lost Highway as my favorites. But, I consider the Twin Peaks revival from a few years ago the best thing he's ever done. Of all the decades-too-late sequels, reboots, and revivals that have flooded the medium over the past 15 years of entertainment media, Twin Peaks season 3 is the best one.

Tom Goodwin

Of the ones I've seen, Lost Highway is definitely up there. Mulholland Drive is great as well. Fire Walk With Me is fantastic but you do need to watch S1 and S2 of Twin Peaks first, it's really not a standalone thing. Dune is not great...but it's an ambitious failure and it's worth watching for that alone. Soundtrack is really good too

The Film Smith

The Straight Story was the first of Lynch’s films I ever saw and is probably the easiest entry point to him. To this day I’m still puzzled when I hear complaints that it’s “boring.” As if there’s not a fantastic leading performance, loads of charm and sweetness that’s 100% sincere, and one of the great endings as far as I’m concerned. A great example of less being more. And while it is a family film, it does have just enough of Lynch’s touch to be noticeable to those who look through his filmography.

Chris van Dijk

The Straight Story is a beautiful film. I even have a tattoo of it. I'm honestly quite depressed with the loss of Lynch, his movies and especially Twin Peaks are really important to me. Perhaps it's also due to having lost my father six months ago, I'm just more emotional. Even so, a huge loss for cinema and television and art.

Thomas Bishop

I've been thinking about the movie Lucky with Harry Dean Stanton and David Lynch in a rare acting role, about getting older and coming to terms with death. In the movie, Stanton is the one who looks like the cryptkeeper but doesn't want to believe that his isolation or curmudgeonly behavior is a symptom of him fading away, while Lynch has come to terms with death and is working on a will to leave his life savings to his pet turtle.

Glib Belowski

It’s a bit convenient now given how much has been said about it in recent years-being subject to numerous reappraisals-but I’ve always been eager to stand up for Wild at Heart. I think the controversial Palme d’Or win lent it an air that it’s somehow more “high art” or unapproachable in some way despite the major star power. Its more like swing-for -the-fences camp but played with wholesale sincerity and earnestness. Fast cars, hard rock, chicks, paternal strife…but from a relatable circle of hell. Narrative abstraction exists to a degree but in my opinion it’s always been one of the easiest Lynch pieces to jump into and deeply rewarding on rewatch. This director dedicated everything to show a different truth in every medium and in every movie. Long live Lynch.

John-Paul

I was always a Lynch fan. Met him 15 or so years ago. I actually am more in the Lancello camp on this one, Joe! I am pretentious, I've read the final page of books before the rest like Ryan and when I was in film school, I was taught too much the technical side when I really just wanted to talk about and analyze film. I don't think I had discovered podcasts yet.

John-Paul

Lucky (directed by character actor John Carroll Lynch from "The Drew Carey Show" and "American Horror Story: Freak Show") is GREAT. It was before I logged everything I watched on letterboxd but I remember really digging it. Joe and Ryan should definitely watch it. Heck, do an episode on it!

JokersJuicyAss

The only thing I saw of Lynch was the Cleveland Show so I don't have much to say other than that show was fine

Lux Anatis

Listening to this again it dawns on me that Lynch took the secret of the Eraserhead baby to his grave.