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    When it comes to directors there are very few that carry the mystique of David Lynch.  He's managed to completely stay underground for the most part even considering at one point the Twin Peaks series was televised on the ABC network.  He made his name with making one of the original "Midnight Movies" with "Eraserhead", as well as making the excellent film "The Elephant Man" in 1980.  He's made a career of keeping his artistic integrity (even though he's looked at as being pretentious by many) without selling out and weather you like him or hate him you have to at least give him credit there.  So for years one of his films that had managed to allude me was "Lost Highway" which just made me more excited when I found out that Universal was re-releasing it on DVD.

    Normally this is where I try and give you the reader, some type of an idea of what the story is of the movie.  If you are expecting that here you simply aren't too aware of the way that Lynch does his thing.  Very rarely do his films have your typical narrative and basically it's a mash up of ideas and images that don't always make sense.  Sometimes he does it because he wants to work in things into the story that throws the viewer off and sometimes it's just him fucking with the viewer by throwing in some stuff that isn't supposed to make any sense.  This movie is chalk full of both and I'm going to give you an idea of what the film is about, although it might not make too much sense to you without seeing it.  The movie starts out with Fred Madison (Bill Pullman) doing his thing as a jazz musician.  He lives with his girlfriend (Patricia Arquette) who happens to be all in her naked glory in this movie, which is a bonus for anyone on the fence about this one.  Anyway, one day a videotape shows up on their doorstep which shows that someone was in their house with a video camera.  Days after the first one shows up they get another one and this time the person in their house happened to film both sleeping at night.  After calling the police to alert them to what happened there is a series of very strange events that change the course of the whole film.  It's hard for me to go into it beyond that as to not give spoilers but I can tell you this much about the movie.  People turn into other people, the story is incredibly hard to follow, and a lot of it doesn't make sense.  But to be perfectly honest about it I rather enjoyed the film.  It's not the greatest thing I've ever seen, but regardless of the sketchy narratives that his films have, they manage to remain interesting and entertaining. 

    The cast in the film is phenomenal with Pullman doing a great job, Arquette doing well and looking great in the process, as well as great performances from the supporting cast.  Robert Loggia is particularly memorable as a mob figure and is downright hilarious at times.  The good thing about Lynch is that he understands that it's alright to let someone go a little nuts in their role.  He did it with Dennis Hopper in "Blue Velvet" and he did it here with Loggia.  You even have a cameo appearance in the film by legendary comedian Richard Pryor which is excellent even if he only shows up on screen for a few minutes.  Another solid performance in the film is from Balthazar Getty in the role of Pete Dayton.  He's convincing and is just as interesting as any other character in the entire movie, so kudos to Lynch for bringing in the underrated actor for the film.

    Many people tend to dislike Lynch and his incredibly discombobulated films, but there is no doubt that he is a very technically skilled director.  For some reason I have always had a feeling that Lynch never films anything without the intention of using it in some capacity.  This movie is no exception either as there is meticulous attention to detail throughout as the film itself looks great.  The imagery that is displayed on screen is extremely well done and manages to really jump out of the screen at the viewer.  Also the attention to detail as far as the lighting in the film goes was exceptional every step of the way.

    Overall I have to say that I enjoyed "Lost Highway" simply for what it was.  It's a total perplexing experience of watching a movie in the way that only David Lynch knows how to do, which at least makes it original.  I would only recommend this film to people who know what to expect when it comes to Lynch, as if you were just getting started I would certainly point you in other directions to start discovering the director. 

Rating - ***

-Ed Demko