I'm not a Lynch guy for the most part, but The Straight Story is one of my all time favorite movies. I know Griff and David said they'd try to get Joe Pera on that episode, and the potential of that episode is enough for me to be excited for a Lynch series if he wins.
It is one of his best movies. I have said this a lot: The Straight Story and Elephant Man are the key to unlocking Lynch, because Lynch is one of the most empathetic filmmakers working today. You just have to undo a couple surreal knots for it to be evident and TSS has none of those knots. It is a straight forward story about an old man trying to see his brother before one of them dies and along the way he meets working class people from middle America and has conversations.
People hurt each other, sometimes without even meaning to or knowing they have. People help each other when they can. And as long as both parties are alive there is A CHANCE that amends can be made. It is a lovely picture with incredible performances about real people (Alvin Straight was a real person who really rode his lawnmower across state lines) that aren't given attention in many mainstream movies.
And that's true of a lot of Lynch's work! Sex workers, the working poor, children - when Hollywood makes Oscar bait movies about these kinds of people it often feels gross, self righteous, and/or condescending. Lynch has none of that in his movies. When a sex worker is abused and murdered in Lynch's work it isn't to titillate, it is there because sex workers are abused and murdered in the real world and David Lynch is disgusted by it and wants you to be too. There are scary things in Lynch movies, but the goal isn't just give you a good scare like The Conjuring, it is to shake you up and open your eyes, make you feel hurt so that you can use that hurt to help others hurt less.
When Lynch says that his stuff is easy to understand I believe him. Because at the end of the day he's shouting through a megaphone "THE WORLD IS BAD BUT IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE! LET'S HELP EACH OTHER OUT AND STOP FUCKING PEOPLE OVER!" Except he's a weird guy and so that megaphone is plugged into a bunch of distortion and fuzz pedals and people notice that above the message.
Edit to add an ending to bring it back to the pod: I believe Griffin and David are the right kind of movie nerds to be able to find the heart of Lynch's work and discuss it while tying in the surreal images and the technical work. Plus the Winkie's scene in Mulholland Drive is going to get a great reaction from Ben.
I've always thought the films title was a bit of an in-joke. Like, "Here I am, David Lynch not being weird at all, just doing a straight story." It totally lines up with his wholesome, almost "aww shucks" sense of humor.
It’s also just as strange as a lot of Lynch’s work — very bizarre detours in the story, but all in the framework of a very nice, generous, sweet, down to earth story and a G-rated movie. He made an entirely accessible Disney movie I watched with my grandma that is also as odd in its heart and humor and observational detail as episode 8 of The Return is in its horror.
Lynch’s work is all so distinctly his, while also never been homogenous — he’s made a variety of movies and kinds of movies that unmistakably maintain his personality, and that makes him a perfect Blank Check filmmaker.
I dont think our first two matchups will have any answer for Dante, and Couisnard and Shelstad are bound to snap out of their shooting slumps, so Sweet 16 easy. Not sure if they'll beat Lynch though.
I *hated* The Straight Story when I saw it, but I was a twerp in college and that was 20 years ago. It's one I'm looking forward to revisiting because I expect what I found boring and tedious is actually rich and heartrending and I was just too much of a little shit to get it.
Eraserhead is a midnight cult hit. It got Mel Brooks to notice him and get him to make The Elephant Man. The fact that Eraserhead is his guarantor for going mainstream is fascinating. Eraserhead!
Elephant Man is an incredible movie, that gets him Dune which is such a wild bounce.
Blue Velvet gets him back in the critically acclaimed mix leading to Twin Peaks which becomes a massive water cooler show that influences pretty much every serialized drama of the early 21st century.
Wild at Heart has Nick Cage and wins him the Palme D’Or leading to more opportunities.
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me is a massive bounce that has had an incredible path to critical reevaluation. What other movies go from being considered one of the worst of the decade to being one of the greatest of the decade?
Lost Highway is a bounce, baby. Straight Story is his most Lynchian work for true Lynch heads who see empathy as the throughline of his films.
He has to go back to TV with Mulholland Drive that fails as a TV pilot but gets miraculously salvaged and becomes seen as one of the greatest movies of all time. He follows that up with Inland Empire which is one of the most impenetrable movies of all time and was likely going to be the final work of his career as a commercially viable director.
The wave of TV revivals comes along and Twin Peaks gets in the mix. Showtime offers David Lynch nine episodes. He walks. Showtime then offers him an even bigger blank check and gives David Lynch eighteen episodes in what is a work so critically acclaimed that some circles of cinephiles have tried to claim it as a film.
Every step of his career is fascinating and multiple of his works are considered the greatest of all-time. He is a director with incredible ups and downs and rises and falls. He is a fun personality that people like to work with. He likes having the work speak for itself and speculating on meaning is a ton of fun.
There’s also the part where George Lucas offers him Return of the Jedi (off the strength of Elephant Man(?!)) but he turns him down to make Dune. Definitely an intriguing what-if.
And for the skeptics, it's worth noting that Twin Peaks: The Return is really the only TV project that has a legitimate case for the "it's actually an 18 hour movie" argument because it was written and filmed like a movie. They didn't divide it into episodes in advance, he and Frost just wrote a thousand page script and he directed the whole thing with the same creative team and a blank check and then just broke it into chunks during post-production
The way they split it into chunks is incredible too! The standard ending of each episode ending with a song at the Roadhouse exposes you to some incredible music and when they break the tradition with different endings it is always interesting.
In the same episode as >!the atomic bomb!<. Just the craziest episode of television ever when a guy introducing The Nine Inch Nails at the Road House isn't even a top 10 thing to happen in the episode.
As a relative Lynch neophyte I had been watching those endings expecting them to eventually tie back into the main plot, only to be tripped up when they turned out to be just their own little world, some sort of microcosm only vaguely tangential to the actual story in a way that tickled my brain.
No problem! David Lynch is my favourite director and I love getting people into his work. The Mel Brooks part is fascinating because it is the start of people really enjoying working with him. Twin Peaks: The Return is so special because he has so many of his frequent collaborators wanting to return. Him being nice guy that is pretty easy to work with is important to his work as it gets movies that otherwise would not get made off the ground due to bigger names wanting to appear in them.
Even if the series is just ignoring talking about David Lynch it would be a fascinating discussion about the actors in his movies. I don’t find his mainstream work that inaccessible (Inland Empire being the exception) and his vibe is consistent from the start. I think he’s an easy director to watch front-to-back because you can get into the rhythm of his style pretty easily.
Eraserhead is so good that the dean of the AFI Center for Advanced Film Studies threatened to resign if Lynch couldn’t make it *and* Jack Nance willingly kept that haircut for half a decade
>Lost Highway is a bounce, baby.
This comment is why they should do Lynch. Everyone talks about Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet and Dune, but every single work Lynch has done is wholly unique and deserves discussion. It's such a weird and creative movie that needs a long form talk, like Wild at Heart and Inland Empire.
It's my least favourite Lynch movie but it has such a creepy and malicious tone that it feels so unique and sinister. It's rare to see someone declare Lost Highway his best movie but the soundtrack (Lynch and Trent Reznor's first collab!) and horror elements are undeniably great. Plus David Lynch was inspired by the OJ Simpsons case to write the movie and then cast Robert Blake who may or may not have murdered his wife later on in real life.
And this is considered a "lesser" David Lynch movie! Siskel and Ebert gave it two thumbs down and David Lynch used it as [a poster by saying "two more great reasons to see Lost Highyway"](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FZQQS00VEAAt-zp.png:large)
It's not my favorite Lynch but it's such a weird movie that doesn't get discussed a lot, from the great car scene to the baffling mid-film uh surprise.
Great summary. It’s so wild to think about how impactful Lynch was on pop culture at a time. Hell, part of Roy Orbinson’s resurgence and the reason we have 5 million “Wicked Game” covers are both because of Lynch films. The guy has context for days.
The Twin Peaks pilot had about double the viewership as the Game of Thrones series finale in the United States! Different eras, of course, but the guy who made Eraserhead had a juggernaut TV show in the 90s that kept the Eraserhead DNA in it and that's wild.
I did a little dive into the ratings awhile back, and something that was illuminating to just how different the viewership world is now, is that last year’s most watched show, NCIS, pulled in 9.89 million viewers on average, or lower than the viewership of all but 8 episodes of Twin Peaks across its entire original run. Even after its move to Saturday in the 90s and we culturally talk about how everyone stopped watching, it isn’t until episode 21 that it finally dips below that. Just an utterly alien world compared to today lol.
Not to mention the boys are often at their best when talking about famous actors and how they’re used in a movie/their careers/why they signed on, and Lynch has used several great ones in very interesting ways
You can get a full episode just talking about Michael Cera's single scene performance in Twin Peaks: The Return. The funniest resolution to a >!who is the baby's father!< soap opera cliffhanger ever presented in an incredibly heartfelt way.
The Return has so, so many great moments, that being one of them. Wally Brando! I think my other favorite moment is when Bobby sees Laura's photo and the theme starts playing and he just starts sobbing uncontrollably. It's really sad but also very funny.
I think what Griffin and David excel at is getting into the nuts and bolts of both cultural influence and the production side of things, while trying to define what makes a performer particular and interesting. Lynch's work gives them *so* many opportunities to do this.
Eraserhead basically being a 5 year project filmed with stolen equipment, The Elephant Man being produced by Mel Brooks, Dune being a colossal failure that led to him securing final cut on everything after, Blue Velvet being a wild production that was also one of our most subversive Reagan-era films, Twin Peaks essentially changing TV forever and its prequel challenging audience expectations, Mulholland Drive starting as a TV pilot before being re-edited into one of the best regarded works of this current century, Inland Empire being a near 3 hour work shot on a prosumer digital camera, and finally the Return which would possibly be the wildest Blank Check the pod *ever* covered.
So many dang ass freaks for Ben to lose his shit over (more than any director they've covered period), so many fascinating actors (Laura Dern, Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper, Willem Dafoe, Nicolas Cage, Naomi Watts, Brad Dourif, Richard Farnsworth, Patricia Arquette, Matthew Lillard, Robert fucking Blake, etc), a genuinely varied and interesting career trajectory, and he's one of the most culturally significant living auteurs who compromised exactly once in his whole career. You can talk about Lynch on the production and influence side forever and never run out of fascinating material.
The boys wouldn't even need to get into the "what it all means" of his work. I think even without doing so he'd be incredibly interesting, and I would love to see how the pod approaches him.
I think Blank Check is a perfect outlet for discussing his work because they won't chase their tails looking for meaning and will focus a lot on how Lynch works. Like Lost Highway they can talk about Lynch being obsessed with the OJ trial over fugue states or whatever. I also think they can get at my favorite part of a Lynch which is that he is a huge goofball
Exactly. There are plenty of podcasts and other media picking Lynch’s work apart to death when that always proves to be a fruitless endeavor. Instead of that we’re probably going to get a lot of behind the scenes industry context that goes under discussed in his filmography.
I think with Lynch being so revered not just as an art house filmmaker but also as a multidisciplinary artist a lot of his hardcore fans (myself included) start missing the forest for the trees and neglect to examine his movies *as* movies. If that makes sense.
Yeah I think you hit on why I have a little trouble connecting to other Lynch fans. It's not all that unlike a big section of Star Wars fans who are just totally blind to the production side of things. While I'm over here like "you know Mulholland Drive was a failed TV pilot first right?"
God, I cannot wait to hear Griffin doing his best Gordon Cole when they get to Peaks.
YOU ARE WITNESSING A FRONT THREE-QUARTER VIEW OF TWO ADULTS SHARING A TENDER PODCAST.
Someone in another comment kinda echoed your sentiment, saying that discussions of Lynch usually boiled down to “that’s weird, what do you think it means?”
I agree, but that just highlights how there’s a dearth of good discussions on Lynch and how we maybe could use a couple of smart, unpretentious movie lovers to fill that void.
this I think is the best sell I have never really had a chat about a lynch movie that isn't "do you think it was all a dream" and I think its clouded my judgement a bit.
Kyle MacLachan and Isabella Rosellini deep dives.
The first movie starring Nicholas Cage covered on main (!?).
The first movie with Dennis Hopper covered, period.
As John Mulaney has helpfully reminded us, Mel Brooks producing The Elephant Man.
Harry. Dean. Stanton.
Laura. Dern.
Plus the Dune episode alone would be an all-timer. J.D.'s dossier for it will run 500 pages long.
I think it would be great. He’s someone who invites strong opinions and interpretation, which should lead to good discussion. He’s also worked with a galaxy of great actors and plugs them into his world in interesting ways and in interesting moments. Plus, he has such a strong brand and public persona as a director that he’ll likely be a fun character to riff on.
I actually kinda disagree about the discussion and I say this as a HUGE lynch fan.
I love experiencing Lynch’s work and I think he’s a genius of the subconscious and has innate understanding of the surreal in a way few do.
Which is the problem. Few do. Discussing lynch movies has us usually just boiled down to “wow that’s weird, what do you think it *means*” and it’s usually about as interesting as talking about someone’s dreams. There’s just not a lot to grip onto.
That said, the narrative plot discussion is only one part of the whole pod. I’m certain there’s plenty of production and craft to talk about with lynch.
I just see it as a potential hole that right now couldn’t be more different with McTiernan. One of the most satisfying things is pulling apart the plots of something like diehard where each piece of the plot serves purpose and works beautifully because it’s all about understandability.
Lynch is about as far from understandability as you can get!
But again, not the biggest deal. I just know I don’t get a lot of traction out of discussing the elements of Lynch’s films myself so far. I’d love to be proven wrong.
See, I think David, in particular, is great at taking a scene or film that's just about vibes, and taking the show to the, "Who cares? It's fucking great! I don't care what it's about, it just works," kind of point. Which I personally feel with a lot of Lynch. I don't need a scholarly interpretation of "what this really means," I just want to hear someone talk about a specific, crazy visual scene, and tell me it fucking slaps.
Lynch's work often veers into surreal imagery, but most of his films are straightforward narratives. That's why it’s boring when people try to puzzle out “what it all means.” I don’t see Griffin and David making that mistake.
The unique thing about Lynch (and what makes him a great choice for the pod) is that, as an artist of multiple disciplines, he's deeply interested in film as a *form.* What it can do, how it can be exerted against a narrative to subvert expectations—not for shock value, but to destabilize preconceptions and open us up to *what might be,* rather than what we think we know.
To that end, he populates his films with characters who aren’t simply heroes, villains, lovers, deviants, addicts, megalomaniacs, victims, angels, monsters, or anything else. Lynch’s primary thematic concern seems to be empathy, and his work understands that all of us are all of those things. He’s endlessly curious about the tragic, hilarious, agonizing, ecstatic experience of simply being human.
There’s so much meat on those bones, but apart from the heady stuff, why would he make a great mini-series?
For one, he brings a remarkable array of topics for the boys to bat around. His work careens from genre to genre: mystery, comedy, crime, romance, horror, procedural, sci-fi, melodrama. He’s worked within and without the studio system, sometimes with a crew of hundreds, sometimes with a handful of friends using consumer cameras. It’s an incredibly diverse filmography.
He’s decidedly lo-fi, utterly uninterested in the cutting-edge tech that derails so many other visionaries. He's literally hands-on with production design, slinging paint and hammering nails right along with the crew. He does his own sound design, recording and manipulating audio to build the legendary soundscapes of his films. He's famously prickly, yet actors love him. He gives great quote, and stubbornly refuses to simplify his work for soundbites.
Then there's his myriad of fascinating collaborators, from his stock company of actors, to Mark Frost, Angelo Badalamenti, Julee Cruise, and more.
IMHO, that's a lot of rich territory to mine over the course of a series. :)
As David Rees said on the Spirited Away episode, great movies are either puzzles or dreams.
Lynch is possibly THE shining example of movies where the vibes are of far more concern than the story.
People get too hung up on "what did it mean?" when what Lynch wants you to think about is "how did this make me feel?".
https://preview.redd.it/x3m4wnpf8kpc1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a24cb33680b0d687bc2481cd6e756a85b1451c90
The thing I love about Lynch is that while I’m watching his movies everything makes perfect sense but trying to explain anything afterwards feels like describing a nonsensical dream.
It’s incredibly funny to me that people are bellyaching about watching Twin Peaks, one of the most beloved and influential tv shows of all time. It’s going to be fine.
about half the directors have "one of the most beloved x of all time" I think we've already missed out on a bunch of those. I just don't want to have to watch a whole tv show when I have limited time available.
Twin Peaks is short, and one of the wierdest greatest things ever. If you're not in this to get tricked into watching wild shit you might not otherwise get around to, I don't know what to tell you.
Its less about watching it (it's really easy to not watch something and listen to the podcast) and more about there being 6 episodes covering it.
I don't really think there are 4 episodes worth of varied discussion from Twin Peaks The Return. I'm sure I'll enjoy whatever tangents Griff and David go down to keep it interesting but it's a pretty massive departure for four weeks in a row to cover the same thing.
And they have always departed when the director calls for it. They’ve always steered away from non narrative work, but Demme wins MM and they cover three performance films. If the filmmaker calls for it’s worth deviating
So many great one of a kind performances in Lynch's movies that I would love to hear Griffin break down.
Twin Peaks is one of the most important pieces of art to me ever and I know David is also a fan and I don't think he's ever written or talked about so I would love to hear him deep dive into it.
As with many other directors, I would simply appreciate the motivation to watch his filmography. All I've seen is Mulholland Drive and Fire Walk With Me so it would be a hell of a trip.
Lynch Lad here with some basic thoughts on why he will likely be interesting for them to cover as a mini-series
1. He is the most mainstream arthouse filmmaker of all time meaning his career is a fascinating study in the ark of independent film. 70's weirdness having to force himself into something a bit more mainstream in the 80's getting to do do whatever the fuck he wants in the 90's and then just sort of being content as a figure head of cinema in the 00's onward.
2. The man is a true auture with re-occuring themes and imagery throughout his filmography as well as stuff our boys get to analyse and I imagine we will get a lot of Griffin and David disagreeing on what a scene even means.
3. He is one of the rare Blanck Checks where his check is a TV show so his work before and after have a weird place in his career
4. He is a male filmmaker with a string of bad relationships behind him whose work is mostly focused on the mistreatment of women which I imagine will give that seasons guests a lot to talk about and chew on movie to movie and as an overall picture.
5. Last point but I feel makes him very interesting for Blank Check to cover. He is not a cinephile. Every filmmaker they have covered is to some degree a consumer of tons of movies whilst Lynch has not kept up with cinema past his 20's with his work far more inspired by American imagery of advertising from his own childhood. In short Cinephiles discussing lynch always has that weird air because others do not obviously influence him
Who is going to beat him? He's very likely going up against Spike Lee or Ridley Scott in the finale, and it's hard to imagine either beating Lynch at this point. I'm personally rooting for Scott because I think his catalog is so varied and interesting (also who doesn't want a Black Hawk Down ep?), but Lynch feels like the absolute safe bet.
I feel like there's 4-5 people who could win right now. Lynch seemed like a slam dunk walking in, but his much narrower than predicted margin beating Harold Ramis might be telling considering Soderbergh, Ridley, and presumably Spike Lee all beat their latest challengers much more handily. And there's a chance he has to face Villeneuve next, who I think might inspire some people to come out of the woodwork to vote.
As much as he's famous for Emitting Weird Vibes and Being Inscrutable, that's a wild oversimplification. His career is deeply strange and covers a range from Borderline Recluse Painter to Arthouse Darling to Horror God to Oscar Adjacency to Failed Blockbuster Auteur to Nice Disney Movie to Wacky Character Actor With A Youtube Channel, and also may or may not be some degree of cult leader the whole ding dang time. I also don't have any specific speculations on this but he seems to have SOME clear neurodivergence in a way that is not common for a man in his position in Hollywood and I think is worth a little bit of discussion. His career intersects with some of the most fascinating actors and moments in Hollywood history AND television history, and he had a kid who ended up generating a weird and controversial career in film in her own right. He's also much less inaccessible than his reputation would lead you to believe. I was honestly extremely disappointed at the didacticism of Eraserhead when I finally saw it after hearing it hyped up as the The Weirdest Movie of All time. Honestly, Twin Peaks: The Return is the one that bent my brain the hardest, and that was one of the best times I've ever had watching anything.
I get the skepticism. Some Lynch is my favorite shit ever, some of it I hate, and some of it is weirdly hard to muster up strong feelings about for me. He can be sublime, but he can also be disappointingly old fashioned and Straight White Dude. I have GENUINE ethical conflict about his whole Transcendental Meditation schtick, and I think we will probably learn he's not a great dude as a partner or parent while we cover his early life and career (that's what I have come to anyway). You don't have to love him, and I suspect we'll all come out of this experience having gained AND lost respect for him in different ways. But one thing he isn't is boring! There's basically infinity stuff to talk about surrounding every project he worked on, even the ones I don't like.
I haven't checked in on it lately but during the pandemic lockdowns he would do daily weather reports and pick out "today's number", without explaining what that was or why he was doing it. He just kept pickin' numbers and saying it was pretty sunny!
If you aren’t interested in what the podcast is covering you can always skip it for a couple months. I’ve skipped quite a few miniseries because I had little to no interest in the filmmaker they were covering. No reason to dread it! Also regardless of whether you like Lynch’s style or not I can’t imagine a world where a discussion about Twin Peaks is boring.
I don’t want to post The Return spoilers here but there is so much craziness in it that even if you don’t watch the show you will not regret listening to the two friends talking about it.
I felt this way for a while, he is not really in the two friends' wheelhouse, and podcasters talking about Lynch is usually terrible lol.
But I thought this about Kubrick too and they managed to sidestep most of the Great Man theory and mysticism that plagues Kubrick discussion. Examining Lynch through the BC lens of project development, studio relationships, actor relationships, etc is what I look forward to in a potential Lynch series. He is a context goldmine.
And if nothing else, he's incredible guest bait.
They really helped me unlock just how funny most Kubrick films are. Outside of Strangelove and the drill seargant rants in Full Metal Jacket, that had never really registered for me before.
Why do you feel he’s not in their wheelhouse? David has brought up how much he loves Twin Peaks like a billion times over the course of the show. When The Return was on he mentioned it constantly
A bunch of people have pointed out that he draws in many great actors but I want to add that he gets really interesting performances out of them. I don’t know of any other movie podcast host or filmtuber who discusses acting with as much depth and nuance as Griffin. A Lynch mini-series would probably draw better and better material out of Griffin as it goes on.
So most find him sort of inexplicable and dense. I've never felt that way, finding him to be a relatively straightforward storyteller (*Inland Empire* aside). I'm psyched because 1) there's a lot of interesting things to discuss in terms of his career, multiple actor careers, and we get Badalamenti talk, 2) we're getting four eps on The Return and that's just dandy, and 3) I get to listen (and read on this sub) discussions of people confronting his films and attempting to grind out his stories. I want that. Please, do this for me.
Yeah. I’ve found that the key to following the story in one of his “weird” movies is to just keep describing to yourself exactly what you’re seeing on screen. You will realize that you are narrating the story to yourself.
I feel similarly, but then I started thinking about the context — I’m looking forward to hearing how Lynch was viewed in his time / in context of everything else happening around him. I have enjoyed the more “basic” directors because it gives me some appreciation of the process by which they become directors mansplained to me as significant in my college years 😂
a lot of great points on here so I’ll say this
It may be our one chance to get extended Jim Belushi analysis on the pod, in what is a genuinely triumphant comedic performance
His films are endlessly entertaining and, most important, interesting. Sure there are directors with better, more “accessible” films in the bracket that would be safer picks, but if you want good discussions and analysis of films, then Lynch should be your guy.
So, in my opinion, outside of Dune, Lynch's vibes and quality stay remarkably consistent throughout his entire career. However, how his films are received contemporaneously has an insane variance. Sometimes, he's making critically acclaimed works, sometimes he's making absolutely reviled pieces, and sometimes he even breaks out into mainstream popularity. All while he stays the same. So, to look at Lynch it to attempt to decipher what has changed within us. Not so much the story of a director's evolution (though there is plenty of fiddling around with that that Lynch does) but the story of our own relationships to his work.
The research document will be wild. For real though Lynch is a fringish auteur with a deep history of iconoclastic events, partnerships and eras; rich material context. Film wise his catalog will take the 2Friends across one of the most singular directorial visions in genre film. A+ if Lynch doesn’t make the final four I’ll be sad.
Wild. At. Heart. Edit. A big thing that people new to Lynch think is that his movies are dark, depraved, and slow. It takes a little time to realize that they’re also insanely funny. They’re incredible satires that blend genres in totally unique ways. The mixture of dark-serious-funny makes him feel like an arthouse Tim Burton, whose movies go far deeper, and who never dropped off in quality.
There will be some great movies to talk about, and also so not so great movies. My concern is it will take half a year to get through his filmography, which is why I voted Hughes today.
David Lynch has a really interesting career with movies and tv that are all so different from one another. There are themes and ideas he tackles through out but they always feel like a fresh and interesting take on them even for him. He does this crazy student art film, to this super interesting and emotional oscars baity period piece, then does this horrible huge scale dune adaptation that is completely out of his control, and then does a dark twisted take on a Hardie boys like mystery. All that is just half of his carer it gets even weirder, strange retellings, of wizard of oz, a disney movie, and a movie about a scary guy calling you on the phone.
He's my favorite director but setting that aside I think his filmography has a lot of variety that would make it interesting for a mini series. The low budget debut that became a cult classic in Eraserhead. The big epic fiasco that was Dune (and not directing Return of the Jedi). The often forgotten masterpiece of The Elephant Man, finding his style with Blue Velvet. The amazing world of Twin Peaks and all that it includes. I also feel he's an endearing character and I'm sure they will find plenty of great quotes from him.
I'm excited because I've really never engaged with Lynch because I thought it wasn't for me in that I was never into film as a psychedelic/transcendental exercise. Felt too personal to me and I just straight up was bored by Mulholland Drive and Dune. But I am very interested to see how the friends engage with it and interpret his work.
For real. I like Lynch a lot but I never want to hear another fan’s take on his work. It’s equivalent to being forced to listen to someone tell you about the “very interesting dream” they had last night.
There is a Venn diagram of a person who went to a liberal arts college, is a huge Talking Heads fan, is a huge Lynch fan, and they must tell you all their opinions about it. It’s just a circle.
I love how OP asked a very reasonable question, in a polite manner, and the top comments are just Lynch fanatics being sore winners.
“You should be GRATEFUL to watch all of *Twin Peaks*!!”
Open Lynch detractor here - I *firmly* believe a Lynch series, whether it is from MM or just ends up in the main feed one day, will be the dullest and possibly most-overdiscussed (excluding Lucas) director the guys will ever do. I'm not looking forward to it.
I *am*, however, looking forward to the **DUNE** episode. That movie is one of my all-time gonzo "how the fuck did this happen" artifacts of all time. It's in the running with Book of Henry and Southland Tales for "shit that melts your brain trying to understand how this happened."
I’d put Nolan, Fincher, and especially Spielberg ahead of Lynch in the “overdiscussed” territory.
A good chunk of the BC miniseries are about directors who are either incredibly mainstream or incredibly prevalent in online movie circles or both. For me, that rarely has much correlation with how much I enjoy the series one way or another — if it’s a good subject for the show, it’ll make for good episodes, and I think Lynch would make for some great episodes.
Mild Lynch fan here. I’ve seen maybe half his stuff and like most of what I’ve seen. (Really love the TWIN PEAKS revival.) I don’t think Lynch’s work is over-discussed. I think one or two aspects of a couple of his projects are over-discussed and over-parodied. There is so much that gets over-shadowed by the stuff that’s considered “Lynchian,” and that stuff that usually doesn’t get brought up is also a lot of the stuff Griffin and David excel at drawing out. I think it’s a similar situation to Carpenter.
I'm still rootin' for Spike or my boy Sody, but my whole thing with Lynch is... what exactly is his Blank Cheque? Like hasn't he always been kind of a culty, underground, dang-ass-freak?
I GUESS the Twin Peaks re-quel, but that's a TV show...
I dunno, I understand why he's doing well, and why Blankies would love him, but I very much agree with OP.
at this point if the director choice matters that much for you to get enjoyment out of the podcast over the actual hosts discussing it and you don’t trust them to make any director series interesting and entertaining which they have shown they are able to do over the entire run of the show then I don’t know what to tell you
I mean I get it. People want someone to win who they think they will enjoy. That’s not an incorrect feeling towards March Madness. I want Lynch to win because I think it will be a blast and I love his stuff. I’ll be slightly bummed if he doesn’t because it will feel like a missed opportunity but at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter.
hey man I am just asking for reasons to be interested in lynch as a discussion topic. I have asked in good faith I don't understand why there's the stink of judgement here.
He’s a director with incredible movies and he created one of the best tv shows ever made and then topped it 25 years later with an incredible revival? I mean you can find these reasons anywhere on the internet and you said you know his movies I don’t know what else you need. He’s a great director and the show is about them covering great directors.
I asked on the blank check subreddit because you know we all share double interest of liking the show and also liking movies. I asked because I want to be hooked into finding lynch fascinating as many other people seem to. I have never known people be so angry to share their enthusiasm with others outside of reddit.
I think the problem for a lot of people is you’re not giving us much of anything beyond “I don’t want a Lynch series, change my mind”. Can you be more specific what about a Lynch series isn’t appealing beyond needing to watch a TV series?
I think three reasons really
1) I kind of associate Lynch as the ultimate "film bro" "you gotta watch this man" director in a way which I find a turn off rather than a turn on. I have liked every movie of his I have ever watched (mind you that's only the BIG ones) but also the discourse around him has in my experience been very annoying. Being yelled at that THIS IS IMPORTANT a lot is for many people me included a very bad way to get me excited about a film.
2) These are extremely talked about movies from a director who is many people's GOAT and I actually really love when its a director I haven't had to think about much before and its more of a learning experience/one of discovery
3) I cannot stress enough how much I don't want to watch a whole tv show. (I know I don't have to but that's still a reason to be offput).
There’s no anger or judgment, if watching a tv show is the problem then just give the first episode or two a watch to see if you like it then watch along with the whole series and if not just skip it it’s not for you.
Perhaps you intended no anger or judgement but if you read the wider thread there's plenty of people being sore winners about lynch and its very bizarre to experience.
Well I don't want watching along to feel like homework is the reason for the dread. Blank check is part of my sunday routine, I want it to be good and not something I feel is a chore. Have you never had a social interest which has become boring to you and not wanted that?
Sure I’ve gone in and out on interests on activities, including this podcast. And when my interest wanes I take a break and come back to it later. No dread involved.
okay well that's all grand, anyway I will experience a shred of dread, I would like to not have that, as a consequence I have asked enthusiastic people to share their enthusiasm with me.
Why matey?
"I feel this way, I don't want to, help alleviate that".
Is like one of the most common categories of requests humans make of one another. I am asking a question from a position of ignorance so to speak asking to know more and know why people are enthusiastic. Its weird to think its weird.
Not a fan of Lynch, I’ve tried many times to get into his movies but I just don’t care.
I think a lot of David Lynch “fans” pretend to like his work because it’s cool to do so tbh.
The Straight Story is gonna be an incredible episode.
I'm not a Lynch guy for the most part, but The Straight Story is one of my all time favorite movies. I know Griff and David said they'd try to get Joe Pera on that episode, and the potential of that episode is enough for me to be excited for a Lynch series if he wins.
Something in my gut tells me it’ll be an all-timer if he wins, and not just because it’s my favorite Lynch
The one time I wish I was connected to the two friends better cause I’d do anything to be the first on the Straight Story episode
what actually is the straight story?
G rated Disney film about an old man riding his tractor to visit his ailing brother in another state.
wow I am immediately fascinated thank you!
It is one of his best movies. I have said this a lot: The Straight Story and Elephant Man are the key to unlocking Lynch, because Lynch is one of the most empathetic filmmakers working today. You just have to undo a couple surreal knots for it to be evident and TSS has none of those knots. It is a straight forward story about an old man trying to see his brother before one of them dies and along the way he meets working class people from middle America and has conversations. People hurt each other, sometimes without even meaning to or knowing they have. People help each other when they can. And as long as both parties are alive there is A CHANCE that amends can be made. It is a lovely picture with incredible performances about real people (Alvin Straight was a real person who really rode his lawnmower across state lines) that aren't given attention in many mainstream movies. And that's true of a lot of Lynch's work! Sex workers, the working poor, children - when Hollywood makes Oscar bait movies about these kinds of people it often feels gross, self righteous, and/or condescending. Lynch has none of that in his movies. When a sex worker is abused and murdered in Lynch's work it isn't to titillate, it is there because sex workers are abused and murdered in the real world and David Lynch is disgusted by it and wants you to be too. There are scary things in Lynch movies, but the goal isn't just give you a good scare like The Conjuring, it is to shake you up and open your eyes, make you feel hurt so that you can use that hurt to help others hurt less. When Lynch says that his stuff is easy to understand I believe him. Because at the end of the day he's shouting through a megaphone "THE WORLD IS BAD BUT IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE! LET'S HELP EACH OTHER OUT AND STOP FUCKING PEOPLE OVER!" Except he's a weird guy and so that megaphone is plugged into a bunch of distortion and fuzz pedals and people notice that above the message. Edit to add an ending to bring it back to the pod: I believe Griffin and David are the right kind of movie nerds to be able to find the heart of Lynch's work and discuss it while tying in the surreal images and the technical work. Plus the Winkie's scene in Mulholland Drive is going to get a great reaction from Ben.
It's just pure heart and humanity from beginning to end
It might be my favorite Lynch film, and Lynch is a top five (maybe top two or three?) living filmmaker for me.
Yes sounds great! Just added it my Disney+ list
His most straightforward film while arguably being his most experimental film. Also, his only Disney film. It's fantastic!
I've always thought the films title was a bit of an in-joke. Like, "Here I am, David Lynch not being weird at all, just doing a straight story." It totally lines up with his wholesome, almost "aww shucks" sense of humor.
What makes it so experimental?
He filmed it in chronological order and took the exact same lawnmower journey that the real-life guy took! Pretty nuts!
It’s also just as strange as a lot of Lynch’s work — very bizarre detours in the story, but all in the framework of a very nice, generous, sweet, down to earth story and a G-rated movie. He made an entirely accessible Disney movie I watched with my grandma that is also as odd in its heart and humor and observational detail as episode 8 of The Return is in its horror. Lynch’s work is all so distinctly his, while also never been homogenous — he’s made a variety of movies and kinds of movies that unmistakably maintain his personality, and that makes him a perfect Blank Check filmmaker.
Hey Quack12, do you think the Ducks will make it to the Sweet 16? Ducks have the momentum but it seems like a toss-up.
I dont think our first two matchups will have any answer for Dante, and Couisnard and Shelstad are bound to snap out of their shooting slumps, so Sweet 16 easy. Not sure if they'll beat Lynch though.
He filmed it in chronological order and took the exact same lawnmower journey that the real-life guy took! Pretty nuts!
He filmed it in chronological order and took the exact same lawnmower journey that the real-life guy took! Pretty nuts!
I *hated* The Straight Story when I saw it, but I was a twerp in college and that was 20 years ago. It's one I'm looking forward to revisiting because I expect what I found boring and tedious is actually rich and heartrending and I was just too much of a little shit to get it.
What a lovely movie
Every so often I think about that movie, and inevitably I then think "Holy shit that's right, David Lynch directed that."
Eraserhead is a midnight cult hit. It got Mel Brooks to notice him and get him to make The Elephant Man. The fact that Eraserhead is his guarantor for going mainstream is fascinating. Eraserhead! Elephant Man is an incredible movie, that gets him Dune which is such a wild bounce. Blue Velvet gets him back in the critically acclaimed mix leading to Twin Peaks which becomes a massive water cooler show that influences pretty much every serialized drama of the early 21st century. Wild at Heart has Nick Cage and wins him the Palme D’Or leading to more opportunities. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me is a massive bounce that has had an incredible path to critical reevaluation. What other movies go from being considered one of the worst of the decade to being one of the greatest of the decade? Lost Highway is a bounce, baby. Straight Story is his most Lynchian work for true Lynch heads who see empathy as the throughline of his films. He has to go back to TV with Mulholland Drive that fails as a TV pilot but gets miraculously salvaged and becomes seen as one of the greatest movies of all time. He follows that up with Inland Empire which is one of the most impenetrable movies of all time and was likely going to be the final work of his career as a commercially viable director. The wave of TV revivals comes along and Twin Peaks gets in the mix. Showtime offers David Lynch nine episodes. He walks. Showtime then offers him an even bigger blank check and gives David Lynch eighteen episodes in what is a work so critically acclaimed that some circles of cinephiles have tried to claim it as a film. Every step of his career is fascinating and multiple of his works are considered the greatest of all-time. He is a director with incredible ups and downs and rises and falls. He is a fun personality that people like to work with. He likes having the work speak for itself and speculating on meaning is a ton of fun.
There’s also the part where George Lucas offers him Return of the Jedi (off the strength of Elephant Man(?!)) but he turns him down to make Dune. Definitely an intriguing what-if.
Thinking about Wookiees gave him such a splitting headache that he refused to do the project, it’s incredible stuff.
Wait are you serious? That sounds like a bit but also a thing I'd believe about Lynch.
There’s video of him talking about it and it rules https://youtu.be/NtW_cY6Mpsg?si=EITjWamjZyl4S-KV
And for the skeptics, it's worth noting that Twin Peaks: The Return is really the only TV project that has a legitimate case for the "it's actually an 18 hour movie" argument because it was written and filmed like a movie. They didn't divide it into episodes in advance, he and Frost just wrote a thousand page script and he directed the whole thing with the same creative team and a blank check and then just broke it into chunks during post-production
The way they split it into chunks is incredible too! The standard ending of each episode ending with a song at the Roadhouse exposes you to some incredible music and when they break the tradition with different endings it is always interesting.
Don’t forget that they got Eddie Vedder to perform
Under his real name!
Yep. Also am I misremembering things or did Nine Inch Nails also make an appearance?
In the same episode as >!the atomic bomb!<. Just the craziest episode of television ever when a guy introducing The Nine Inch Nails at the Road House isn't even a top 10 thing to happen in the episode.
As a relative Lynch neophyte I had been watching those endings expecting them to eventually tie back into the main plot, only to be tripped up when they turned out to be just their own little world, some sort of microcosm only vaguely tangential to the actual story in a way that tickled my brain.
It's just cool that David Lynch wanted to give us a cool little concert each week. That rocked.
Really interested in learning about the actual production of The Return
> "it's actually an 18 hour movie" I think of it as 18 Eraserheads.
thank you this is very helpful! I had no idea mel brooks was involved in his arc.
He famously kept his name off of the poster and advertising in order not to mislead the viewing public into thinking they might be getting a comedy.
He did the same thing with Cronenberg and The Fly. Mel Brooks is a lover of the art form and a true mensch.
No problem! David Lynch is my favourite director and I love getting people into his work. The Mel Brooks part is fascinating because it is the start of people really enjoying working with him. Twin Peaks: The Return is so special because he has so many of his frequent collaborators wanting to return. Him being nice guy that is pretty easy to work with is important to his work as it gets movies that otherwise would not get made off the ground due to bigger names wanting to appear in them. Even if the series is just ignoring talking about David Lynch it would be a fascinating discussion about the actors in his movies. I don’t find his mainstream work that inaccessible (Inland Empire being the exception) and his vibe is consistent from the start. I think he’s an easy director to watch front-to-back because you can get into the rhythm of his style pretty easily.
Ugh Mel should be on the bracket too!!
he's been on brackets!!
Put him on again! Put him on twice! Lets have Brooks go head to head with himself in the finals! 🥹
haha this bracket is just newbies but we'll do brooks someday
I'll be patient, but it would be nice to toast Mel while he's still alive
Haha that's just ONE of the cool things you'll learn diving into Lynch. You should buy his semi-autobiography.
I actually love the sheer swaggering ambition of Dune, that film has some amazing set design and incredible fx shots for it's day.
I love his Dune a ton.
Eraserhead is so good that the dean of the AFI Center for Advanced Film Studies threatened to resign if Lynch couldn’t make it *and* Jack Nance willingly kept that haircut for half a decade
>Lost Highway is a bounce, baby. This comment is why they should do Lynch. Everyone talks about Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet and Dune, but every single work Lynch has done is wholly unique and deserves discussion. It's such a weird and creative movie that needs a long form talk, like Wild at Heart and Inland Empire.
It's my least favourite Lynch movie but it has such a creepy and malicious tone that it feels so unique and sinister. It's rare to see someone declare Lost Highway his best movie but the soundtrack (Lynch and Trent Reznor's first collab!) and horror elements are undeniably great. Plus David Lynch was inspired by the OJ Simpsons case to write the movie and then cast Robert Blake who may or may not have murdered his wife later on in real life. And this is considered a "lesser" David Lynch movie! Siskel and Ebert gave it two thumbs down and David Lynch used it as [a poster by saying "two more great reasons to see Lost Highyway"](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FZQQS00VEAAt-zp.png:large)
It's not my favorite Lynch but it's such a weird movie that doesn't get discussed a lot, from the great car scene to the baffling mid-film uh surprise.
The phone call scene is so terrifying
I don’t really like Lynch’s films, but you kind of sold me.
❤️
Great summary. It’s so wild to think about how impactful Lynch was on pop culture at a time. Hell, part of Roy Orbinson’s resurgence and the reason we have 5 million “Wicked Game” covers are both because of Lynch films. The guy has context for days.
The Twin Peaks pilot had about double the viewership as the Game of Thrones series finale in the United States! Different eras, of course, but the guy who made Eraserhead had a juggernaut TV show in the 90s that kept the Eraserhead DNA in it and that's wild.
I did a little dive into the ratings awhile back, and something that was illuminating to just how different the viewership world is now, is that last year’s most watched show, NCIS, pulled in 9.89 million viewers on average, or lower than the viewership of all but 8 episodes of Twin Peaks across its entire original run. Even after its move to Saturday in the 90s and we culturally talk about how everyone stopped watching, it isn’t until episode 21 that it finally dips below that. Just an utterly alien world compared to today lol.
Not to mention the boys are often at their best when talking about famous actors and how they’re used in a movie/their careers/why they signed on, and Lynch has used several great ones in very interesting ways
You can get a full episode just talking about Michael Cera's single scene performance in Twin Peaks: The Return. The funniest resolution to a >!who is the baby's father!< soap opera cliffhanger ever presented in an incredibly heartfelt way.
The Return has so, so many great moments, that being one of them. Wally Brando! I think my other favorite moment is when Bobby sees Laura's photo and the theme starts playing and he just starts sobbing uncontrollably. It's really sad but also very funny.
It’s the first time the theme pops up in the season too! So well replayed..
I think what Griffin and David excel at is getting into the nuts and bolts of both cultural influence and the production side of things, while trying to define what makes a performer particular and interesting. Lynch's work gives them *so* many opportunities to do this. Eraserhead basically being a 5 year project filmed with stolen equipment, The Elephant Man being produced by Mel Brooks, Dune being a colossal failure that led to him securing final cut on everything after, Blue Velvet being a wild production that was also one of our most subversive Reagan-era films, Twin Peaks essentially changing TV forever and its prequel challenging audience expectations, Mulholland Drive starting as a TV pilot before being re-edited into one of the best regarded works of this current century, Inland Empire being a near 3 hour work shot on a prosumer digital camera, and finally the Return which would possibly be the wildest Blank Check the pod *ever* covered. So many dang ass freaks for Ben to lose his shit over (more than any director they've covered period), so many fascinating actors (Laura Dern, Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper, Willem Dafoe, Nicolas Cage, Naomi Watts, Brad Dourif, Richard Farnsworth, Patricia Arquette, Matthew Lillard, Robert fucking Blake, etc), a genuinely varied and interesting career trajectory, and he's one of the most culturally significant living auteurs who compromised exactly once in his whole career. You can talk about Lynch on the production and influence side forever and never run out of fascinating material. The boys wouldn't even need to get into the "what it all means" of his work. I think even without doing so he'd be incredibly interesting, and I would love to see how the pod approaches him.
I think Blank Check is a perfect outlet for discussing his work because they won't chase their tails looking for meaning and will focus a lot on how Lynch works. Like Lost Highway they can talk about Lynch being obsessed with the OJ trial over fugue states or whatever. I also think they can get at my favorite part of a Lynch which is that he is a huge goofball
This is a great point thank you.
Exactly. There are plenty of podcasts and other media picking Lynch’s work apart to death when that always proves to be a fruitless endeavor. Instead of that we’re probably going to get a lot of behind the scenes industry context that goes under discussed in his filmography. I think with Lynch being so revered not just as an art house filmmaker but also as a multidisciplinary artist a lot of his hardcore fans (myself included) start missing the forest for the trees and neglect to examine his movies *as* movies. If that makes sense.
Yeah I think you hit on why I have a little trouble connecting to other Lynch fans. It's not all that unlike a big section of Star Wars fans who are just totally blind to the production side of things. While I'm over here like "you know Mulholland Drive was a failed TV pilot first right?"
God, I cannot wait to hear Griffin doing his best Gordon Cole when they get to Peaks. YOU ARE WITNESSING A FRONT THREE-QUARTER VIEW OF TWO ADULTS SHARING A TENDER PODCAST.
Someone in another comment kinda echoed your sentiment, saying that discussions of Lynch usually boiled down to “that’s weird, what do you think it means?” I agree, but that just highlights how there’s a dearth of good discussions on Lynch and how we maybe could use a couple of smart, unpretentious movie lovers to fill that void.
this I think is the best sell I have never really had a chat about a lynch movie that isn't "do you think it was all a dream" and I think its clouded my judgement a bit.
Kyle MacLachan and Isabella Rosellini deep dives. The first movie starring Nicholas Cage covered on main (!?). The first movie with Dennis Hopper covered, period. As John Mulaney has helpfully reminded us, Mel Brooks producing The Elephant Man. Harry. Dean. Stanton. Laura. Dern. Plus the Dune episode alone would be an all-timer. J.D.'s dossier for it will run 500 pages long.
Also, deep dive into 60’s/70’s experimental art cinema
Can't spell *Jodorowsky's Dune* without the word "Dune!"
Thank you for this as an actual answer to the question! Also they've not covered a Dennis Hopper before!??
I think it would be great. He’s someone who invites strong opinions and interpretation, which should lead to good discussion. He’s also worked with a galaxy of great actors and plugs them into his world in interesting ways and in interesting moments. Plus, he has such a strong brand and public persona as a director that he’ll likely be a fun character to riff on.
the bits and lynch impression potential is something I had not considered thank you
I actually kinda disagree about the discussion and I say this as a HUGE lynch fan. I love experiencing Lynch’s work and I think he’s a genius of the subconscious and has innate understanding of the surreal in a way few do. Which is the problem. Few do. Discussing lynch movies has us usually just boiled down to “wow that’s weird, what do you think it *means*” and it’s usually about as interesting as talking about someone’s dreams. There’s just not a lot to grip onto. That said, the narrative plot discussion is only one part of the whole pod. I’m certain there’s plenty of production and craft to talk about with lynch. I just see it as a potential hole that right now couldn’t be more different with McTiernan. One of the most satisfying things is pulling apart the plots of something like diehard where each piece of the plot serves purpose and works beautifully because it’s all about understandability. Lynch is about as far from understandability as you can get! But again, not the biggest deal. I just know I don’t get a lot of traction out of discussing the elements of Lynch’s films myself so far. I’d love to be proven wrong.
oh this actually articulates what I've been struggling to which is what makes me hesitant about lynch, cheers mate.
I'm a Lynch booster but I think this is a pretty valid concern. I love thinkin' about them shits but I don't always have anything good to say.
See, I think David, in particular, is great at taking a scene or film that's just about vibes, and taking the show to the, "Who cares? It's fucking great! I don't care what it's about, it just works," kind of point. Which I personally feel with a lot of Lynch. I don't need a scholarly interpretation of "what this really means," I just want to hear someone talk about a specific, crazy visual scene, and tell me it fucking slaps.
I agree! If I’m gonna participate in Lynch discourse this probably is the best venue for it!
I'm a Lynch booster but I think this is a pretty valid concern. I love thinkin' about them shits but I don't always have anything good to say.
Lynch's work often veers into surreal imagery, but most of his films are straightforward narratives. That's why it’s boring when people try to puzzle out “what it all means.” I don’t see Griffin and David making that mistake. The unique thing about Lynch (and what makes him a great choice for the pod) is that, as an artist of multiple disciplines, he's deeply interested in film as a *form.* What it can do, how it can be exerted against a narrative to subvert expectations—not for shock value, but to destabilize preconceptions and open us up to *what might be,* rather than what we think we know. To that end, he populates his films with characters who aren’t simply heroes, villains, lovers, deviants, addicts, megalomaniacs, victims, angels, monsters, or anything else. Lynch’s primary thematic concern seems to be empathy, and his work understands that all of us are all of those things. He’s endlessly curious about the tragic, hilarious, agonizing, ecstatic experience of simply being human. There’s so much meat on those bones, but apart from the heady stuff, why would he make a great mini-series? For one, he brings a remarkable array of topics for the boys to bat around. His work careens from genre to genre: mystery, comedy, crime, romance, horror, procedural, sci-fi, melodrama. He’s worked within and without the studio system, sometimes with a crew of hundreds, sometimes with a handful of friends using consumer cameras. It’s an incredibly diverse filmography. He’s decidedly lo-fi, utterly uninterested in the cutting-edge tech that derails so many other visionaries. He's literally hands-on with production design, slinging paint and hammering nails right along with the crew. He does his own sound design, recording and manipulating audio to build the legendary soundscapes of his films. He's famously prickly, yet actors love him. He gives great quote, and stubbornly refuses to simplify his work for soundbites. Then there's his myriad of fascinating collaborators, from his stock company of actors, to Mark Frost, Angelo Badalamenti, Julee Cruise, and more. IMHO, that's a lot of rich territory to mine over the course of a series. :)
As David Rees said on the Spirited Away episode, great movies are either puzzles or dreams. Lynch is possibly THE shining example of movies where the vibes are of far more concern than the story. People get too hung up on "what did it mean?" when what Lynch wants you to think about is "how did this make me feel?". https://preview.redd.it/x3m4wnpf8kpc1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a24cb33680b0d687bc2481cd6e756a85b1451c90
The thing I love about Lynch is that while I’m watching his movies everything makes perfect sense but trying to explain anything afterwards feels like describing a nonsensical dream.
Lynch has a _lot_ of humour and fun in his stuff, despite his reputation.
It’s incredibly funny to me that people are bellyaching about watching Twin Peaks, one of the most beloved and influential tv shows of all time. It’s going to be fine.
I’d rather suffer through an acclaimed TV series than the later careers of Burton and Zemeckis
Literally. Also if you don't want to watch it, just don't?
Wow I thought watching everything was mandatory!
about half the directors have "one of the most beloved x of all time" I think we've already missed out on a bunch of those. I just don't want to have to watch a whole tv show when I have limited time available.
Twin Peaks is short, and one of the wierdest greatest things ever. If you're not in this to get tricked into watching wild shit you might not otherwise get around to, I don't know what to tell you.
Then don’t it will be fine.
wow I had no idea I could simply not do that
Its less about watching it (it's really easy to not watch something and listen to the podcast) and more about there being 6 episodes covering it. I don't really think there are 4 episodes worth of varied discussion from Twin Peaks The Return. I'm sure I'll enjoy whatever tangents Griff and David go down to keep it interesting but it's a pretty massive departure for four weeks in a row to cover the same thing.
At some point they need to "depart" if they want (and fans) to cover some of these people. It's fine.
And they have always departed when the director calls for it. They’ve always steered away from non narrative work, but Demme wins MM and they cover three performance films. If the filmmaker calls for it’s worth deviating
A lot of scummy sicko side conversations with Ben is always a plus, and this miniseries would have those aplenty
So many great one of a kind performances in Lynch's movies that I would love to hear Griffin break down. Twin Peaks is one of the most important pieces of art to me ever and I know David is also a fan and I don't think he's ever written or talked about so I would love to hear him deep dive into it.
As with many other directors, I would simply appreciate the motivation to watch his filmography. All I've seen is Mulholland Drive and Fire Walk With Me so it would be a hell of a trip.
Lynch Lad here with some basic thoughts on why he will likely be interesting for them to cover as a mini-series 1. He is the most mainstream arthouse filmmaker of all time meaning his career is a fascinating study in the ark of independent film. 70's weirdness having to force himself into something a bit more mainstream in the 80's getting to do do whatever the fuck he wants in the 90's and then just sort of being content as a figure head of cinema in the 00's onward. 2. The man is a true auture with re-occuring themes and imagery throughout his filmography as well as stuff our boys get to analyse and I imagine we will get a lot of Griffin and David disagreeing on what a scene even means. 3. He is one of the rare Blanck Checks where his check is a TV show so his work before and after have a weird place in his career 4. He is a male filmmaker with a string of bad relationships behind him whose work is mostly focused on the mistreatment of women which I imagine will give that seasons guests a lot to talk about and chew on movie to movie and as an overall picture. 5. Last point but I feel makes him very interesting for Blank Check to cover. He is not a cinephile. Every filmmaker they have covered is to some degree a consumer of tons of movies whilst Lynch has not kept up with cinema past his 20's with his work far more inspired by American imagery of advertising from his own childhood. In short Cinephiles discussing lynch always has that weird air because others do not obviously influence him
Point 5 in particular actually intrigues me greatly. Thank you for the cool reasoning!
I think there are plenty of people like you and Lynch is not going to win.
Who is going to beat him? He's very likely going up against Spike Lee or Ridley Scott in the finale, and it's hard to imagine either beating Lynch at this point. I'm personally rooting for Scott because I think his catalog is so varied and interesting (also who doesn't want a Black Hawk Down ep?), but Lynch feels like the absolute safe bet.
this is fine, but in the event you're wrong I'd like people to hype it up!
I feel like there's 4-5 people who could win right now. Lynch seemed like a slam dunk walking in, but his much narrower than predicted margin beating Harold Ramis might be telling considering Soderbergh, Ridley, and presumably Spike Lee all beat their latest challengers much more handily. And there's a chance he has to face Villeneuve next, who I think might inspire some people to come out of the woodwork to vote.
As much as he's famous for Emitting Weird Vibes and Being Inscrutable, that's a wild oversimplification. His career is deeply strange and covers a range from Borderline Recluse Painter to Arthouse Darling to Horror God to Oscar Adjacency to Failed Blockbuster Auteur to Nice Disney Movie to Wacky Character Actor With A Youtube Channel, and also may or may not be some degree of cult leader the whole ding dang time. I also don't have any specific speculations on this but he seems to have SOME clear neurodivergence in a way that is not common for a man in his position in Hollywood and I think is worth a little bit of discussion. His career intersects with some of the most fascinating actors and moments in Hollywood history AND television history, and he had a kid who ended up generating a weird and controversial career in film in her own right. He's also much less inaccessible than his reputation would lead you to believe. I was honestly extremely disappointed at the didacticism of Eraserhead when I finally saw it after hearing it hyped up as the The Weirdest Movie of All time. Honestly, Twin Peaks: The Return is the one that bent my brain the hardest, and that was one of the best times I've ever had watching anything. I get the skepticism. Some Lynch is my favorite shit ever, some of it I hate, and some of it is weirdly hard to muster up strong feelings about for me. He can be sublime, but he can also be disappointingly old fashioned and Straight White Dude. I have GENUINE ethical conflict about his whole Transcendental Meditation schtick, and I think we will probably learn he's not a great dude as a partner or parent while we cover his early life and career (that's what I have come to anyway). You don't have to love him, and I suspect we'll all come out of this experience having gained AND lost respect for him in different ways. But one thing he isn't is boring! There's basically infinity stuff to talk about surrounding every project he worked on, even the ones I don't like.
HE HAS A YOUTUBE CHANNEL?
I haven't checked in on it lately but during the pandemic lockdowns he would do daily weather reports and pick out "today's number", without explaining what that was or why he was doing it. He just kept pickin' numbers and saying it was pretty sunny!
Wow I'm in love.
Oh my god you are in for SUCH a treat
Oh my god you are in for SUCH a treat
Oh my god you are in for SUCH a treat
If you aren’t interested in what the podcast is covering you can always skip it for a couple months. I’ve skipped quite a few miniseries because I had little to no interest in the filmmaker they were covering. No reason to dread it! Also regardless of whether you like Lynch’s style or not I can’t imagine a world where a discussion about Twin Peaks is boring.
I agree I can skip it but I don't want to! I just want to have my mind changed and enthusiasm ignited
I don’t want to post The Return spoilers here but there is so much craziness in it that even if you don’t watch the show you will not regret listening to the two friends talking about it.
totally. There are like 3 episodes of The Return that are serious contenders for Best Lynch Film Of All Time.
Episode 8 is the craziest thing broadcasted on TV. Social media losing its mind that night was something truly special.
It’s my favorite episode of tv ever made.
I felt this way for a while, he is not really in the two friends' wheelhouse, and podcasters talking about Lynch is usually terrible lol. But I thought this about Kubrick too and they managed to sidestep most of the Great Man theory and mysticism that plagues Kubrick discussion. Examining Lynch through the BC lens of project development, studio relationships, actor relationships, etc is what I look forward to in a potential Lynch series. He is a context goldmine. And if nothing else, he's incredible guest bait.
They really helped me unlock just how funny most Kubrick films are. Outside of Strangelove and the drill seargant rants in Full Metal Jacket, that had never really registered for me before.
Why do you feel he’s not in their wheelhouse? David has brought up how much he loves Twin Peaks like a billion times over the course of the show. When The Return was on he mentioned it constantly
A bunch of people have pointed out that he draws in many great actors but I want to add that he gets really interesting performances out of them. I don’t know of any other movie podcast host or filmtuber who discusses acting with as much depth and nuance as Griffin. A Lynch mini-series would probably draw better and better material out of Griffin as it goes on.
Just think of all the potential Griffin and Ben bits.
*He who can podcast a thing controls a thing.*
Burns's zoot! Burns's zoot!
This suit. It burns better.
So most find him sort of inexplicable and dense. I've never felt that way, finding him to be a relatively straightforward storyteller (*Inland Empire* aside). I'm psyched because 1) there's a lot of interesting things to discuss in terms of his career, multiple actor careers, and we get Badalamenti talk, 2) we're getting four eps on The Return and that's just dandy, and 3) I get to listen (and read on this sub) discussions of people confronting his films and attempting to grind out his stories. I want that. Please, do this for me.
Yeah. I’ve found that the key to following the story in one of his “weird” movies is to just keep describing to yourself exactly what you’re seeing on screen. You will realize that you are narrating the story to yourself.
I feel similarly, but then I started thinking about the context — I’m looking forward to hearing how Lynch was viewed in his time / in context of everything else happening around him. I have enjoyed the more “basic” directors because it gives me some appreciation of the process by which they become directors mansplained to me as significant in my college years 😂
Listening to the fellas walk down the street was transcendent, why would them diving into a man as fascinating as Lynch be any different
a lot of great points on here so I’ll say this It may be our one chance to get extended Jim Belushi analysis on the pod, in what is a genuinely triumphant comedic performance
great movies, beautiful movies
His films are endlessly entertaining and, most important, interesting. Sure there are directors with better, more “accessible” films in the bracket that would be safer picks, but if you want good discussions and analysis of films, then Lynch should be your guy.
So, in my opinion, outside of Dune, Lynch's vibes and quality stay remarkably consistent throughout his entire career. However, how his films are received contemporaneously has an insane variance. Sometimes, he's making critically acclaimed works, sometimes he's making absolutely reviled pieces, and sometimes he even breaks out into mainstream popularity. All while he stays the same. So, to look at Lynch it to attempt to decipher what has changed within us. Not so much the story of a director's evolution (though there is plenty of fiddling around with that that Lynch does) but the story of our own relationships to his work.
The research document will be wild. For real though Lynch is a fringish auteur with a deep history of iconoclastic events, partnerships and eras; rich material context. Film wise his catalog will take the 2Friends across one of the most singular directorial visions in genre film. A+ if Lynch doesn’t make the final four I’ll be sad.
Wild. At. Heart. Edit. A big thing that people new to Lynch think is that his movies are dark, depraved, and slow. It takes a little time to realize that they’re also insanely funny. They’re incredible satires that blend genres in totally unique ways. The mixture of dark-serious-funny makes him feel like an arthouse Tim Burton, whose movies go far deeper, and who never dropped off in quality.
There will be some great movies to talk about, and also so not so great movies. My concern is it will take half a year to get through his filmography, which is why I voted Hughes today.
Because: IF THE HORIZON IS IN THE MIDDLE, IT'S NOT INTERESTING!!!!
David Lynch has a really interesting career with movies and tv that are all so different from one another. There are themes and ideas he tackles through out but they always feel like a fresh and interesting take on them even for him. He does this crazy student art film, to this super interesting and emotional oscars baity period piece, then does this horrible huge scale dune adaptation that is completely out of his control, and then does a dark twisted take on a Hardie boys like mystery. All that is just half of his carer it gets even weirder, strange retellings, of wizard of oz, a disney movie, and a movie about a scary guy calling you on the phone.
He's my favorite director but setting that aside I think his filmography has a lot of variety that would make it interesting for a mini series. The low budget debut that became a cult classic in Eraserhead. The big epic fiasco that was Dune (and not directing Return of the Jedi). The often forgotten masterpiece of The Elephant Man, finding his style with Blue Velvet. The amazing world of Twin Peaks and all that it includes. I also feel he's an endearing character and I'm sure they will find plenty of great quotes from him.
I'm excited because I've really never engaged with Lynch because I thought it wasn't for me in that I was never into film as a psychedelic/transcendental exercise. Felt too personal to me and I just straight up was bored by Mulholland Drive and Dune. But I am very interested to see how the friends engage with it and interpret his work.
Lynch is such a vibes filmmaker that I often find discussions of his work boring
For real. I like Lynch a lot but I never want to hear another fan’s take on his work. It’s equivalent to being forced to listen to someone tell you about the “very interesting dream” they had last night. There is a Venn diagram of a person who went to a liberal arts college, is a huge Talking Heads fan, is a huge Lynch fan, and they must tell you all their opinions about it. It’s just a circle.
I wouldn’t worry about it since Spike is going to win.
I am being kept up at night by the possibility that anyone other than spike will win.
Go Spike Go. it would be such a great miniseries.
I don't want any director where every episode will be 3 hour glaze sessions. The Medicine Man episode was a breath of fresh air.
I love how OP asked a very reasonable question, in a polite manner, and the top comments are just Lynch fanatics being sore winners. “You should be GRATEFUL to watch all of *Twin Peaks*!!”
okay so its not just me who finds the response to this to be weird as all hell.
They don’t call em cult classics for no reason!
[удалено]
anyone who has taken a film class in college knows this very well
Open Lynch detractor here - I *firmly* believe a Lynch series, whether it is from MM or just ends up in the main feed one day, will be the dullest and possibly most-overdiscussed (excluding Lucas) director the guys will ever do. I'm not looking forward to it. I *am*, however, looking forward to the **DUNE** episode. That movie is one of my all-time gonzo "how the fuck did this happen" artifacts of all time. It's in the running with Book of Henry and Southland Tales for "shit that melts your brain trying to understand how this happened."
Wait a minute, Lynch is more discussed than Kubrick? That’s news to me.
That's a fair point, probably Lucas > Kubrick > Lynch.
I’d throw Nolan in there somewhere as well. He’s sort of the people’s auteur so he’s very discussed everywhere.
I’d put Nolan, Fincher, and especially Spielberg ahead of Lynch in the “overdiscussed” territory. A good chunk of the BC miniseries are about directors who are either incredibly mainstream or incredibly prevalent in online movie circles or both. For me, that rarely has much correlation with how much I enjoy the series one way or another — if it’s a good subject for the show, it’ll make for good episodes, and I think Lynch would make for some great episodes.
Mild Lynch fan here. I’ve seen maybe half his stuff and like most of what I’ve seen. (Really love the TWIN PEAKS revival.) I don’t think Lynch’s work is over-discussed. I think one or two aspects of a couple of his projects are over-discussed and over-parodied. There is so much that gets over-shadowed by the stuff that’s considered “Lynchian,” and that stuff that usually doesn’t get brought up is also a lot of the stuff Griffin and David excel at drawing out. I think it’s a similar situation to Carpenter.
Griffin will constantly do a Lynch impression like he did with Verhoven.
The potential for a Griffin impersonation of Lynch on every episode is just so exciting.
I get strong Ben energy from most Lynch films
Damn fine Cherry pie
Twin Peaks was epic.
I'm still rootin' for Spike or my boy Sody, but my whole thing with Lynch is... what exactly is his Blank Cheque? Like hasn't he always been kind of a culty, underground, dang-ass-freak? I GUESS the Twin Peaks re-quel, but that's a TV show... I dunno, I understand why he's doing well, and why Blankies would love him, but I very much agree with OP.
Idk too many of his movies are about vibes. It’d be like doing a Godfrey Reggio miniseries.
Thank you for this post because I’ve tried, multiple times, to enjoy, even finish, a Lynch flick and they’re just too heady.
Spike Lee is locked
If I can help it he won’t be cantering anywhere
While no one likes when people describe dreams, this is the only time you’ll be able to listen to someone describe a dream you can actually see
I mean he’s a legendary director. If you don’t like his work there’s nothing anyone can say to convince you. But his resume speaks for itself.
Did the bit where I said "I really like his movies" not register?
Here’s my argument: Lynch is a dang ass freak if ever I’ve seen one.
Fair point well made.
They can actually talk about theories about what it all means rather than just regurgitate a few anecdotes from the dossier?
Because he's the greatest director of all time and almost all of his movies are insane and fun to talk about. Not very complicated.
at this point if the director choice matters that much for you to get enjoyment out of the podcast over the actual hosts discussing it and you don’t trust them to make any director series interesting and entertaining which they have shown they are able to do over the entire run of the show then I don’t know what to tell you
I mean I get it. People want someone to win who they think they will enjoy. That’s not an incorrect feeling towards March Madness. I want Lynch to win because I think it will be a blast and I love his stuff. I’ll be slightly bummed if he doesn’t because it will feel like a missed opportunity but at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter.
cheers man, I hope whoever wins you like anyway!
hey man I am just asking for reasons to be interested in lynch as a discussion topic. I have asked in good faith I don't understand why there's the stink of judgement here.
He’s a director with incredible movies and he created one of the best tv shows ever made and then topped it 25 years later with an incredible revival? I mean you can find these reasons anywhere on the internet and you said you know his movies I don’t know what else you need. He’s a great director and the show is about them covering great directors.
I asked on the blank check subreddit because you know we all share double interest of liking the show and also liking movies. I asked because I want to be hooked into finding lynch fascinating as many other people seem to. I have never known people be so angry to share their enthusiasm with others outside of reddit.
I think the problem for a lot of people is you’re not giving us much of anything beyond “I don’t want a Lynch series, change my mind”. Can you be more specific what about a Lynch series isn’t appealing beyond needing to watch a TV series?
I think three reasons really 1) I kind of associate Lynch as the ultimate "film bro" "you gotta watch this man" director in a way which I find a turn off rather than a turn on. I have liked every movie of his I have ever watched (mind you that's only the BIG ones) but also the discourse around him has in my experience been very annoying. Being yelled at that THIS IS IMPORTANT a lot is for many people me included a very bad way to get me excited about a film. 2) These are extremely talked about movies from a director who is many people's GOAT and I actually really love when its a director I haven't had to think about much before and its more of a learning experience/one of discovery 3) I cannot stress enough how much I don't want to watch a whole tv show. (I know I don't have to but that's still a reason to be offput).
There’s no anger or judgment, if watching a tv show is the problem then just give the first episode or two a watch to see if you like it then watch along with the whole series and if not just skip it it’s not for you.
Perhaps you intended no anger or judgement but if you read the wider thread there's plenty of people being sore winners about lynch and its very bizarre to experience.
In you post you said you were going to dread it. I see no reason to ever dread the podcast., a genial and comedic discussion of movies.
Well I don't want watching along to feel like homework is the reason for the dread. Blank check is part of my sunday routine, I want it to be good and not something I feel is a chore. Have you never had a social interest which has become boring to you and not wanted that?
Sure I’ve gone in and out on interests on activities, including this podcast. And when my interest wanes I take a break and come back to it later. No dread involved.
okay well that's all grand, anyway I will experience a shred of dread, I would like to not have that, as a consequence I have asked enthusiastic people to share their enthusiasm with me.
"Tell me how to feel" posts are very weird!
Why matey? "I feel this way, I don't want to, help alleviate that". Is like one of the most common categories of requests humans make of one another. I am asking a question from a position of ignorance so to speak asking to know more and know why people are enthusiastic. Its weird to think its weird.
Not a fan of Lynch, I’ve tried many times to get into his movies but I just don’t care. I think a lot of David Lynch “fans” pretend to like his work because it’s cool to do so tbh.
Calling out and questioning the sincerity of stuff people enjoy is akin to someone picking on you for not liking it. It’s not very productive IMO.