Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Murphy Howard I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

J Smith (Spike_the_Cactus) This feels like the natural culmination point of Lynch's films. Mulholland Drive was a masterpiece, whereas this feels like the indulgence that the latter film afforded him. That's not meant derogatorily. Mulholland Drive was a perfect Lynch film, but Inland Empire felt like he'd finally got the green light to follow all of his artistic tendencies as far as he wanted (even jokingly acknowledged in the final scene). It's a descent into madness, and the rule book went out of the window. This has some of Lynch's most memorable scenes, but it also pushes the viewer's natural inclination to apply order beyond the limit.It's not free form stream of consciousness, but is right on the line. There are hints all over the place, but unlike Mulholland Drive there isn't a suggested interpretation that emerges. I have my own ideas about what this film is meant to be, but that's my personal reading. I believe that Lynch aimed to make a film that invited multiple interpretations, and which resisted definitive resolution. It's this open-ended approach that makes it such an enigmatic and imaginative film. It provokes your imagination.

Matt Sewell David Lynch has long been attacked for his treatment of women in his films. INLAND EMPIRE, the last feature film he made (and, it's beginning to look as though it will be the last feature film he ever makes) responds to these criticisms with a brilliant, 3-hour epic on the treatment of women around the world.At one point, a homeless woman on Hollywood Boulevard tells one of several Laura Dern characters, "Woman, you're dying." In a hodge-podge of what look like unfinished David Lynch projects, INLAND EMPIRE explains exactly how and why women around the world suffer. The most prominent storyline in the film, if such a masterpiece of abstraction can even be limited to the term film, is that of a movie production in which a cast and crew attempt to film a movie that was filmed decades earlier with disastrous consequences. The trials and tribulations the Laura Dern characters go through represent all the hassles we horrid, patriarchal s.o.b.'s put them through (yes, I'm a feminist who was accidentally born with testicles...)The film ends brilliantly with Dern assaulting her masked, unknown assailant, and then a joyous musical number featuring women of all shapes and sizes, clapping their hands and singing along to a Nina Simone tune (not much more radical than that, eh?)The only part of the movie I struggled with were the scenes that took place in Poland (?). One has to expect a certain amount of confusion when watching a Lynch film, though.

Blake Peterson A David Lynch film is a tightrope act of sorts. They're all a little abstract, a little bit mystical, but remaining (usually) is a looming mystery that is never solved; the viewer must be ready to interpret the abstruse puzzle presented to them. In a great Lynch film, Mulholland Dr. for example, a profound characterization can act as a backbone to the many head spinning detours that dawdle in the celluloid. Without one, though, a Lynch film can become intolerable, masturbatory rather than dazzling, a series of puzzle pieces that don't fit anywhere besides his own mind. He is perhaps the definitive hit-or-miss filmmaker — when he hits, his baffling ideas are seductive, lingering in our memory like our very first run-in with Rita Hayworth's Gilda; but when he misses, we're presented with a nightmarish landscape that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, doesn't go anywhere, and doesn't have much in the way of meaning. (And a Lynch film is generally long, making insufferability even more insufferable as the images go on and on and on and on …)Simply put, Inland Empire is one of David Lynch's most unbearable movies. It's his first film shot completely digitally, done so with a Sony DCR- VX1000 camcorder; the images, in return, are fuzzy and textural. Some, especially Lynch, find this photographic technique to hold more value in terms of enigma and subversion, but I, possibly in the minority, think that this experiment is a downfall. His images are so outrightly peculiar (only he could sell the idea of three people in rabbit suits living in an apartment together in sitcom bliss) that the cheapness of the digital camera makes his once lush pictorial instincts read like an experimental student short. Before, the lavishness of film made diversions into the freakish more of a surprise; here, Lynchian punches no longer hold the shock the once did. This shouldn't suggest that his cinematic mastery is waning — it's the fault of the camera, not his.Supposedly, Inland Empire is about Nikki Grace (Laura Dern), a has-been actress who has just received a part in a movie that could revitalize her once strong career. Her co-star is known womanizer Devon Berk (Justin Theroux), her director the respected Kingsley Stewart (Jeremy Irons). Minutes into the rehearsal process is it revealed that the project is thought to be cursed — it was supposed to be made decades ago, but the actors tragically died during the filmmaking process. Following this revelation, strange things start to occur: Nikki and Devon begin to mimic the lives of the characters they're playing, Sue Blue and Billy Side, and Nikki, desperate as she is to succeed, begins experiencing situations that can only be described as hallucinatory.I say "supposedly" when providing the plot summary because Inland Empire revolves around this storyline for only the first act, possibly even less. It starts off intriguingly, with the same sort of luminous ambiguities of Lost Highway, until it descends into a labyrinth of entangled phantasms. For a while, the delusions are evocative (the audacious pairings with experimental music are especially fascinating), but at three hours, Inland Empire eventually keels over and turns into an unappetizing smörgåsbord of Lynchian rejects. As the story was never interesting enough to begin with, interpretation is left untouched; we're either frustrated or stimulated, mostly the former.The one thing to celebrate in Inland Empire is Laura Dern, in a fearless performance. Her character(s) is hardly defined, but Dern gives us a reason to gaze upon her face with utter enthrallment. She wanders around the maze Lynch places her in the middle of; Dern is so breathtaking that, once in a while, she deceives us into thinking that the material is solid rather than flimsy. More or less, Inland Empire is flimsy. Lynch wrote the script as filming went on (seriously), and nothing ever commences from it. He is a great director, but nothing is worse than taking an audience for granted, especially when that audience has to meander through a film for 180 minutes. Read more reviews at petersonreviews.com

BlueRoseNya After four viewings I am certain: Inland Empire is a 10-star movie. I think that every time I watch it, I love it more. This isn't just a movie, it's an experience that puts you in a dream world, and it's oh so good. If I have to compare it to other movies, I'd say it's a raw version of Mulholland Dr., Eraserheadstyle. And these were also great and dreamy and kinda scary.Honestly, after my first Inland Empire, I was mostly stunned, thinking: 'what did I just watch?' and still I... wanted more. That's the strength of David Lynch's work, it draws you in and if you put yourself to it for several viewings, it's so rewarding. Everything he makes is so layered and you discover new things every time! I think Inland Empire is the most layered film I've ever seen. It's not about the plot at all, it's about the experience. I've read comments from people who are frustrated because they can't explain the movie, but this is irrelevant. It's surrealism. It's about the feeling, beauty, disturbing thoughts. It gets you in a buzz, 'on high'.Cinematographically, it looks a bit less perfect than most of Lynch's movies, due to the way it was filmed, but this really adds to the dream feel and increases the raw emotion a lot. The soundtrack is, of course, amazing. Every sound is perfectly matched to the pictures and emotions. When she walks outside in the cold: 'Ghost of Love'. The 'Locomotion' hookers. 'Black Tambourine' on Hollywood Blvd. The ending credits!Laura Dern deserves loads of credit as well, her acting is so raw and disturbing, there's no words to describe it. She quickly became one of my favourite artists after seeing her as Nikki Grace (and co).If you're either a fan of Lynch or surrealism or you like to be overwhelmed by atmosphere and you don't mind putting some effort in a movie evening, do yourself a favor and go for the experience, preferably more than once. Go to this place both wonderful and strange, it's really worth it!