Review of Lost Highway

Lost Highway is not Lynch at his most accessible, that would be Blue Velvet followed by The Elephant Man and The Straight Story, and I would put those films as well as Mulholland Drive (one of his most polarising along with Eraserhead) as better films of his, but while it has divided and will divide viewers I did love the film. Lost Highway does occasionally get confusing (particularly from a psychological stand-point) as a result of trying to have too many ideas, which does seem to be what the main complaint is against it, but for me there was very little wrong (as a bit of advice it is a good idea to be acquainted with Lynch's style first with The Elephant Man or Blue Velvet being the best place to start). Lost Highway looks amazingly stylish, the cinematography some of the best of any film personally seen in a while, the colours are expressive and bursting with colour and hypnotism and the images are surreal but impeccably hypnotising. Lynch's directing is highly accomplished if not quite some of his best directing like Mulholland Drive or Blue Velvet. He also does a great job in not making Lost Highway too formulaic (there is a sense that formally and structurally that there was a fair bit of re-invention involved), in fact it was one of the freshest and most unique psychological mystery thrillers personally viewed. Like Eraserhead, Lost Highway is basically an atmosphere/mood piece and it works amazingly as one. It may be Lynch at his strangest but that made the film even more fascinating to watch, no matter what you think of some of the story the impact the atmosphere has in the film cannot be denied. The thriller elements are enough to set the pulse racing and the mystery elements while made obvious about half-way through have a lot of suspense. Bill Pullman's exemplary here, some of the best work he's ever done even, and standouts too are Patricia Arquette at her most sensual and Robert Blake at his creepiest. The music score is incredibly haunting with fitting use of pre-existing songs and while spare the dialogue doesn't stick out like a sore thumb too much. All in all, a bizarre film but with the mood it has and how well-made and directed it is it is a very compelling one too. Not Lynch at his best but around the top end of his filmography. 9/10 Bethany Cox