Lost Highway (1997)

Lynch's film is delightfully bonkers and an eerie, edgy outpouring that challenges expectations of identity and reality. The critic singles out the atmospheric, non-plot-driven logic of the mid-point transformation and strong performances, especially by Patricia Arquette.

The review calls the narrative-defying thriller hypnotising and painterly, with Lynch reinventing film noir in a creepy, nightmarish vision echoing Vertigo. It notes the story is not the most accessible but the delivery is compelling.

The review praises the film's widescreen presentation and transitional strengths as Lynch's first LA movie, a practice run for Mulholland Drive with strong atmosphere and video surveillance motifs. It notes audiences were puzzled but highlights its undeniable qualities.

The critic explores the film's Möbius-strip narrative of identity doubling and time loops as a cerebral brainteaser rather than visceral thriller. She finds its handling schematic and ultimately hollow despite intriguing ideas.

Lost Highway is troublesome but the director’s most accomplished work since Blue Velvet, a beautifully made but emotionally empty film that exists only for the sensation of its provocative moments. It is best at creating unease through imagery and spooky situations, though the stylized dialogue and ultra-violent, sexually exploitative moments are harder to sustain.

Lost Highway is an absorbing and often brilliant dark, lurid and enigmatic thriller that decorates film noir with fantastic touches, yet it feels cool, tidy and hermetic rather than transgressive. Lynch has returned to form technically but the film gives viewers something to talk about rather than something to dream about.

The film is a coolly ominous, attention-getting hallucination that echoes the perversity of Blue Velvet through dream logic, shifting identities and intimations of doom. It holds sinister interest of its own but suffers from a too-deliberate pace that lessens its grip.

Lost Highway is a mysterious, ultra-Lynchian exercise in Designer Noir that traverses familiar roads with stylistic panache and daring, remaining sufficiently intriguing and startling despite being uneven and too deliberately obscure. In the Lynch canon it stands in the middle, not up to the summits of Blue Velvet but superior to Fire Walk With Me and Dune.

The critic views Lost Highway as a key, daring, and personal Lynch film that has been reclaimed as a cult classic after its initial commercial and critical disappointment. It singles out the film's emphasis on binary forces like light/dark and masculine/feminine, along with its nightmarish, non-cohesive exploration of identity and transformation.

The critic describes Lost Highway as one of Lynch's most complete visions, praising its fast pace, striking visuals and shadows (shot by Peter Deming), effective soundtrack, and Bill Pullman's strong lead performance as a sympathetic yet disturbed character. It notes the film as underrated and possibly Lynch's most commercial despite being obtuse, while linking it thematically to Twin Peaks.