June 21, 2007

Two Thumbs Down

In my casual trevails throughout the never world of the internet I came cross an amazing website LynchPosters.com which is all about movie posters for David Lynch films. I had already seen about 90% of them, but one that I had never seen was the below ad poster that was used for Lynch's 1997 bizarro film Lost Highway in which Jeff Daniels apparently murders Patricia Aquette and then he turns into Balthazar Getty (back on the acting scene thanks to a role on the quite great tv series Brothers and Sisters) who is dating Patricia Arquette... or something. The film also has Robert Blake giving the greatest cameo performance of all time. If you haven't seen it, do so. If you're in America then you'll have to deal with a dodgy-arsed DVD, but regions 4 and 2 have great two-disc editions (like me!).

Anyway, back to the poster. Roger Ebert has been a famous detractor of Lynch's work - Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart and Lost Highway in particular - and he, along with his reviewing partner Gene Siskel, gave the film "Two Thumbs Down!"

Lynch being the sneaky devil that he is used it to his advantage and employed this rating as part of the advertising for Lost Highway. God, he's a genius.



And while we're on the topic of Lynch, while I am sitting here being incredible jealous at Adam (grrrr) I found this in Today's HiT about the situation of his latest INLAND EMPIRE. Unfortunately, it merely confirms the constant state of limbo that it lies in. Seriously, Dendy or whoever it distributing. RELEASE IT NOW!


I tell ya though, if I see the film is going to be playing at the Melbourne International Film Festival I'm gonna do my darndest to get tickets. Eep.

10 comments:

J.D. said...

Wow, that's just... genius.

adam k. said...

Don't hate me because Laura Dern is beautiful.

I love David Lynch for doing that. Cause I kind of hate Roger Ebert and think his opinions are crap. He disliked Huckabee's, too, as I recall, cause it "didn't make sense." Or maybe that was Roeper. I don't even know. But Ebert always has ridiculous taste, and I'm glad Lynch has the balls to call him on his crap.

Paxton Hernandez said...

Can't stand Ebert. Great, genius thing Lynch fcked him with this poster. He deserves it.

Yeah, you should try to catch Inland Empire at the Melbourne Festival.

Jason Adams said...

I often find myself disagreeing with Roger, but the man can write a film review beautifully. He just really likes boobies and gets distracted sometimes is all.

adam k. said...

Yeah, especially if they're Halle Berry's boobies.

Glenn Dunks said...

Rog is my favourite critic. He writes great reviews and while he has become way too generous in these last few years I will love him forever for tearing War of the Worlds to shreds.

I'm never going to write anything about that movie because every single thing I could possibly say is written there. Every point.

I mean, there's no way in hell Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle is better than Charlie's Angels and I disagree with him a lot (Crash as best picture of 2005? Halle Berry as the best performance of 2001?) I just love that he doesn't give two hoots and he likes what he likes and he makes strong arguments for his points. Positive or negative.

But, yeah, still - the poster is genius. I can't believe anybody would actually use a negative review to their advantage. Outside of, perhaps, Showgirls which swiftly altered it's marketing campaign to reflect the "camp" status it was rapidly acquiring.

Paul Martin said...

It was Bill Pullman, not Jeff Daniels, in Lost Highway. My stats indicate that around 25% of the visitors to my blog through Google have typed in a search for Inland Empire. I find that an astonishing percentage, and it's three times more than the next most popular search, Paris, je t'aime. There is clearly a lot of frustration out there and people are keen to know when the film is coming.

The reason I seem to get these hits is because I have been publishing release information as it comes to hand. The latest news I've had from Dendy Films is that it will be released in the last quarter of the year. It's original release was June 21, and ironically it screened on June 20 & 21 at the Sydney Film Festival.

Yesterday I received the list of confirmed films screening at MIFF and Inland Empire is on it. Program times won't be released until July 13, but I have posted the list on my blog. Festival director Richard Moore announced at a launch on Wednesday that there's 278 feature films, but the list I have received only has 237. One film that I know that is screening but not mentioned on the list is Harmony Korine's Mister Lonely.

Getting back to Dendy, I suspect that they wanted to gauge the audience reaction to the film before they set a release date. If so, we might get an announcement soon (I'll post info on my blog as it comes to hand).

I have ordered the DVD of Inland Empire from Amazon, but even if it comes before MIFF, I wouldn't watch it until I've seen it on the big screen. I think it would spoil the experience to see it on a TV first.

Glenn Dunks said...

Ugh. I knew that. It's been a while since I've seen Lost Highway and those actors (same with Bill Paxton and Dennis Quaid) all seem so much alike to me.

Anyway, wow. Thanks for the info. I've never been to MIFF before so I'm looking forward to it this year. I definitely am hoping to get a ticket for Inland Empire - I so hope it doesn't sell out.

Thanks again heaps for the info. I hadn't seen your blog but I've bookmarked it for sure.

Paul Martin said...

I have a full MIFF pass, so I know I will see it, but I'll be getting online on July 13 the same as everyone else to buy a ticket for Inland Empire for my partner.

Mark July 13 in your diary!

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