Lost Highway (1997)

This gets my vote for Most Monotonous Movie of the Year.  Shit, 
just staying awake for the first fifteen minutes is a chore unto 
itself.  Bill Pullman and Patricia Arquette play a pair of married 
zombies, who live in a house right of a David Lynch movie.  You 
know the kind--  where the phone rings at ten times the normal vol-
ume, each lamp is powered by a 40 watt bulb, and so on.  These two 
bump around for almost an hour, speaking in monotone and barely 
reacting to the mystery of why someone is sending them videotapes 
of their home.  Or, for that matter, who rolled Robert Blake in 
flour and then made him wear lipstick?  Things get much more inter-
esting in the second hour, with the introduction of a second set of 
major characters (Balthazar Getty and Ms. Arquette again, this time 
in a blonde VERTIGO wig and progressive states of undress).  Like a 
Moebius strip, everything at end of this HIGHWAY wraps back around 
to the beginning.  Nothing makes a damn bit of sense, nor is it 
supposed to.  Director David Lynch (BLUE VELVET, TWIN PEAKS: FIRE 
WALK WITH ME) has attempted to create the cinematic equivalent of a 
nightmare-dream state and, in that regard, I guess he's succeeded.  
I know that I wanted to watch with my eyes closed.  (Rated "R"/121 
min.)

Grade: C


Notes
=====

LOST HIGHWAY was screened at The Colony Theatre in Raleigh on 2/28.  
Manager Bill Peebles introduced the picture and thanked us for 
coming.  A nice touch.  

Copyright 1997 by Michael J. Legeros

Originally posted to triangle.movies in MOVIE HELL: March 2, 1997