Lynch/OZ

I found out about this documentary film when it was broadcast on television, I have seen and enjoyed many films from the director who was the focus of this film, and the musical film is one of the most iconic classics, so I was interested to see the connection between the two, written and directed by Alexandre O. Philippe (78/52, Memory: The Origins of Alien). Basically, in six chapters, titled Wind, Membranes, Kindred, Multitudes, Judy, and Dig, this film examines the influence that the film The Wizard of Oz has had on acclaimed surrealist film director David Lynch. It is narrated by (in chronological order) film critic Amy Nicholson, film director Rodney Ascher, filmmaker John Waters, filmmaker Karyn Kusama (Aeon Flux, Jennifer's Body, Destroyer), filmmaking duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, and filmmaker David Lowery. In six chapters, it accurately observes shared themes, imagery and sounds between Lynch's films and the landmark 1939 movie. The most obvious images that Lynch has recreated and replicated in his films include the use of red shoes (Ruby Slippers), fantasy elements (dream sequences and surreal imagery), coloured curtains (the Great Oz), windy scenes (the tornado), makeup techniques (the Wicked Witch of the West especially), and the use of recognisable names for characters and places (Judy Garland especially), and many other similar camera and technical traits. Clips from Lynch's most recognised films and television works were used: Eraserhead (1977), The Elephant Man (1980), Dune (1984), Blue Velvet (1986), Wild at Heart (1990), Twin Peaks (1990-1991), Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), Lost Highway (1997), The Straight Story (1999), Mulholland Drive (2001), Inland Empire (2006), What Did Jack Do? (2017), and Twin Peaks: The Return (2017), as well as his earlier short films: 16mm (1968), The Alphabet (1969), and The Grandmother (1970), often alongside clips from The Wizard of Oz. But the film uses clips from many other films from well-known directors who have been influenced, not just by The Wizard of Oz, but by other filmmakers. Films by John Waters shown are: Dorothy, the Kansas City Pothead, Mondo Trasho, Multiple Maniacs, Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, Desperate Living, Hairspray, Cry-Baby, Serial Mom, Cecil B. Demented, and A Dirty Shame. Films by David Lowery shown are: David Lowery (Pete's Dragon, A Ghost Story, and The Green Knight. Other movie clips throughout the film include (in chronological order): Stagecoach, E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Superman II, Joker, Dirty Harry, Easy Rider, Do the Right Thing, Fight Club, Selma, It's a Wonderful Life, Star Wars; O Brother, Where Art Thou, A Matter of Life and Death, The Red Shoes, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Battleship Potemkin, The Untouchables, Back to the Future, Matinee, Babe, The Matrix, Forrest Gump, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Beverly Hills Cop, Dead Man, Splash, Crocodile Dundee, The Miracle Worker, The Brain from Planet Arous, Paths of Glory, Eyes Wide Shut, The Shining, Lolita, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Back to the Future Part II, Videodrome, Diary of a Nudist, Cinderella, Peter Pan, The Bad Seed, Gone with the Wind, A Star Is Born, The Clock (1954), Time Bandits, Up, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Game, Gremlins, The Big Lebowski, Suspiria, Pan's Labyrinth, The Devil's Backbone, After Hours, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Apocalypse Now, Viridiana, The Milky Way, The Holy Mountain, The Wild One, Rebel Without a Cause, Elvis: That's the Way It Is, Mogambo, The Big Sleep, I Wake Up Screaming, The Philadelphia Story, Meet Me in St. Louis, Judy (2019), The Iron Horse (1924), Spirited Away, Where the Wild Things Are, Beauty and the Beast (1991), Beauty and the Beast (1946), Pleasantville, Under the Rainbow, Three Men and a Baby, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jurassic Park, A Ghost Story, Pinocchio, Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, The New World, The Tree of Life, Young and Innocent, Foreign Correspondent, To Catch a Thief, The Birds, Il Grido, L'Eclisse, The Passengers, Indentificazione di una Donna, Where Is the Friend's Home, Through the Olive Trees, And Life Goes On, Taste of Cherry, Malcolm X, Crooklyn, 25th Hour, Inside Man, Sweetie, The Piano, Holy Smoke, Bright Star, Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, In the Mood for Love, and 2046 (2004). Also featuring Jason Stoval aka Sid Pink as the Lounge Wizard in the opening and closing of the film. I will agree that the clips from the same scenes of The Wizard and Lynch's films and TV work can get repetitive, but it is an interesting insight into a great filmmaker and a film that has obviously played a pivotal role in his career, a worthwhile documentary. Very good!

Alexandre O. Phillippe also made 78/52: Hitchcock's Shower Scene, Memory: The Origins of Alien and The People vs. George Lucas, so he gets how to make a movie obsessed movie. Featuring filmmakers Karyn Kusama, Rodney Ascher, Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead, John Waters and critic Amy Nicholson, his latest documentary Lynch/Oz attempts to figure out David Lynch by way of looking at Victor Fleming's 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.

Winds, narrated by Nicholson, explains the motifs that Lynch has taken from The Wizard of Oz and where they appear within his films, such as the curtains, mysterious wind and red shoes. Membranes follows, as Room 237 and The El Duce Tapes director Rodney Ascher explains that the literal walls -- membranes -- within Lynch's films are thinner than the ones in our reality.

John Waters' segment, Kindred, explains how alike the two directors are and how they came up within the same independent system, as well as their famous Big Boy meeting. Like Lynch, Waters can show moments in all of his movies that come directly from Oz. Waters once described the movie to Today as "Girl leaves drab farm, becomes a fag hag, meets gay lions and men that don't try to molest her, and meets a witch, kills her. And unfortunately - by a surreal act of shoe fetishism - clicks her shoes together and is back to where she belongs. It has an unhappy ending." Yet his love for the film runs deep -- he has an autographed Margaret Hamilton photo on his wall -- and he also added that his favorite moment is "When they throw the water on the witch, she says, "Who would have thought a good little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness?" That line inspired my life. I sometimes say it to myself before I go to sleep, like a prayer."

Multitudes belongs to Karyn Kusama, who directed Girlfight and Jennifer's Body, and it truly added to my appreciation of Lynch's Mulholland Drive as its connections to Dorothy were explored. Similarly, Judy Garland is the subject of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorehead's (Spring, The Endless, Something In the Dirt) segment Judy, explaining how Lynch uses names like Judy (Jowday) to be perhaps the final nemeis of Twin Peaks and Dorothy Vallens in Blue Velvet.

The last segment, Dig, has David Lowry -- whose Pete's Dragon is perhaps the best remake of a child's movie I've seen -- discuss his feelings on Lynch.

Some may see this as too scholarly. Others as something like extras on a DVD. As for me, it was perfect, a way of reframing cinema by larning of influence and seeing art in a totally new way.

There were several walkouts in the screening I attended, but I did sit through all of this documentary, so I can state that I've seen far better, more watchable analysis of David Lynch films in homemade videos on Youtube.

So, we have five filmmakers and one film critic who each get their own segment where they explain how David Lynch was inspired by the Wizard of Oz. To me, there was maybe about twenty minutes worth of material in there and then the rest of the 108 minutes was filler; or maybe there were even just about five or six interesting observations, plus one fun, goofy promo for Twin Peaks from back in the days, near the end, which I had never seen and did enjoy.

The tangents that the commentators were allowed to go on, without it being edited out, made a mockery of the effort behind this documentary. If I had done my homework before going to see this at the cinema, the involvement of the director of Room 237 should have been a huge red flag.