Not Lynch at his best(that would be Blue Velvet, though personal favourite is The Elephant Man), it is a very good film and should please fans of the TV series, even if darker in tone and lacking the show's humour. Lynch's films may be strange, unconventional and not always easy to understand for some, but all of them are visually striking, dynamically scored and with great performances, atmosphere and direction as well as working amazingly as mood pieces and being among the most unique films in existence- the only film of his that I didn't care for was Dune, was mixed on Inland Empire too but that still had a lot of the above components.
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me may not be as good as the TV series but did not deserve the negative reception it got at the time. The few flaws it has has nothing to do with being darker and lacking the show's humour, they are not even flaws. David Bowie did stick out like a sore thumb and to me was embarrassingly bad(though a lot of it was to do with how his character was written) but the film's biggest flaw was that you could tell that it was originally written as a much longer film, with so much truncated there were parts where things felt under-explained and incomplete, a longer length would have helped(personal opinion of course and not one other people will share).
Coming onto however what was good about Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, the film does everything else right. As said before, Lynch's films are always visually great, and to say that Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me looks great visually is not enough. The film in fact has wonderfully moody cinematography and lovingly designed sets, while the surreal imagery looks so mesmerising that regardless of whether the story confuses you you cannot possibly look away. Lynch's direction as ever is impeccable, his style unmistakable and the haunting soundtrack draws you in effortlessly. The story won't be everyone's cup of tea, I did find myself completely engrossed and found it along with Sophie Scholl: The Final Days one of the most powerful films personally seen in a while. Sure, it did feel under-explained and incomplete in parts but it never bored me and like every other Lynch film as a mood piece it's amazing. Parts were incredibly intense and shocking(the most intense parts making for one of the most disturbing films there is) but others were genuinely emotional as well. Regarding individual scenes in a film where one hypnotic scene follows another, the strobe-lit disco degradation stuck out in particular.
Apart from Bowie, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me is very well-acted, Sheryl Lee is superb and at times heart-breaking as an easy-to-root-for character while Ray Wise is just terrifying as one of the scariest father figures on film. Harry Dean Stanton, Kiefer Sutherland and Kyle MacLauchlan are on fun form too. In conclusion, a very under-appreciated film and undeservedly so. 8/10 Bethany Cox
