Inland Empire (2006)

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Avg Rating: 3.8 / 5. Voted: 48

No one cared thus far. Do you?

AKA:
Directed by: David Lynch
Starring: Laura Dern (Nikki/Sue), Justin Theroux (Devon/Billy), Jeremy Irons (Director), Grace Zabriskie (Old lady visitor), Karolina Gruszka (Prostitute)
Country: United States
Language: English, Polish (Eng Subs)
Runtime: 02:59:40
Genres: Surreal, Prostitution-themed, Infidelity

Plot – Spoilers:
An actress Nikki lands the role she’s been vying for. While on set, she has bizarre experiences including literally entering the world of her character. Then there’s a prostitute who’s watching a lot of all this unfold on the telly.

Laura Dern plays Nikki the actress and Sue the character while mostly wearing a bewildered expression. A nice mirror of the viewer.

A second watch might unravel aspects of revenge for infidelity, religious references to limbo and perhaps more. But for many, this would seem like little vignettes of mastery from Lynch, strung together by an invisible thread. This is also a movie where you’re really grateful for the subtitles, even for the English parts, as the audio is often garbled at best.

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Slampig
Slampig
August 15, 2023 5:58 am

Good movie but did not need to be 3 hours

Nekro-Maggot
Nekro-Maggot
January 4, 2023 11:48 am

Insanity… Loved it

Steve
Steve
November 29, 2022 4:12 pm

Wtf?????

James Herington
James Herington
June 10, 2022 1:07 am

Never seen this film before

ALEKSI KILCHOV
ALEKSI KILCHOV
July 10, 2021 9:35 pm

favourite movie

fred fat
fred fat
April 4, 2021 9:33 pm

somebody below doesnt understand the meaning of the expression swan song – this film is perhaps lynch’s swan song but certainly not eraserhead
and if u want a genuine fucked up film director there is no one better than lynch – having said all of that – inland empire is impenetrable

ALEKSI KILCHOV
ALEKSI KILCHOV
Reply to  fred fat
August 24, 2021 11:38 pm

I think there are some deep truths beneath the surface, for that reason I don’t think it’s all bullshit. I agree, this is one of his best works. Love how his head works, love the cinematic execution.

Antinatalpist
Antinatalpist
September 8, 2020 1:08 am

The story is too simple.. there’s no mystery. Two vestigial thumbs down.

Heidi Attwood
Heidi Attwood
July 18, 2020 8:16 am

Pretentious, IMHO.

Elliot Spencer
Elliot Spencer
Reply to  Heidi Attwood
July 22, 2020 2:35 am

Lol, if u didn’t know, David Lynch is perhaps one of the most pretentious directors around. U have pretentious directors who, for example: try to do high brow hoyte-toyte ‘im above the commoners’ style films; directors that try to send some hidden allegorical message nobody really cares about, thru shocking and exploitative scenes (see Lars von Trier); but the worst offenders would be the directors who make films completely for themselves and who don’t give a shit about what anyone else thinks, especially including the audience. Enter the world of David Lynch, lol. His swan song Eraserhead, which is excellent, groundbreaking, and the epitome of a ‘cult’ film (why TF it isnt on this site yet but this is kinda boggles me) he literally BRAGS about how nobody has ever ‘understood’ it’s true meaning(being scared of fatherhood is general consensus), and he GLOATS about how he’ll never tell what the baby in it was made from(lamb fetus is general consensus, but highly debatable), going so far as to have the crew sign confidentiality contracts, and holding some kinda funeral and burial for it after filming wrapped. Literally brags about all of that and more. He doesn’t give a flying fuck about what his audience thinks or if they ‘get it’, he basically just laughs at em. He also had his own David Lynch brand of coffee he sells that he thought was the best, but Blue Mountain it ain’t. These examples r just the tip of the iceberg too. The… Read more »

Blaze
Blaze
Reply to  Elliot Spencer
February 16, 2022 7:26 am

Damn dude you should definitely be a writer because I’ve never seen anyone post a comment that fucking long before seriously bro WTF

clawhammer
clawhammer
Reply to  Elliot Spencer
February 16, 2022 12:49 pm

swan song means someone’s final work and eraserhead was his first film. if you’re going to try to sound smart you should know what the phrases you’re using mean.

Elliot Spencer
Elliot Spencer
Reply to  clawhammer
February 17, 2022 6:42 am

Lmfao, breakdown, just for u: I was implying it was his sweetest song. Keep grasping at straws tho;)

fred fat
fred fat
Reply to  Elliot Spencer
January 4, 2023 7:25 pm

admit u didnt know what swan song means – otherwise u r sounding like a fucking politician

Swan choker
Swan choker
Reply to  fred fat
January 5, 2023 1:42 am

However, Eraserhead could have been his best and everything after was just his malingering death…. .
Strangely I watched ..The Elephant Man.. a few days ago. It is weird to know that the story is now much further from the truth than we thought at the time but the setting, the details of how things were stands up. I wondered how much of that was Lynch and how much was because of the people around him.
Elliot is right. Lynch is a very indulgent director and that makes his films overly long. Personally I think ..Wild at heart.. was his best but as my introduction to the film world included eraserhead and blue velvet and that lead me to see so many other films you have to give him some credit.

fred fat
fred fat
Reply to  Elliot Spencer
January 4, 2023 7:20 pm

go write yourself a book and stick it down your throat – writes all of that drivel and cant see the irony of the word pretentious

Elliot Spencer
Elliot Spencer
Reply to  Heidi Attwood
July 28, 2020 4:14 pm

Sry to be a dumbass and chime in back to back, I completely forgot about one thing till I was grabbing something from my film collection now. If u think u don’t like David Lynch, then try to check out his film Blue Velvet. I wanted to say this bc blue velvet is prbly his most audience-accessable/ viewer friendly film(one could say that about wild at heart, but that film was extremely conventional for Lynch). Call it a neo-noir whodoneit. Easier to follow but still has his trademark Lynchian and metaphorical style. Then if u hate blue velvet, chances r ur not gonna like any of his films(aside from elephant man/straight story). Thanks

Dan
Dan
Reply to  Heidi Attwood
September 5, 2020 9:44 am

Pretentious is a word only dumb people use.

Nims
Nims
Reply to  Dan
September 9, 2020 7:52 am

Go look up some Yoko Ono “art” and then let me know if you still think it’s a word only dumb people use.