‘A Scanner Darkly’ Predicted Our Paranoid Age

Richard Linklater’s “A Scanner Darkly” (2006) begins, “Seven years from now, Anaheim, CA.”

A rotoscoped animated film based on the 1977 sci-fi novel by Philip K. Dick, Linklater depicts the somber tale, lifted partly from Dick’s real-life experiences living with junkies, in a fitting visual tapestry that fully connects with the feeling of detachment in this environment.

The first scene sets the tone, as we witness Rory Cochrane’s character being swarmed with arachnids that he can’t wash off. Even his dog is full of these bugs, which he helpfully puts in a jar and realizes later that they are a figment of his imagination.

Watching Cochrane struggling to shower off a horde of insects is, like everything that follows, hilarious, gross and kind of sad.

Fred, played by Keanu Reeves, is a junkie who speaks in a public forum wearing a “Scramble Suit,” which makes his appearance blurry and impenetrable. Donna, Fred’s friend (Winona Ryder) brings him into a cluster of other junkies, played by Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson and Cochrane. They all have something to hide but seem disinterested in the truth.

They care more about spreading conspiracy theories and staying inebriated.

What transpires is an anti-drug film that doesn’t wallow in excess nor rub our faces in melodrama. Instead, the stark honesty in the screenplay and performances make it feel immediate and unforced. The cell phones the characters use are big enough to suggest the early 2000s. Otherwise, this could be right now.

The Scramble Suits are a dazzling concept that the animation turns into a hypnotic effect. It’s hard to imagination this working as a live-action film, even with the advances in CGI.

Prior to his late-career “John Wick” career boost, Reeves floated through a series of roles that were interesting but not always a good match for him. Here, Reeves finds the pathos of the role and is every bit as good as Downey Jr. and Harrellson, whose performances are showier but no less layered.

A Scanner Darkly (2006) dir. Richard Linklaterpic.twitter.com/q1YQcyltho

— cinesthetic. (@TheCinesthetic) June 1, 2023

Rather than getting overshadowed by the animation, the film connects because the performances and the animation are working simultaneously; this is easy to understand when looking at Robin Williams’ performance in “Aladdin” (1992), for example, but it’s just as impressive here.

The animation elevates the work and the choices of actors who are committing to Dick’s harrowing sci-fi cautionary tale.

Linklater’s prior film with roto-scoped animation, “Waking Life” (2001), was a brilliantly constructed and conceived work that depicted the dream state in episodic fashion, with every segment done in a different style of animation. Here, “A Scanner Darkly” has a consistent look to the animation in every scene.

The overall result isn’t an experimental film, like “Waking Life,” but a top-to-bottom repurposing of how animation can be used to tell a narrative not intended for children.

Rather than utilize busy CGI to convey the scramble suits on live-action stars, Linklater makes it all a cartoon, which complements the performances (the characters are all spacey to begin with) and the scenario (the futuristic tech of this world doesn’t seem like an intrusion on the reality within the story).

FAST FACT: Linklater told Aint It Cool News that he wanted to ensure the source material’s comedic elements made it into his film. “…often an element that has been lost in his works that have been adapted to film is the humor. You see bits and pieces of it but that’s it.”

Linklater is one of the truly brilliant American filmmakers working today, as he finds ways to challenge himself and his audience. The let’s-take-years-to-make-this conceit of the award-winning “Boyhood” (2014) and the three-people-in-a-room drama “Tape” (2001) are just two examples of how the filmmaker takes calculated risks that work to the narrative’s benefit.

I realize I’m not doing a good job selling “A Scanner Darkly” and haven’t noted how funny, inventive and wildly entertaining it is. The final scene is a heartbreaker and fittingly sit to Thom Yorke’s great “Black Swan.”

There are scenes here that are crushing but, unlike so many cautionary tales that aim punish above all else, Linklater and his cast clearly love these characters, flaws and all.

It’s a little crazy to me that, 20 years later, “A Scanner Darkly” is an unseen, obscure masterpiece. There were many great films released in 2006 but this one was my favorite.

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‘Ready or Not 2: Here I Come’ Should Stay Hidden

Some movies don’t deserve a sequel, but the box office potential screams otherwise.

It’s hard to stare at a surprise hit like 2018’s “Ready or Not” and say, “yeah, one is enough.” That’s exactly what the team behind the film should have said.

Instead, we get “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come,” a sequel that squanders all the goodwill built up the first time around. Every last ounce of it.

Original star Samara Weaving isn’t to blame, nor is Kathryn Newton as a key addition to the saga. It’s a world-building exercise that goes nowhere, compounded by clunky dialogue and endless exploding bodies.

Yes, the latter bit is comical the first and second time, but the tenth?

The action picks up where the last film ended. Weaving’s Grace is still wearing her bloodied wedding dress, and local law enforcement thinks she may be responsible for all the dead members of the Le Domas family.

Her estranged sister Faith (Newton) visits her in the hospital where Grace, chained to the bed while recovering from her wounds, awaits the long arm of the law.

It doesn’t take long for the bigger story to emerge. Grace’s unlikely victory in the first film was just the beginning. Turns out that evil, uber-rich clan was part of a larger network of Satan-worshipping gazillionaires.

Dern that capitalism!

To be fair, the film’s satirical swipes never devolve into lectures and an early quip about geopolitical power. It’s merely the backdrop to the unfolding mayhem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Grace and Faith are quickly captured and brought to a new mansion where the various families will try to kill her. If at first, you don’t succeed, we suppose.

She’s not exactly G.I. Jane, but she is scrappy and managed to survive the first film, so…

Whoever finally kills Grace will become the most powerful person in the world, or head of the high council, or something similarly Satanic and absurd.

The story is beyond ridiculous, and attempts to expand the “Ready or Not”-iverse reminds us of the superior “John Wick” saga. Those films have star power (Keanu Reeves), expert fight choreography and a stellar sense of mayhem.

“Here I Come” has Weaving, a terrific Final Girl, and little else. The action is frantic and lackluster, while the dialogue feels like it was written by teen boys who spend every waking hour playing Fortnite. Cursing abounds, and while R-rated films aren’t delicate by any stretch, the flop sweat screenplay screams straight-to-VOD fare.

The 2019 original, while no classic, deserves better than this.

The crowded story includes Sarah Michelle Gellar and Shawn Hatosy as siblings hoping to emerge victorious, even though they’re often too busy squabbling with each other.

The various characters gunning to kill Grace and Faith aren’t exactly fearsome or memorable. The former isn’t a deal killer since comedy is allegedly part of this cinematic dish. Except the laughs are infrequent and the endless gore feels desperate, not inspired.

A running subplot concerning Grace and Faith’s strained past is meant to build up their characters, but it’s so perfunctory it merely slows the film’s admittedly kicky momentum.

The sequel isn’t dull, just stupefying.

“Here I Come” is a mess from the very first scenes, an ill-fated attempt to stretch a quirky genre hit into a franchise.

HiT or Miss: “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come” boasts a snarky title, a game lead actress and little else.

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Original ‘Highlander’ Is Still a Glorious Mess

Russell Mulcahy’s “Highlander” (1986) begins with an awesome opening crane shot.

The camera spins around a packed Madison Square Garden crowd during a wrestling match, swoops upward into the cheap seats and finds our main character sitting by himself.

The protagonist is Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert), a handsome, intense man wearing a trench coat. We follow the suspicious-looking Connor as he cautiously enters the parking garage below, where he encounters a sword-wielding assassin.

Connor, not to be outdone, is also carrying a sword and the two engage in a blade battle of mythic proportions.

The garage fight opener is quite the set piece, complete with clanging swords, exploding cars and, of all things, multiple backflips. From the first scene on, it’s clear that Aussie director Mulcahy (whose prior film was the 1984 Outback killer pig thriller, “Razorback”) is really going for it.

The introductory swooping camera moves, flying across a wrestling arena and finding Lambert in the audience, are unnecessary but electrifying.

The scene is like the film overall: goofy, overdone and thrilling. Yes, it’s style over substance, but the showmanship is undeniable.

Connor MacLeod is an antique dealer in the late 1980s, with an accent that suggests a colorful background. We know from flashbacks that he is an immortal who originated from the Scottish Highlands. After losing a battle with a ferocious warrior called The Kurgen (Clancy Brown), Connor miraculously heals, is deemed a monster by those who saw him mortally wounded and flees his village.

While out in the wilderness, Connor falls in love and is mentored by Sanchez, played by Sean Connery, who, curiously, isn’t playing a Scotsman but an “Egyptian Spaniard.” In a film about mystical Scotsmen, Connery, arguably the most famous Scottish actor ever, has been absurdly cast as “Juan Sanchez Villa- Loboz Ramirez.”

Um, okay.

“Highlander” is utterly confusing if you’re seeing it for the first time. Thinking back to my initial viewing on HBO during the 1980s, I was delighted by the mayhem and showmanship but found the story dreamlike and vague. Screenwriter Greg Widen is taking on the vampire legend, something he did in a different way later on with his angels vs demons “The Prophecy” (1995), another cult film.

Russell Crowe will instruct Henry Cavill in the ways of the immortals in the remake of “Highlander.”

The Oscar-winner will play Cavill’s mentor in a variation on the part played by Sean Connery in the 1986 original.https://t.co/zobZgMA9mQ

— Variety (@Variety) June 20, 2025

Oddly enough, despite multiple viewings, three sequels and a long-running TV series, I still find “Highlander” a dense chore to discuss on the story level. Another puzzling detail: despite the many sequels and spin-offs, the main characters are constantly reminding us that There Can Only Be One.

Indeed…until the next one.

The Michael Kamen score and Queen songs are, in a word, awesome. Mulcahy leans into comic book-like transitions and reflections, a perfect touch. The flashbacks are flush with gorgeous location shots. While Mulcahy’s career never rose to the level of Ridley Scott or Luc Besson, this film and his later “The Shadow” (1994) indicate he had a keen eye for rich detail and grandiose storytelling.

Mulcahy’s ’86 box office flop became an in-demand rental and cable favorite, leading to three mostly unloved sequels (I have a soft spot for the uneven but robust “Highlander: Endgame” from 2000), the 1992-1998 Adrian Paul-led TV series and the forthcoming Henry Cavill-led remake.

It’s not hard to see why Russell Mulcahy’s “Highlander” bewildered audiences in theaters but gradually found a ravenous cult following afterwards. While an instant bomb and a real oddity in theaters, Mulcahy’s Scottish-infused update of the vampire legend gained serious traction on VHS and repeat cable airings.

Whatever it was that lured movie lovers to this goofy epic (Connery, the music of Queen, the sword and shield fantasy genre, etc.), most were able to accept the far-out premise of immortal warriors in century-spanning battles and took it at face value.

Through a series of flashbacks, we witness McCloud’s education on the ways of the Highlander by Connery’s character and get glimpses of the several lifetimes he lived through. McCloud’s relationship with a nosy reporter (an appealing Roxanne Hart) causes him to ponder settling down, though we know what happened to the last lady who stuck with McCloud until the end.

Mar. 7/1986 – The movie Highlander is released. Starred: Christopher Lambert, Roxanne Hart, Clancy Brown & Sean Connery. pic.twitter.com/elJpRCEl8Y

— Today In History (@TodayThatWas) March 7, 2026

Connery is the film’s secret weapon. Lambert has a strong presence, but he can’t carry this by himself. Nevertheless, the former, original and arguably greatest 007 brings his expected gusto, 100-watt movie star presence and professional dedication to a movie that doesn’t fully deserve him.

You can never quite believe Connery in the role, but his charisma is so razor sharp, it doesn’t matter. He’s the best special effect here.

I realize I haven’t mentioned a key detail: the only way to kill immortals is to chop their heads off with a sword. It begs this question: if this is the only way these guys can be killed, wouldn’t they invest in a steel neck brace to wear in public?

As always, the dependably wonderful Brown is solid, but The Kurgen is a bit much. He’s more of an annoyance than a compelling character and you count the minutes until he finally gets his comeuppance. Mulcahy sometimes indulges in Terry Gilliam-esque fish-eyed lenses, which is too much for a movie already overflowing with flamboyant touches.

The screenplay, while ambitious, is ridiculous, and the dialogue is even worse. “Highlander” aims for a comic book feel but the lines are consistently dumb. While I can’t get behind any of the sequels that followed, it’s worth noting that the subsequent “Highlander – The Series” effectively infused this with the scope, seriousness and sense of fun the movie doesn’t always reach.

Purely as a cinematic experience, it’s an addictive action movie. The sweeping camera moves, Queen’s soaring tunes and the excellent swordplay sequences elevate it. Little of this pulled me in emotionally (aside from a nice subplot involving McCloud’s saving a little girl), but the visuals are so awesome, it works as ’80s mythmaking.

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‘Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives’ Makes Murder Fun

You have to have a sense of humor to see a film called “Friday the 13th Part VI – Jason Lives.”

It also helps to have a sense of humor to make a movie like this. Thankfully, both the film’s writer/director, Tom McLoughlin and its studio, Paramount Pictures, clearly found something very funny about Jason Voorhees.

Not funny enough to turn the character into a murderous quipster (which New Line Cinema did to Freddy Krueger) but funny enough to finally make a movie that kids its audience, lets them share the joke and find laughs by not taking everything so seriously.

Shaping the sixth Jason Voorhees slasher movie into more of a dark comedy than a horror film gave fans something refreshing. This isn’t contempt for an audience but a thank you for everyone who kept this artistically sketchy franchise alive for six years.

It ain’t art, and its definitely not a great horror movie, but “Jason Lives” is something special. Yes, it’s as gross and juvenile as ever, but by doing it with a smile on its face, the movie succeeds as a guilty pleasure and is one of the best in the series.

The story so far: the thought-to-be-drowned Jason Voorhees has been hacking n’ slashing camp counselors who desecrate his beloved Camp Crystal Lake with sex, drugs and bad 80’s fashion statements. Two movies prior, a little boy named Tommy Jarvis managed to out-think and cut Jason into ribbons.

Unfortunately, this led to Jarvis himself being institutionalized. At the beginning of “Jason Lives,” Jarvis (Thom Mathews) and a fellow Cuckoo’s Nest escapee (none other than Ron Papillo, Horshack from “Welcome Back, Kotter”) go to Jason’s grave to make sure he’s dead.

They dig up his bones, Jarvis has a moment of anger and, in a touch Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly herself would have appreciated, Jason is brought back to life by a bolt of lightning. This pre-credits sequence is a kick – it’s intentionally funny, mildly spooky and ends with gobs of gore.

Then there’s the title sequence, in which Jason enters the screen in a James Bond-like fashion. It’s all very stupid and I’m not defending any of this as art. At the same time, it’s thoroughly entertaining and gives the fans a refreshingly tongue and cheek (and other detached body parts) approach to a worn-out tale.

Mathews is so good in this, and he manages to upstage a stunt man dressed as Jason. Mathews’ intensity is the driving force of his performance, and he’s well matched by Jennifer Cooke as the gruff sheriff’s daughter.

She’s plucky and adorable, though it’s worth noting that even David Kagen, playing the no-nonsense sheriff, is better than expected. These aren’t Oscar-caliber performances, but the actors are really giving it their all, which can’t be said of the previous “Friday the 13th” entry.

McLoughlin does what is expected and then some. There are a few lame stalk n’ scare scenes, lots of cheap jump jolts, many moments of teens being teens, one impaling after another and by-the-numbers ’80s horror movie tropes.

There’s also an awesome highway crash-up, a great climactic showdown on Crystal Lake (as opposed to “On Golden Pond”) and an end-credits Alice Cooper song that seriously rocks. The only quality strangely in short supply: gratuitous nudity.

On the other hand, this is the first “Friday the 13th” since the first one that I would describe as atmospheric, eerie, and funny on purpose.

There’s also a shot of a little girl in her cabin, surrounded by sleeping campers. She’s awake and sees Jason walking around outside. No, the movie doesn’t subject us to Jason offing any children (remember folks, he’s a man-child and only goes after teens old enough to see his movies).

FAST FACT: FX guru Tom Savini baked some of the prosthetics for the first “Friday the 13th” film in a pizza oven.

Yet, the shot of the little girl, suddenly jolting up in her bed, scared by the “boogeyman” outside, packs a punch. It might be the one shot in the entire franchise that haunts me. It’s also the essence of why these movies work.

These are campfire tales, chilling in the dark but utterly ridiculous once the sun comes up.

This and “April Fool’s Day,” were Paramount’s unofficial, ahead-of-their-time horror comedies from 1986. They’re both better than expected (“April Fool’s Day” is actually far better than merely good) and, for fans of the genre, they rank pretty high.

When a movie starts with a 007 homage and ends with Alice Cooper singing about Jason over the end credits, it’s hard not to crack a smile.

Happy Friday the 13th, Jason. See you next summer.

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‘Reminders of Him’ Has Perfect Secret Weapon

Mainstream movie romances have set requirements.

Predictability. Comfort. No character’s edge can be too unforgiving, even if it seems like it on the surface.

“Reminders of Him” follows that format to a T. The film, based on Colleen Hoover’s bestseller and co-written by the novelist, understands the assignment perfectly.

The wild card? Star Maika Monroe’s face, an instrument capable of endless shades of pain, discomfort and, eventually, joy. Her performance turns even mediocre scenes into consequential turns.

And her on-screen partner, played by Tyriq Withers, holds her own while anchoring the film’s masculine component. (He even uses nail polish after a youngster playfully paints his fingernails)

 

Kenna (Monroe) moves back to her late lover’s hometown of Paradise, Wyoming. She’s fresh out of jail after a seven-year sentence.

Why?

She was driving her beau Scotty (Rudy Pankow) home when their car crashed, injuring her and killing him. And she had drugs in her system and left the scene of the crime while he was still alive.

Now, she wants to rebuild her life and, far more importantly, see the daughter she gave birth to in prison for the first time.

Good luck. Scotty’s parents (Lauren Graham, Bradley Whitford) adopted young Diem (Zoe Kosivic) and want nothing to do with Kenna. They haven’t even told the five-year-old about her, beyond a silly lie about her needing a bigger car to visit.

Fate brings Kenna into a bar run by Ledger (Withers), a former Denver Broncos player. Ledger was Scotty’s best friend, but he never got to meet Kenna due to his busy NFL schedule.

When the two meet early in the film, sparks fly (and then some). Ledger’s ties to Scotty run deep. He took on a sizable role in young Diem’s life, serving as a father figure of sorts while Mom served her prison sentence.

See where this is going? We all do, and that’s understandable. We need to watch the story pieces fall into place and feel some emotional pull in the process.

That’s more or less what happens.

Monroe is best known for turns in strong horror entries like “It Follows” and “Longlegs.” Here, she’s doing the opposite of what Claire Danes might attempt, at least if you’ve seen the latter in Netflix’s new series “The Beast in Me.”

Monroe makes the quiet creative choice in every scene, expressing pain in small gestures and facial movements. Sure, she’s movie-star beautiful, but the pain etched in her performance is profound.

Director Vanessa Caswill keeps the mood civil, albeit heartbreaking, with only two jarring exceptions. One is a bizarre, post-coital exchange that could have been black humor on steroids, but it stops the movie cold. The film’s third act reveals are unnecessarily tidy, but the cast handles the rough spots as well as could be expected.

Still, Caswill’s light touch is mirrored by the leads, who understand the story’s heft and refuse to double down on sticky sentiment.

Other gentle touches are more than welcome, like a crisp supporting turn from Monika Myers as a fellow motel dweller. A running gag about a “freakin’ pigeon” is cute at first but overstays its welcome.

It’s hard to escape a formulaic romance without a dash of cringe.

That “Reminders of Him” steers mostly clear of those speed bumps, and delivers the heart-tugging moments so well, it means the film missed its Valentine’s Day release date by a month.

HiT or Miss: “Reminders of Him” makes a few tonal mistakes but otherwise delivers the kind of romantic pairing that’s tailor made for the big screen.

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‘Project Hail Mary’ Takes Aim at A.I. Slop, Sequelitis

Sequels. Prequels. Reboots. Re-imaginings. Spinoffs. Shared universes.

And, of course, the rise of A.I. slop.

We’ve grown numb to films that look and feel all too familiar, and we often flock to see them anyway. It’s almost like comfort food – safe, reassuring and bland. Along comes “Project Hail Mary,” and it’s a course correction of the first order.

The story, based on the novel by Andy Weir of “The Martian” fame, packs so much humor, heart and humanity into its two-plus hour running time that it feels dizzying. That’s above and beyond the superlative turn by star Ryan Gosling.

There’s enough originality from directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (“The LEGO Movie”) to fill a dozen movie theaters. And here we are, eager to savor it in one, admittedly overlong bite.

Gosling stars as Ryland Grace, an aw, shucks biology teacher pressed into the most unusual service. Ominous reports are tracking an outer space substance infiltrating the sun.

And, slowly but surely, extinguishing it.

Ryland’s unorthodox thinking got him kicked out of the Science, Inc. community, but a determined international task force leader named Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller) thinks he might be the one to save the world.

The film’s smart story structure follows Ryland as he tries to crack the crisis from the confines of space. And, along the way, we get rigorously structured flashbacks to show how he got here in the first place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The storytelling is relentlessly smart, from the strong performances to the way that intricate theories are presented as both bright and accessible. Gosling may be movie-star handsome, but his vulnerability is what sells the character.

He’s a puzzle solver of the highest order, but he isn’t sure he has the heroism side of the equation nailed down. Nor do we, which makes “Project Hail Mary” all the more exhilarating.

The film’s first act is darn near flawless, and we’re absorbed by the quest and its sticky obstacles. Midway through, Ryland learns he’s not alone. That part of the film takes a quirkier path, opening the story up in ways that are fascinating and, to be fair, often trite.

It feels cynical to frame it as such, especially when we’re witnessing a crowd-pleasing film brimming with wit and ingenuity. The film may lose some older viewers here, potentially, as well as those who still haven’t forgiven George Lucas for those blasted Ewoks.

The film’s sturdy structure never fades. In ways, it only grows richer.

FAST FACT: Author Andy Weir landed work as a lab assistant at Sandia National Labs, a Department of Energy installation, when he was just 15.

The special effects are as stunning as we’ve come to expect from mainstream Hollywood, but there’s something grounded about the presentation. The FX crew isn’t trying to dazzle or distract us. The ship in question feels as grounded as the Nostromo from “Alien,” a very high compliment.

The rest hangs on Gosling’s shoulders, and in a wild way, his adventures are similar to those of Tom Hanks and his unusual pal in “Cast Away.”

Yes, “Project Hail Mary” goes on too long, and the third act packs more than a few, “wait, this isn’t the final conflict” moments? It ends on a note that’s graceful and satisfactory, sticking the landing after already achieving so much more than most films ever think of attempting.

Take that, Tilly Norwood!

HiT or Miss: “Project Hail Mary” is messy but moving, a marvel of science fiction storytelling that never leaves the human element behind.

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Why ‘INLAND EMPIRE’ Was Pure, Unfiltered Lynch

David Lynch’s “INLAND EMPIRE” (2006) begins, fittingly, with a grand gesture.

The spotlight shines on the title, followed by a prelude with a record needle (so the song begins …), blurred black and white footage of a hallway and Polish dialogue.

We see a prostitute and a client with blurred-out faces, then cut away to a character staring at a static TV and crying (not unlike the opening of Lynch’s 1992 puzzle, “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me”). It’s all been shot on digital photography and resembles snippets from our deep unconscious.

You lost yet? Just go with it.

We meet a Hollywood film actress named Nikki Grace (Laura Dern) who has a bizarre encounter with a stranger (an eerie Gracie Zabriskie) who talks her way into Nikki’s home and gives her a vague but menacing warning.

The Dern/ Zabriskie conversation is eerily like the frightening party exchange between Bill Pullman and Robert Blake in “Lost Highway” (1997).

Immediately after this, Nikki is cast in a project with a promising co-star (Justin Theroux) and a confident director (Jeremy Irons) but a dark truth clouds the proceedings. It turns out this new film has a haunted history and is “based on a Polish folktale and said to be cursed.”

The cast and crew carry on until Nikki starts to find it difficult to tell the difference between her real life and the character she’s playing, as moments on and off the set start to blend together. By the midpoint, Irons lays down the lore and, with that, the audience tumbles down the rabbit hole with Dern and Lynch.

RELATED: HOW LYNCH’S ‘MULHOLLAND DR.’ INVADED OUR DREAMS

As with every Lynch film, I find that a second or third viewing goes a long way to fully appreciating (if not fully comprehending) his work. This was also the experience I had with Lynch’s “Wild at Heart” (1990) and “Mulholland Dr.” (2001), two great but challenging, idiosyncratic and casually surrealistic works that seem impenetrable at first.

Your experience may not be the same as mine, but I initially found some of Lynch’s films off-putting and easy to resist. Giving a second or third look has only enriched my affection and understanding but, again, Lynch’s polarizing films (even his most acclaimed) aren’t for everyone.

I saw “INLAND EMPIRE” on opening day, my birthday in fact, at the great Mayan Theater in Denver, Colo. What I remember most about the experience is that for the first two hours (the running time clocks in at a whopping 180-minutes) I sat close to the screen, wanting to absorb everything.

A few massive jump scares and jarring transitions later, I spent the last hour in the row furthest from the screen. I seemed to have forgotten how terrifying Lynch’s films can be, as there are moments in “INLAND EMPIRE” every bit as jolting as the biggest shocks in “Lost Highway” (1997).

We lost Lynch last year, at the age of 78. Now that his body of work has a beginning and end and “INLAND EMPIRE” represents the final theatrical film release of his career (with the awesome “Twin Peaks – The Return” on Showtime his swan song), what can we make of it?

Is it a self-indulgent folly or on the level with his best films? Actually, yes to both of those questions.

If you’ve never liked Lynch’s work, this won’t be the one to change your mind. Also, if you’ve read this far and have never seen a Lynch film, I recommend starting with “The Elephant Man” (1980) or “The Straight Story” (1999).

Lynch’s true masterpiece is probably the entirety of “Twin Peaks” (the first two seasons from 1990-1991, the 1992 prequel film, then the 2017 Showtime mini-series). Nevertheless, while “INLAND EMPIRE” could have used a severe edit before release and has passages it doesn’t need, its best moments, of which there are many, demonstrate how Lynch’s works were thrilling alive, defiant and personal.

Arguably, the most infamous moments here are the bits with a family of rabbits (specifically, actors with large rabbit masks on) who sit around and converse while a laugh track accompanies dialogue devoid of humor. These bits play like an existential goof, not unlike Lynch’s “The Angriest Dog Alive” comic strip (they’re still online and worth a look).

That we see this bizarre segment (with Naomi Watts and Scott Coffey among the voices of the Rabbit family) before the story kicks in is a bold touch.

Repeat viewings of “INLAND EMPIRE” are essential, as it’s initially difficult to gauge which narrative we’re supposed to invest in (my take- everything is a subconscious prelude until Dern shows up).

For Lynch completists and adventurous filmgoers, there’s much here to savor, let alone wrap your head around. Fans of “Wild At Heart” will note that the film’s Oscar-nominated MVP, Diane Ladd, has a nutty cameo appearance here as a talk show host (meanwhile, William H. Macy has exactly one line in one very brief scene).

The title of Nikki Grace’s vehicle, “On High Noon in Blue Tomorrows,” even sounds like it could be an extension of the “Invitation to Love” soap opera that captivated the town of Twin Peaks.

“INLAND EMPIRE,” in the best way, often feels like an extension of the themes within “Mulholland Dr.” Both works contrast the real and unreal, Hollywood gloss and ugly reality and show us something so beautiful, followed by a truly ghastly vision.

These are consistent themes with Lynch’s work.

Of the moments I savor, Julia Ormond has one scary single scene as a suspect being interrogated by a cop. Terry Crews shows up as a homeless man. Oh, and there’s a musical number! Two, in fact. Okay, now I sound like I’m describing a dream.

I’ll conclude with a quote from Lynch’s 2006 book, “Catching the Big Fish,” about how his ideas manifest themselves. The chapter entitled “INLAND EMPIRE” begins this way:

“When we began, there wasn’t any INLAND EMPIRE, there wasn’t anything. I just bumped into Laura Dern in the street, discovering that she was my new neighbor. I hadn’t seen her for a long time, and she said, ‘David, we’ve got to do something together again.’ And I said, ‘We sure do. Maybe I’ll write something for you. And maybe we’ll do it as an experiment for the Internet.’ And she said, ‘Fine.’”

The brief chapter has Lynch recalling how a lengthy monologue became something even bigger. Lynch concludes the chapter with this:

“But it wasn’t until halfway through that, suddenly, I saw a kind of form that would unite the rest, everything that had come before. And that was a big day. That was a good day, because I could pretty much say that it would be a feature film.”

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