Lynch’s feature-length prequel to his ‘Twin Peaks’ series is a psychedelic head trip into the lower rungs of hell, backed by an extraordinary if unexpectedly emotional performance from Sheryl Lee, as the narrative traces the final days leading up to her character’s demise.
Review #2,942
Dir. David Lynch
1992 | USA | Drama, Mystery, Crime | 135min | 1.85:1 | English
M18 (passed clean) for strong violence, sex, and drug content, and for language
Cast: Sheryl Lee, Ray Wise, Mädchen Amick, Dana Ashbrook, Phoebe Augustine
Plot: Laura Palmer’s harrowing final days are chronicled one year after the murder of Teresa Banks, a resident of Twin Peaks’ neighbouring town.
Awards: Nom. for Palme d’Or (Cannes)
International Sales: MK2
Accessibility Index
Subject Matter: Small Town Community; Crimes & Secrets; Personal Trauma
Narrative Style: Complex
Pace: Slightly Slow
Audience Type: Cult Mainstream
Viewed: Criterion Blu-ray
Spoilers: No
I first saw this more than a decade ago in 35mm and disliked it. I couldn’t feel anything much for the characters or the narrative, and for a long time, I considered it a dud in David Lynch’s one-of-a-kind filmography. What an ass I was for thinking that way.
With a brand new 4K restoration, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me is now presented in pristine quality and it felt like I was watching a new release by Lynch (his recent passing, which has hurt me immeasurably, means that 2006’s Inland Empire is certainly his final feature).
I’ll be the first to admit that I still haven’t watched the ‘Twin Peaks’ series (my loss, I know, but I’ll soon), though in this second viewing of Fire Walk with Me, I found myself lured into its nightmarish world much more vulnerably than before.
And even without the context of the series in mind, the feature film (meant as a prequel) works independently on its own, inasmuch as it is a self-contained piece of pulpy crime mystery.
“Do you think that if you were falling in space… that you would slow down after a while, or go faster and faster?”
From its amusing and oddball-ish prologue to increasingly unsettling imagery and sleazy situations, Lynch’s work is an amalgamation of tones, but one thing’s consistent—it’s a psychedelic head trip into the lower rungs of hell.
Sheryl Lee plays Laura Palmer in an extraordinary if unexpectedly emotional performance as the film traces the final days leading up to her death (which sparked the pilot episode of the TV series).
Despite being well-loved in her town, Laura is an embodiment of dark secrets that threaten to consume her—drug addiction, sexual exploitation, and being psychologically/physically assaulted by a mystery assailant.
There are two things I love most about Fire Walk with Me that I already found incredibly striking in my first viewing. One, it contains what might be my favourite song in Lynch’s entire oeuvre—“Questions in a World of Blue”; and two, the ‘Pink Room’ sequence, as infectious and terrifying as anything Lynch had ever done.
Grade: A
Trailer:
Music:
Eternality Tan 