Damn Fine TV/Film
In November of 2015, then-presidential candidate Donald J. Trump declared he wanted to establish a registry for Muslims living in the United States. (Although Trump's team later denied the candidate's involvement, a video surfaced days later than confirmed he had, in fact, made such a statement to an NBC reporter.) On November 16th, 2015, Carl …
Continue reading "The Frightening Timeliness of Amazon’s “The Man in the High Castle”"
Watching Season 11 of The X-Files makes me nostalgic for the early days of this groundbreaking series, perhaps the most successful of the many so-called "Quality TV" programs inspired by the original Twin Peaks (1990-91). In part, this feeling of nostalgia is what keeps folks coming back for these revivals. For some, the nostalgia is …
This article is the third and final entry in my short series dedicated to understanding the hybridization of the German Expressionist and Surrealist artistic/cinematic styles in the work of David Lynch in general and in Twin Peaks: The Return in particular. In Part I, I provided some definitions and historical contexts for an understanding of …
Continue reading "David Lynch: Master of Expressionist Surrealism (Part III)"
Last week, I wrote the first entry of a short, three-part series dedicated to examining the dual influences of German Expressionism and Surrealism in the work of David Lynch. I noted in the previous post that we can think about Lynch's unique combination of these two artistic styles as "Expressionist Surrealism" (my own term). While …
Continue reading "David Lynch: Master of “Expressionist Surrealism” (Part II)"
I'm certainly not the first to point out that the work of David Lynch draws on the artistic traditions of both German Expressionism and Surrealism. Anyone familiar with these, two of the most powerful art movements of the past 100 years, can recognize immediately how Lynch uses them across his body of work. In his …
Continue reading "David Lynch: Master of “Expressionist Surrealism” (Part I)"
I'm not special because I loved Twin Peaks: The Return in its entirety (including its finale). In fact, I'll be the first person to admit that I'm not special at all for any reason. I'm just a quiet, middle-aged guy up the street who likes baseball (not football), craves Mexican food, enjoys good movies and …
Continue reading "Lessons of Lynch: Embrace Ambiguity and Relish Your Writerly Role"
Watching Part 16 of Twin Peaks: The Return, I couldn't help but feel moved by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper's "100-percent" awakening and, perhaps even more so, by his expressions of love and appreciation for the people who cared for him in his "DougieCoop" incarnation during the preceding few days. As he knelt with Janey-E …
Continue reading "“You’ve Filled My Heart with Such Joy”: Cooper’s Unconscious Cataloging of Love"
Why is Billy Wilder's self-reflexive noir triumph, Sunset Boulevard (1950), the film chosen to serve as what may very well be the catalyst for Cooper's re-awakening in Twin Peaks: The Return? Aside from the obvious facts (e.g., that in Sunset Boulevard, film director Cecil B. DeMille utters a name shared by a major Twin Peaks …
Continue reading "The Surprising (Other) Reason for the Sunset Boulevard Allusion in Twin Peaks"
Times have always been troubled in America--but they seem particularly so as of late. Hate and violence seem to stalk us, largely because of our (perhaps willful) refusal to confront the demons of our own national past. Now would seem to be a good time for a fully empowered FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle …
Continue reading "Evil Times Complicate Cooper’s Lovably Ridiculous Perfection"
By Douglas Cunningham Twin Peaks is known for its strange amalgamation of absurdity, melodrama, and surrealism. David Lynch and Mark Frost walk the delicate tightrope of this combination with a joyful and brazen recklessness, never shying from the sheer audacity of their vision. Lynch and Frost don’t bend sticks until they almost break; rather, they …
Continue reading "How Are We Meant to Handle Dramatic Social Commentary in Twin Peaks?"