Any single second of this film's cinematography is immediately recognizable as the work of the creative mind of David Lynch.
It is like watching a nightmare: odd, disturbing, pointless. It is ostensibly about an abused child who grows a grandmother so he can have a comforting
presence in his dysfunctional family. The entire 33 minutes is an exercise in visual and aural ugliness. Everyone is in white makeup; the boy is formally dressed resembling Emcee in Cabaret. When the family sits down to eat, plastic bags of bread are strewn on the table, an unlit electric lamp takes up most of the tablespace (candles may have looked too pretty). Any furniture visible in the stark high contrast cinematography is thrift-store trash. Although it has sound, it is mostly atonal noise and shrieks. Although it is a live-action film, there is animation (more ugliness); although it is in black and white, there are colors, the most pronounced being dark yellow urine stains. (This poor kid must need a urologist.) Urine in this movie is about as profuse as blood is in The Shining.
The grandmother who grows quickly out of a bulb, smiles sometimes, but since that is about it for her as a contrast to the shouting monosyllabic parents, she isn't that much of a comfort. She mostly lies in her bed of dirt--but isn't that the same bed the boy wets all the time? Oh, well, dreams don't have to make sense.
The surreal look is peppered with stop-motion cinematography, so Lynchian. But it is only "enjoyable" as an example of his style. This is to be seen by film-students, not audiences seeking escapism. The reaction is meant to be less "Hooray for Hollywood" and more "WTF!"
It is like watching a nightmare: odd, disturbing, pointless. It is ostensibly about an abused child who grows a grandmother so he can have a comforting
presence in his dysfunctional family. The entire 33 minutes is an exercise in visual and aural ugliness. Everyone is in white makeup; the boy is formally dressed resembling Emcee in Cabaret. When the family sits down to eat, plastic bags of bread are strewn on the table, an unlit electric lamp takes up most of the tablespace (candles may have looked too pretty). Any furniture visible in the stark high contrast cinematography is thrift-store trash. Although it has sound, it is mostly atonal noise and shrieks. Although it is a live-action film, there is animation (more ugliness); although it is in black and white, there are colors, the most pronounced being dark yellow urine stains. (This poor kid must need a urologist.) Urine in this movie is about as profuse as blood is in The Shining.
The grandmother who grows quickly out of a bulb, smiles sometimes, but since that is about it for her as a contrast to the shouting monosyllabic parents, she isn't that much of a comfort. She mostly lies in her bed of dirt--but isn't that the same bed the boy wets all the time? Oh, well, dreams don't have to make sense.
The surreal look is peppered with stop-motion cinematography, so Lynchian. But it is only "enjoyable" as an example of his style. This is to be seen by film-students, not audiences seeking escapism. The reaction is meant to be less "Hooray for Hollywood" and more "WTF!"