Also, do you have grandkid? Or was that one of your siblings? Me still picture entire AV Club diaspora trapped in amber as snarky twentysomethings, until me look in mirror and see how much grey fur me have!
Oh geez I definitely am not a granddad and do not expect to be for another decade minimum. (My eldest is 17.) This child is the great-granddaughter of a sister nine years my senior.
I’m long overdue to revisit this. The one time I saw it was half a lifetime ago, when it was in theaters. Certain images and moments have always stuck with me, though.
Lovely essay about a lovely movie--so lovely that it finally persuaded me to take out a paid subscription to The Reveal. The parallels between Lynch and Alvin Straight have only become clearer after Lynch's death.
Thanks for this, Scott. Since he passed, I'm hearing lots of "and did you know he also made a Disney movie?" from the kinds of people who are into movies enough to have some sense that a "David Lynch movie" is supposed to be nightmare fuel, but who are not into movies enough to realize that David Lynch and David Cronenberg aren't the same guy. This is actually a really good rebuttal to that school of thought. This movie is more of a David Lynch movie than it gets credit for, and his other movies are less genre-bound than they sometimes get credit for.
When I first saw Blue Velvet, I took the blue-skies-and-white-pickets as snickering arthouse archness. Assumed his loyalties were with the perversions and the rest was set up as easy, naive targets. I'd conveniently forgotten the deep humanity of Elephant Man. I was a dope when I was younger.
You nail it here. He always loved the goodness. Watching The Art Life this weekend, he makes it pretty clear that his formative memories are green lawns and blue skies in Idaho. There's an ideal and then there's the rot eating at it. A lot of people mistook the slithery uglies for the Boy Scout who was looking under the rock.
A friend who is a die hard Lynch lover texted me last night telling me he'd finally watched Straight Story. Said he'd avoided it because he'd heard it "wasn't really a Lynch movie." His verdict was that people who said that could perform acts on themselves and that it was maybe the MOST Lynch movie. I'd tend to agree. He could cover the corners of our existence so well and we'll be so much poorer without him. Though, for someone so disturbed by corruption, he probably got out just in time.
Fantastic write-up. That "Where do they come from" line from the woman who hits the deer is probably my favorite line of the whole movie, and she delivers it perfectly with that mix of bewilderment and despair. A couple of minor detail quibbles, since I just rewatched this last Friday (and because I'm "that guy"):
- He's not roasting the braunschweiger over the fire, which would be messy as it's a type of liverwurst paste meant for sandwiches -- it's "wieners" that he's got for roasting.
- The spectators watching the house fire (and who rescue Alvin and eventually take him in) are talking quite a bit about it, making jokes in fact. The firefighters are burning an abandoned eyesore for practice.
- Alvin doesn't get towed by that big tractor at the end (I thought that was the case too) -- he's merely sitting there for a while since it won't start, then when the big tractor pulls up he tries it again and it starts, then he follows the tractor to the turnoff to Lyle's house (making a nice juxtaposition b/t the big "real" tractor that you see on the roads all the time in those parts and Alvin's "mini" tractor that has no business being on the road).
I watched this movie last year after having not seen it for maybe 15 years and while I sure liked it back then, it really hit different this time, with A) me being older and B) having seen The Return and really understanding how Lynch saw older folks.
What at the time felt like an outlier to me feels more now like the first tell of where he was going in a lot of ways, in pacing and in abandoning some of the 50s cool cat affectations that he picked up in the 90s (to some extent via Barry Gifford).
Sidenote: I live in Madison, WI, and maybe a month ago, I was at my local beer store, doing what I do best (buying beer). There was a woman in front of me buying some wine and the guy running the cash register said "good to see you again! I watched your movie and I really liked it!" and then they kept chatting. Overhearing the convo, I pieced it together enough to butt in and say "excuse me, are you Mary Sweeney" (long-time editor for Lynch and co-writer of this one) - it was! She was super friendly.
“Fusion of the square and strange” is such a great summary of Lynch’s unique tone. Beautiful piece about a movie I only caught up with a few months ago which totally gutted me.
First time I saw it, I cried long after it was over.
The second time I saw it, introducing my wife to it, I figured I'd be okay because I'd seen it already. Wrong. Cried through the end credits. Farnsworth took himself out the year after this came out and that just adds to it. Haven't seen it since Harry Dean left us and I don't know that I'd make it.
For all of the attention on his darkness, the "Llorando" section in Mulholland is one of the few movie scenes that's made me cry just thinking about it weeks after seeing the movie.
This was my first Lynch rewatch after Lynch died — partly because I've got tickets to Blue Velvet and Fire Walk with Me in theaters next month, mostly because I hadn't seen it since '99. It's a powerhouse. I'd either forgotten or hadn't noticed the first time.
It occurred to me later that the other auteurs I could see adapting this story would be the Coen brothers, but it would be 180º from what this movie is.
This was beautiful piece, Scott.
Also, do you have grandkid? Or was that one of your siblings? Me still picture entire AV Club diaspora trapped in amber as snarky twentysomethings, until me look in mirror and see how much grey fur me have!
Oh geez I definitely am not a granddad and do not expect to be for another decade minimum. (My eldest is 17.) This child is the great-granddaughter of a sister nine years my senior.
I’m long overdue to revisit this. The one time I saw it was half a lifetime ago, when it was in theaters. Certain images and moments have always stuck with me, though.
Same here. Pretty sure it was my first Lynch, too (I was 19), and I don't think I knew anything about him. Might finally be time.
Lovely essay about a lovely movie--so lovely that it finally persuaded me to take out a paid subscription to The Reveal. The parallels between Lynch and Alvin Straight have only become clearer after Lynch's death.
Thanks for this, Scott. Since he passed, I'm hearing lots of "and did you know he also made a Disney movie?" from the kinds of people who are into movies enough to have some sense that a "David Lynch movie" is supposed to be nightmare fuel, but who are not into movies enough to realize that David Lynch and David Cronenberg aren't the same guy. This is actually a really good rebuttal to that school of thought. This movie is more of a David Lynch movie than it gets credit for, and his other movies are less genre-bound than they sometimes get credit for.
Lovely writing about a lovely film.
When I first saw Blue Velvet, I took the blue-skies-and-white-pickets as snickering arthouse archness. Assumed his loyalties were with the perversions and the rest was set up as easy, naive targets. I'd conveniently forgotten the deep humanity of Elephant Man. I was a dope when I was younger.
You nail it here. He always loved the goodness. Watching The Art Life this weekend, he makes it pretty clear that his formative memories are green lawns and blue skies in Idaho. There's an ideal and then there's the rot eating at it. A lot of people mistook the slithery uglies for the Boy Scout who was looking under the rock.
A friend who is a die hard Lynch lover texted me last night telling me he'd finally watched Straight Story. Said he'd avoided it because he'd heard it "wasn't really a Lynch movie." His verdict was that people who said that could perform acts on themselves and that it was maybe the MOST Lynch movie. I'd tend to agree. He could cover the corners of our existence so well and we'll be so much poorer without him. Though, for someone so disturbed by corruption, he probably got out just in time.
Fantastic write-up. That "Where do they come from" line from the woman who hits the deer is probably my favorite line of the whole movie, and she delivers it perfectly with that mix of bewilderment and despair. A couple of minor detail quibbles, since I just rewatched this last Friday (and because I'm "that guy"):
- He's not roasting the braunschweiger over the fire, which would be messy as it's a type of liverwurst paste meant for sandwiches -- it's "wieners" that he's got for roasting.
- The spectators watching the house fire (and who rescue Alvin and eventually take him in) are talking quite a bit about it, making jokes in fact. The firefighters are burning an abandoned eyesore for practice.
- Alvin doesn't get towed by that big tractor at the end (I thought that was the case too) -- he's merely sitting there for a while since it won't start, then when the big tractor pulls up he tries it again and it starts, then he follows the tractor to the turnoff to Lyle's house (making a nice juxtaposition b/t the big "real" tractor that you see on the roads all the time in those parts and Alvin's "mini" tractor that has no business being on the road).
I love that the lady says she tries to blast Public Enemy to warn the deer.
I watched this movie last year after having not seen it for maybe 15 years and while I sure liked it back then, it really hit different this time, with A) me being older and B) having seen The Return and really understanding how Lynch saw older folks.
What at the time felt like an outlier to me feels more now like the first tell of where he was going in a lot of ways, in pacing and in abandoning some of the 50s cool cat affectations that he picked up in the 90s (to some extent via Barry Gifford).
Sidenote: I live in Madison, WI, and maybe a month ago, I was at my local beer store, doing what I do best (buying beer). There was a woman in front of me buying some wine and the guy running the cash register said "good to see you again! I watched your movie and I really liked it!" and then they kept chatting. Overhearing the convo, I pieced it together enough to butt in and say "excuse me, are you Mary Sweeney" (long-time editor for Lynch and co-writer of this one) - it was! She was super friendly.
This makes my day.
“Fusion of the square and strange” is such a great summary of Lynch’s unique tone. Beautiful piece about a movie I only caught up with a few months ago which totally gutted me.
First time I saw it, I cried long after it was over.
The second time I saw it, introducing my wife to it, I figured I'd be okay because I'd seen it already. Wrong. Cried through the end credits. Farnsworth took himself out the year after this came out and that just adds to it. Haven't seen it since Harry Dean left us and I don't know that I'd make it.
For all of the attention on his darkness, the "Llorando" section in Mulholland is one of the few movie scenes that's made me cry just thinking about it weeks after seeing the movie.
I’ve had the same experience with the “Llorando” sequence! Takes your breath away, and lingers in the mind.
Great piece.
I love that dumb ass Chris Farley’s brothers play dumb ass brothers.
Payne’s Nebraska is a hell of a double feature.
This was my first Lynch rewatch after Lynch died — partly because I've got tickets to Blue Velvet and Fire Walk with Me in theaters next month, mostly because I hadn't seen it since '99. It's a powerhouse. I'd either forgotten or hadn't noticed the first time.
It occurred to me later that the other auteurs I could see adapting this story would be the Coen brothers, but it would be 180º from what this movie is.
Gorgeous writing, Scott. Thank you.