"My dad says I’m the sickest bitch," says the director of this very noir thriller. And since Jennifer Lynch’s dad is David Lynch, he should know what he is talking about.
Jennifer made the weird Boxing Helena and her second feature is only a measure less odd. But it works as a kind of horrific comedy, as cynical as it is brutal.
Set on a highway to nowhere, it stars Bill Pullman and Julia Ormond as FBI agents who arrive in a small town to investigate a string of vicious murders. It is soon clear that the local police are useless but a few details emerge from the witnesses, who include an eccentrically zealous cop, a strung-out junkie, her new boyfriend and her small girl (well played by Ryan Simpkins).
We get to find out roughly what happened through three half-told sets of stories but a surprise ending (well, not entirely a surprise) brings us up short.
Lynch takes a razor to her characters, all of whom save the little girl are mocked as slightly off their trolleys. The tone has echoes of Twin Peaks but considerably more off-the-wall humour. The result is watchable, even if the spurts of violence which punctuate the piece may be off-putting to some. It’s a bleak piece of Americana with a twisted smile on its face. Sick, if you like, but there’s a real film-maker here and I’ve never seen Ormond and Pullman so effectively not be their usual screen selves.
Surveillance
Cert: 18
