Skip to main content

Twin Peaks - Fire Walk with Me (David Lynch, 1992)

Guaranteed to disappoint those looking for an explanation to David Lynch and Mark Frost's confused, troubled and fitfully brilliant television series, Fire Walk With Me is Twin Peaks distilled; a return to the heart of the series.

With few revelations, the power and interest comes instead from the chance to see the feral Sheryl Lee's Laura Palmer vividly interacting with a cast that could previously only mourn her.

The high points surely Laura's interactions with her father, the possessed Leland Palmer, portayed brilliantly and frighteningly by Ray Wise. These moments are genuinely disturbing, casting off the shackles of TV censorship to lay bare the true nature of their twisted relationship, following it through to its terrible climax.

Fans of special agent Dale Cooper may be saddened by his minimal screen time, likewise fans of the television series' quirky humour and whimsy may feel left out. However this shift in tone focuses on the core of the story, and the horror inherent in this small town, something the embarassing second series spectacularly failed to do. The film has no Packards, no Nadine, no Hornes (Audrey being the sole exception, and sorely missed for it) no convoluted love octahedrons or beauty contests. The seedy, terrifying feel of the best original episodes is back, magnified tenfold; with Lynch's trademark masterful sound design providing a run-down, buzzing, nightmarish feel to the proceedings.

Fire Walk With Me fails as a stand-alone film, sequel or prequel, but as 'best of Twin Peaks' highlight reel, it's better than the cherry pie at the Double R diner.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics [PS4, 2024]

These are great fighting games. Truly terrific fighting games. From a golden era of sprite-based craft and technical innovation, they've spent far too long gated off behind expensive gimmick cabinets and ownership conflicts.  But here they are, all of Capcom's "Marvel" and "Versus" fighting games released between 1994 and 2000 in one collection. You've got; X-Men: Children of the Atom (stubborn and janky now, but looks gorgeous and is pure innovation and influence)  Marvel Superheroes (sublime refinement of COTA, masterful art and animation, great use of Thanos/the Infinity Stones and one of the best fighting games ever made)  X-Men vs Street Fighter (wild tag-team action with the Street Fighter cast at their most overpowered) Marvel Superheroes vs Street Fighter (the weakest of the bunch, but still glorious, technicolour carnage and the first in the series to use "assists")  Marvel vs Capcom (pushing 2v2 fighting to the limit and full of brill...
Post a Comment
Read more

Capcom Fighting Collection 2 [PS4, 2025]

This is the third of Capcom's in-house "fighting collection" releases. It focuses on the late '90s - early 2000s, when development had moved to the NAOMI arcade board. This was a time when general public interest was moving away from the oversaturated fighting game market and into the new and expansive three-dimensional space.  Eight titles comprise the collection; Capcom vs SNK Pro (2000) Capcom vs SNK 2 (2001) Capcom Fighting Jam (2004) Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper (2001) Power Stone (1999) Power Stone 2 (2000) Plasma Sword (1998) Project Justice (2000) The Capcom vs SNK games are the undoubted highlight; the experimental, flawed first game and the massive follow-up still look great and both feature huge rosters of characters, expansive, complex battle systems and hidden secrets.  As with the rest of the CFC run, archive material, training modes, display filters, extra options, modern control considerations and rollback netcode are all great benefits. Also returnin...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Social Network (David Fincher, 2010)

In lesser hands, “the Facebook movie” could have been a disaster. Hollywood and the internet have a less than stellar common history, tending to fall back on technobabble and fancy graphics in place of what is often a less-than glamourous reality. The story of Mark Zuckerberg, billionaire creator of Facebook defies this convention; neither coming of age movie, nor a nerd-gets-the-girl schmaltz. While Facebook itself may thrive on the trivial and banal, its genesis is presented as anything but.
Post a Comment
Read more