No other filmmaker has played such a large part in my life as both a fan and a critic. I’ve been asked to put together some notes about Lynch, which I wanted to share in full here:
The impact David Lynch had on popular culture cannot be overstated. His singular and uncompromising vision across not just film and television, but music, painting, sculpture and even early website design made him a rare thing: a true artist outside of the mainstream, but embraced by the mainstream.
He was a true surrealist in that he allowed dream logic to dictate his stories and imagery, and his refusal to offer explanations for his work was part of his endearing eccentricity. And yet while films like Eraserhead, Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive were often lacking real world logic, they contained deep emotional truths that resonated with admirers globally.
This ability to generate a mood and connect with people in ways that are not easily explained was most evident in the hit television series Twin Peaks, which he co-created in the early 1990s. Decades before what would become known as prestige television, Twin Peaks was a complex fusion of murder mystery, soap opera, comedy and horror that was both a parody and subversion of television tropes but also deeply sincere in how it treated its characters and themes of sexual abuse and domestic violence.
Lynch once said ‘the home is a place where things can go wrong’ when asked about his frequent portrayal of violence in the community and much of his work evokes the idea of a dual reality where there is what we see versus what lies in the shadows. But what is often overlooked is Lynch’s deep humanity. Among the nightmarish visions he had conjured over the years is an almost sentimental vision of the capacity for people to find hope and happiness through the one force Lynch celebrated more than imagination: love.
Thomas Caldwell, 2025
CINEMA AUTOPSY 