Best 2006 films

[Keith]

Pleased to say that I saw Inland Empire last Thursday, and watched  
with my critical faculties and thinking mind as close to off as I can  
get them.   It was similar to the experience of getting on an  
airplane for a 3-hour trip, then alternately dozing, reading, dozing,  
listening to others' conversations, daydreaming, dozing, dreaming.   
During the 179 minutes of the film, my mind had ample time to  
wander.  I spent little time thinking. The movie isn't made for the  
thinking mind. It is about images, sounds, (the un)conscious[ness],  
reality, identity, the movie industry, art, and the purpose of art.   
Later I thought of how there was this film: overly long, plotless and  
characterless; and there's ATD, which has been similarly described by  
Kakutani and others.  What, I wondered, was the difference?   The  
difference, I think, is that on every page of Pynchon's book there  
are starting points for mental reveries about math, time-travel,  
light, anarchism, etc.  It's an exciting blueprint for thinking  
about, and thinking about how we think about, the world.  IE, on the  
other hand, is not about cognitive thought and rational mind. It is  
about the dark under-belly of the ego and consciousness. Irrationality.

Lynch taped the scenes in no particular order, without a script and  
only decided in the editing stage what he wanted to use, and in what  
order.  He challenges the viewers to abandon the search for meaning  
when there isn't any, and have an experience outside of rational  
meaning.  He holds the willing captive for 3 hours, flashing little  
that can evoke reveries or associations: he avoids cliches like the  
proverbial tarot card flip, for example.  Each scene seemed endless  
out and basically uninteresting to rational mind.  Judging from the  
reviews I've read (which mostly rave over it), the most evocative  
scene for unadventurous filmgoers was where a bunch of hookers sing  
and dance to The Locomotion (I missed that one during one of my brief  
naps).  I don't mind, I'll catch it next time. Sounds like it is  
mocking what most people go to movies to see in the middle of a movie  
most people will have enough sense to avoid.  The series of scenes  
with people in rabbit suits was eerily hilarious, especially since  
he's used this before.  I can't wait to return to the theater! Laura  
Dern was simply stunning.