Over the past two years, I’ve become incredibly intrigued by the works of Academy Award-nominated director David Lynch. During the COVID-19 pandemic, after years of accepting it as a blind spot in my palette, I embraced the town of Twin Peaks. The series and film have become some of my favorite cinema and television pieces in a while and led me on a journey down the Lynch filmography.
Two years into that journey, I’ve grown to love and appreciate Lynch’s style as a filmmaker and am on board with Lynch’s refusal to reveal the meaning of his film’s themes, except for one outlier. During a Q&A years ago, Lynch admitted, “There is not a day that goes by that I do not think about The Wizard of Oz.” That quote sparked a fascinating look at Lynch and his work in Lynch/Oz presented at this year’s Tribeca Festival. A film that takes us deep into the Lynchian nightmare to see if a yellow brick road is on the other side.
With my fandom of Lynch at the forefront of my excitement for the film, knowing Alexandre O. Philippe was helming the film was quite the delight. Known for directing Doc Of The Dead (2014), 78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene (2017), and Memory: The Origins of Alien (2019), Philippe’s reputation made this title hard to ignore.
Lynch/Oz’s narrative structure is unique as it sprinkles clips of the Oscar nominee throughout while separating the film into six chapters diving into the narrator’s personal experiences with Lynch and offering their perspective on how Lynch’s films interplay with The Wizard of Oz. These narrations and views come from Amy Nicholson, John Waters, Karyn Kusama, David Lowery, Rodney Ascher, and Moorhead & Benson.
Philippe balances these segments out by starting with academic Amy Nicholson. It’s obvious Nicholson’s segment is well-researched as Nicholson looks at the connections between the “American Fairytale” and Lynch’s filmography. However, the critical takeaway from Nicholson’s segment is the need to accept a level of uncertainty in a David Lynch film when first approaching his work. She also nods at the importance of wind in Lynch’s films as wind sets the stage for Dorothy as she enters Oz, while Lynch uses wind as his gateway to process trauma.
Documentary filmmaker Rodney Ascher’s fascinating dive into the similarities between the dream world and realities of The Wizard of Oz and David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive was a big takeaway from the doc. Without going too deep into each segment, Phillipe can build on each part, ultimately creating a final product that will leave cinephiles discussing each component and its interpretation of Lynch’s films.
The lack of Lynch himself in the doc can seem like a deterrent, but Philippe’s film is more of an examination of not just Lynch’s passion for Oz but a reward to cinephiles on the journey of interpreting his works.
Never entering the world of being overly preachy, Philippe’s Lynch/Oz carefully examines Lynch but never constructs one conclusion, leaving it to the viewer to decide, and David Lynch wouldn’t have it any other way.
