The Easie Precis: Unconventional thriller. Beautiful imagery. Intriguing story. Might bend your mind into a pretzel.
Compatible Movies: L.A. Mystery gives hints of Chinatown (1974). No time-travel, but Donnie Darko (2001 also) comes to mind for some reason - maybe the sometimes weird acting. General sense of creepiness that you get from most David Lynch movies.
The "for what it's trying to be" score: 90%
Watch the Trailer? No, better to go in with no expectations. Trailers I have seen are very much focused on trying to sell tickets.
A Little More Detail...
The good thing about this film is that, for those who don't like things too art-house, 70% of this film is just plain beautiful and entertaining and intriguing and all-around good to watch.
The great thing about this film is the other 30%.
David Lynch manages to convey such a strong story without explicitly telling it - and that is why it is great. Consider, Hemingway famously had the "ice-berg" theory: you only tell the stuff on the surface, and by doing so readers will infer the real heart of the story that is concealed underneath. Well, David Lynch seems to go one better: you don't even really tell the stuff on the surface. Or, you do, but you make it fragmented or contradictory, or even meaningless at times. This way, the minds of your audience become so much more involved.
This is an important point, because it isn't a short film and it isn't an easy movie ("hey, that's the name of this blog!?"), but the entire time you watch it, you feel captivated. For myself, at least, the film managed to keep me not just watching it, but actively watching it.
The thing is, though, there are parts with pretty ordinary acting and parts that feel very cliche. As a part of the greater whole, however, they feel almost done this way on purpose. In danger of giving too much credit, you could at least say that these parts don't detract from the experience because the very essence of the film means that you shouldn't take everything you see literally anyway.
What's it About?
It's a mystery (probably the most apt 3 word summation, ever). Typical elements such as "person moves to a new city", amneasia, contract killers and tiny tiny people.
Best Viewing Company: By yourself or one or two friends. Too in-depth for crowds, potentially awkward for family
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