Every David Lynch Film RANKED From Worst To Best

10. Inland Empire

Certainly Lynch's most challenging feature, this is one only for hardened fans; newcomers are liable to be turned off by the low resolution digital cinematography, nonlinear narrative structure, and all the usual Lynchisms turned right up to 11.

Starring Laura Dern, Jeremy Irons, and Justin Theroux, Inland Empire concerns, in the most basic description that can be mustered, an actress's life falling apart as she begins to absorb the personality of the role she is playing. That, however, is an admittedly inadequate description of what happens, though mainly because this is the Lynch film that most epitomises the notion that the plot is not as important as the mood.

Inland Empire also marked Lynch's transition from traditional photochemical film to digital cinematography, a decision that the filmmaker champions and that was featured in the Keanu Reeves-produced documentary Side by Side. Whilst the switch afforded Lynch a degree of creative freedom that he found to be truly liberating, the low resolution look of the film is liable to be off-putting to some. Add to that a three hour run time and nonlinear, indeed oftentimes seemingly incoherent narratives, the film is really for the hardcore Lynch fans looking to immerse themselves in the filmmaker's world - and assuredly not for newcomers.