8. David Lynch
The Movie: The Nonsensical Dreamlike Odyssey That People Pretend To Understand The above description might sound like a criticism, but don't get me wrong - I
love David Lynch, from his delightfully barmy TV show Twin Peaks to his catalogue of deliciously demented - if scarcely comprehensible - movies. At his best (Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, The Elephant Man, Lost Highway) and at his worst (Dune, Inland Empire), the director always crafts mind-boggling pictures that depict a break with reality of some kind; very rarely does Lynch stick to pure realism, seeming to find the allure of a dark nightmare far more intoxicating. I can't begin to tell you what Mulholland Drive actually means, but I love it. I similarly can't work out Inland Empire, and I despise it for that. Whatever the quality of the guy's films, he's always trying to provoke audiences with his unique blend of trippy visuals and crazy storytelling. It doesn't always work, but you always get something predictably ridiculous. Curiously, though, he hasn't made a feature film in 7 years now...