10 Movies To Challenge Even The Most Hardcore Film Buff

4. Inland Empire

A list about challenging films wouldn't be complete without a feature from David Lynch, contemporary master of the weird and wonderful. From his earliest short films it's been abundantly clear that Lynch is far less interested in representations of reality than he is with delving into the dark recesses of the human consciousness, and in no film is this perhaps more evident than his wildly illogical, hugely self-indulgent but strangely brilliant movie Inland Empire. Starring Laura Dern, Inland Empire at first seems to explore familiar Lynchian territory, as Dern's character - an actress by the name of Nikki Grace - prepares for her comeback role as the character Sue Blue in a movie called On High in Blue Tomorrows. With hints of the doppleganger motif emerging - echoing Lynch's other excellent film about the disintegrating psyche of an actress, Mulholland Drive - Nikki Grace finds herself spiralling down through a series of increasingly bizarre, and often unconnected, scenarios. Attempting to tease out the (multiple) meanings from Inland Empire often feels like a futile task - you can't help but get the impression that Lynch has deliberately crafted a hermetically sealed movie in which the search for meaning is in itself a meaningless proposition - in this world, the imagery and sound, the incongruous symbolism and scenes of abstraction are the purpose, with Lynch the master illusionist, pulling invisible strings and jerking his audience to and fro as if locked in a surreal, inescapable fun house.