8. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)
The TV series all about who killed Laura Palmer was hugely popular in the early 1990s. Co-directed with Mark Frost, the pair practically gave birth to water-cooler television. The kind of TV you couldn't wait to discuss at work the next day, trying all the while to figure out what was happening. A classic whodunit in a small town was the backdrop, and its idiosyncratic inhabitants made it a real joy to watch. When the show ended quite ambiguously (well ambiguous for the mainstream, not really for Lynch), there was a public outcry to get it resolved in a more obvious way, this was after the amount of time invested in finding out who did indeed kill Laura Palmer. Lynch set out to answer the questions in the form of a prequel. Fire Walk with me begins with an odd twist in character, you see David Bowie going through time or a dream world (I think?!), former main star Agent Cooper trying to track him down, an insanely comic cameo from Lynch as a deaf detective and musician Chris Isaak showing up Kiefer Sutherland with the old joke of whats the time? while hes holding hot coffee in his watch hand. Then it goes insane, at first it seemingly settles down in teenage high school drama showing us the last week of the now dead palmer and the hell she went through before it. The film twists and turns then focuses on Laura, who becomes solidly the centre of attention, whoring herself out in a performance that leaves you dizzy. You finally find out who killed Laura Palmer and you get to see the backwards dancing dwarf again plus more Bob. It is worth a watch it just for that.
The Severed Ear Scale of Madness: 4/5