Movie Review: “David Lynch: The Art Life” (Documentary)
Film: David Lynch: The Art Life (2016)
Director(s): Rick Barnes, Olivia Neergaard-Holm, Jon Nguyen
Actor(s): David Lynch
Genre: Documentary, Biography
Runtime: 88 minutes
Country: United States, Denmark
Language: English
“You drink coffee, you smoke cigarettes, and you paint, and that’s it” is how David Lynch would describe the art life, a world where artists take their creativity and do whatever they please, albeit, whether good or bad. In the case of David Lynch, this documentary perfectly exemplifies who he is and why he is a genius in his craft. However, this film doesn’t discuss his film work but instead his work as a painter and what led up to it.
The documentary, about one of the greatest avant-garde filmmakers of our time, is not exactly the first, but it’s the most well-known. Exploring his life outside of film reveals a man who just has a passion for visuals and the distorted, uneasy feeling that accompanies them. You don’t see a Picasso or a Van Gough or even Bob Ross when you watch him at work. You see someone that could be working for the underground artist industry—the type that speaks volumes in just something that appears so simple and yet has flavor to it. When one looks at a painting of a forest, their fixation’s that of a bright, somber poetic orchestra. When David looks at it, he sees the exact opposite, making him somewhat of an original essence.
The documentary, directed by Rick Barnes, Olivia Neergaard-Holm and Jon Nguyen, presents these spectacles and his home life in sort of his eye. His paintings are shown as he waves his fluorescent hand over the rough edges of fabric or white sheets of paper. They show him making mistakes most artists do until they get it right. They reveal it even in unconventional ways of filming a documentary in forms of its clunky, intriguing choice of instrumentals or how it switches to black and white within many of the shots. It’s almost as if these shots were taking inspiration from Lynch’s old shorts that he made during the early years of his existence.
But what really struck me most is the sheer amount of backstory you learn of Lynch. It isn’t much in the short runtime we’re given, but it feels as if we get a sense of who he was as an individual and where inspiration came from early on. His mother probably had the most influence on his career and where he wanted to go. The way he discusses her is that of an honest, golden child of the family. He’s honest, but warming. Sticks to facts, but keeps them from being overly-sensitive and never dehumanizing.
The Art Life perfectly shows a director willing to continue his oddness in the wake of cinemagoers who are more fascinated in superhero clichés and bland effects. To him, he doesn’t care. Just as long as he has his coffee, his cigarettes and that he paints, that’s pretty much it for him.
Grade: A
By Noah Peterlin