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The death of filmmaker David Lynch is, of course, a tragedy. He was a unique filmmaker, with a talent and voice that many have spent their entire careers trying to emulate without success; he was a person so passionate about his work (and others'!) that it was infectious, no matter what that work happened to be at that moment — remember his amazing weather report videos from a few years back? It strikes us, however, that not everyone is familiar with Lynch’s work, so here’s a three-step guide to diving into the world according to David Lynch.

Eraserhead (1976)

Lynch’s first feature remains a standout almost 50 years after its release — but then, it felt like an object out of time back then, a feature that only feels more and more true as time goes on. Informed by surrealist art, existential writing and the very real fears Lynch felt about being a parent for the first time, it’s a dizzying, disorienting film that is as much an emotional experience as a traditional narrative, and all the better for it. This is a movie to feel, and if that leaves you with a mild sense of dread and confusion at the end of it all… well, that’s a worthwhile experience in and of itself.

(Not for nothing, it’s very possible that anyone watching Eraserhead for the first time will have a feeling of, “Oh, so that’s where that came from.” For all that the movie was seen as a middlingly-successful cult hit at the time, it’s ended up being entirely influential to so many filmmakers who’ve come up since its release.)

Available on: The Criterion Channel

Blue Velvet (1986)

Arguably the start of Lynch’s Americana obsession making its way into the foreground of his work — something at the heart of his biggest hit Twin Peaks — Blue Velvet is perhaps best described by the writer/director himself in this quote from the 1997 book Lynch on Lynch: “My childhood was elegant homes, tree-lines streets, the milkman, building backyard forts, droning airplanes, blue skies, picket fences, green grass, cherry trees. Middle America as it’s supposed to be. But on the cherry tree, there’s this pitch oozing out — some black, some yellow — and millions of red ants crawling all over it. I discovered that if one looks a little closer at this beautiful world, there are always red ants underneath.”

Come for the underbelly of suburbia, stay for stunningly good performances from the entire cast, but especially Isabella Rossellini and Dennis Hopper. Think of this as the (somewhat stronger) prologue to what Twin Peaks would bring to American network television a handful of years later.

Available on: The Criterion Channel

Twin Peaks: The Return Ep. 8: ‘Gotta Light?’ (2016)

Twin Peaks: The Return — a decades-later revival of the ABC show by cable network Showtime, reuniting Lynch with the show’s co-creator Mark Frost and expanding on the mythology (and unfinished story) of the original series — was, by no means, guaranteed to succeed; how many revivals of beloved cult classics manage to recapture lightning in a bottle, after all? And yet, it didn’t just work, it was in so many ways far more powerful than what had come before, Lynch seemingly finding space inside the material to create something close to his magnum opus: work that manages to feel like it’s building on almost every part of his career to that point, and in conversation with it all.

‘Gotta Light?’ — the show’s midway point — is perhaps the strongest, strangest episode of the entire run; one that sidesteps much of the show’s continuing plot to flash back to the first atomic bomb tests and suggest that more was going on there than anyone knew. I’d say more, but that would spoil everything — instead, I’ll just tell you to check out the amazing black and white cinematography and sound design that puts everything else to shame. (And also, check out the rest of the show, as well; it’s Lynch’s final work as a filmmaker and, bluntly, although not intended as such, it’s a hell of a way to go out.)

Available on: Paramount+ with Showtime

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