Lynch’s ‘Highway’ better than ever
Bill Pullman plays a jazz saxophonist who may or may not have murdered his wife. Patricia Arquette is the wife, and she may or may not be dead. And Robert Blake, in creepy white-powder makeup, is just plain weird.
Welcome to the bizarre and disorienting world of David Lynch, one of the few surrealist filmmakers to direct for mainstream Hollywood. “Lost Highway” opened to head-scratching reviews in 1997, made $3.7 million at the U.S. box office — not bad for an art house film at the time — and now has been restored in 4K from Lynch’s original 35mm elements by Janus Films.
“Lost Highway” marked the return of Lynch, who took a long break after producing TV’s “Twin Peaks” and its movie prequel “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me” (1992). He collaborated on the script with Barry Gifford, whose novel “Wild at Heart” was adapted by Lynch in 1990.
The restoration, coming just over two months after the restoration of Lynch’s 2006 “Inland Empire” premiered, is magnificent. Even if you can’t figure out what’s going on (you won’t), the images are mesmerizing and even at 134 minutes, interest never flags. Also getting a digital upgrade is the film’s pulse-pounding score, composed by Angelo Badalamenti with additional music by Barry Adamson and Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor, and includes songs by David Bowie, Lou Reed and Marilyn Manson, who has a bit part in the film.
Incidentally, this is the best performance in the career of San Franciscoraised actor Balthazar Getty (yep, of the famed Getty family), as a hapless auto mechanic under the thumb of a gangster (Robert Loggia).