Inland Empire (2007)Įven for a Lynch piece, Inland Empire is incredibly avant-garde. Though the film is indeed haunting, it has an undeniable soul to it. The road to freedom is fraught with mercenaries hired by Marietta and many other unsavory characters.

The two decide to run away together, to get away from Lula’s controlling mother Marietta (played by Diane Ladd, Dern’s actual mom) while also breaking Sailor’s parole. Dern and Nicolas Cage play a young couple named Lula Pace Fortune and Sailor Ripley. That said, it is also a strangely fitting love letter by the filmmaker to one of his favorite films, The Wizard of Oz. Wild at Heart (1990)Īs any Lynch film worth its salt, Wild at Heart can be jarring, disorienting and frightening. Her praiseworthy role is key to unraveling the mystery of the supernatural forces that govern the characters of Lynch and Mark Frost’s sprawling universe. She plays Diane, the previously-off screen assistant to FBI Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan). Dern made her Twin Peaks debut here, though she is far from unfamiliar with Lynch’s work. This 18-hour film contains nearly every character from the series and its film counterpart, as well as many others. The sprawling world of Twin Peaks is never bigger than in its long-awaited return. With a great performances from Dern, Isabella Rossellini and Dennis Hopper as the local detective’s daughter Sandy Williams, the femme fatale Dorothy Vallens and the sadistic crime boss Frank Booth respectively, it is truly one of Lynch’s best, even today. His surreal, sometimes-nightmarish story of a young man named Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) who finds himself in over his head in the seedy underbelly of his hometown. His follow-up film Blue Velvet however broadly received positive attention. Lynch was unhappy with the final cut, it performed poorly at the box office and fans of the source material, too, were dissatisfied. To call David Lynch’s adaptation of Dune “ a disappointment” would be an understatement. Such a trajectory is likely to continue, which is to the benefit of us all. Indeed, she has had a storied career thus far, full of colorful characters both on screen and off. She has also worked with such noteworthy filmmakers as Paul Thomas Anderson, Steven Spielberg, Jean-Marc Vallee, Alexander Payne, Kelly Reichardt and Rian Johnson. Frequently has she collaborated with David Lynch, one of the greatest working American directors. Laura Dern’s career is, in a word, enviable.

Wild at heart laura dern movies