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Inland Empire
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Metascore
72 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 24 Critics What's this?

User Score
7.3 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 106 Ratings

Your Score
10 out of 10
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  • Summary: The latest hallucinatory vision from the iconoclastic director of "Blue Velvet" and "Twin Peaks," Inland Empire stars Laura Dern in a tour-de-force performance as, perhaps, an actress who lands a dream role that quickly devolves into nightmare. (IFC Center)

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 24
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 24
  3. Negative: 0 out of 24
  1. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    100
    In the end, it's best to make peace with the film's essential and deliberate inscrutability -- something Lynch fans have learned to do since Twin Peaks -- and to simply marvel at Dern's astonishing performance, which few actresses are likely to top anytime soon.
  2. Premiere
    Reviewed by: Aaron Hillis
    100
    Inland Empire is interchangably terrifying, maddening, shockingly hilarious and perversely exciting, and that's just to those who end up disliking it.
  3. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    50
    What is Inland Empire - which Lynch is understandably distributing himself - about? What is it trying to say? If you figure that out, let me know.

See all 24 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 38 out of 64
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 64
  3. Negative: 19 out of 64
  1. NeilL
    10
    Now that the critical dust has settled (love it or hate it, as always), this film stands out as Lynch's most complex, troubling and perverse work. For that feat alone it deserves the highest score possible. It will continue to fascinate and perplex.… Expand
    • 4 of 4 users said yes
  2. Paxster
    5
    Inland Empire is not a bad film and has some great imagery but it is almost as if Lynch is taking the piss out of himself with virtually no story lines and endless amounts of critical interpretation and chatter. Where are the moments of realism like Mulholland Drive? No story, great imagery, average acting. It can only be a 5.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. DamonC.
    3
    I'm the biggest fan of David Lynch. I have seen Mulholland Drive 5 times, Lost Highway and Blue Velvet twice each, and relished Twin Peaks, The Elephant Man and Wild at Heart. But as much as I wanted to, I didn't go for IE. I think the story is actually very simple: Laura Dern's character, despite not heeding a warning against acting in a particular movie, go ahead and does it anyway and falls in love with her co-star. This opens the pathway into two alternate universes: (i) a white trash equivalent of Laura Dern's character, and (ii) a Polish mirror image. Much happens, but the essential thing is that through the magic (i.e. catharsis) of cinema, a person is able to transcend humdrum problems, even murders, and Laura Dern's character learn enough from the movie to be able to connect to her white trash and Polish selves, and is eventually able to penetrate into a new world, where even bad acting (notably by bunnies, and by implication, herself) receives thunderous applause. Okay, but so what? I sat through three hours of tedium without experiencing much suspense, mystery or in fact, any emotional connection with Laura Dern's incarnations. The best thing about IE was the bunnies, and that was really stolen from a short film done a couple of years ago. I think Lynch is stuck on traveling the lost highway of Mulholland Drive, and needs to get off quick before it all turns into another sordid episode of True Hollywood Stories.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes

See all 64 User Reviews