Lost Highway

Name: Lost Highway
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Horror
Released: February 21, 1997
Duration: 135 min
Rating: 52
Cast: Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette

1997

METASCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 21 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 152 Ratings

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8.0	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 152 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

October Films | Release Date: February 21, 1997 | R

Starring: Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette

Summary: This neo-noir is a mesmerizing meditation on the mysterious nature of identity from director David Lynch. (October Films)

Director: David Lynch

Genre(s): Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Horror

Rating: R

Runtime: 135 min

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Critic Reviews

Dallas Observer Andy Klein

His most thoroughly surreal work since Eraserhead, this two-hour-plus fever dream is more of one piece than Fire Walk with Me and less desperate and jokey than Wild at Heart. Read full review

Edward Guthmann

It's a weird movie, in that spooky/sicko, deadpan way that Lynch's movies always are, and it's guaranteed to repel anyone who likes entertainment wrapped in tidy resolutions and optimistic fade- outs. Read full review

Michael Sragow

The first half of this 1997 movie suffers from abstraction. Still, it's a compelling erotic nightmare. Read full review

Jack Kroll

In Lost Highway, reality has become a dream. But Lynch has forgotten how boring it is listening to someone else's dream. Read full review

David Sterritt

The film actually deserves four stars for its imaginative style and astonishing suspense, zero stars for its shameless exploitation of violent shocks and loveless sensuality. Read full review

Manohla Dargis

It's a soulless and dull bit of showmanship, but it sure sounds profound. Read full review

David Edelstein

Lost Highway, David Lynch's first movie in five years, is a virtuoso symphony of bad vibes. Read full review

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User Reviews

RichardJ.

Mar 25, 2008

A Brilliant Masterpiece. Thank God (David Lynch) for people like Zack H. and Joris and Horatio A. and Will S.

0 of 0 users found this helpful

JBBu

Jul 16, 2013

This film follows (and transcends) the European "art film" model of a non linear narrative, oblique dialogue and double characters (a la Luis Buñuel and Krzysztof Kieślowski). However it is also injected with American action film motifs combined with truly odd Lynchian touches that makeThis film follows (and transcends) the European "art film" model of a non linear narrative, oblique dialogue and double characters (a la Luis Buñuel and Krzysztof Kieślowski). However it is also injected with American action film motifs combined with truly odd Lynchian touches that make this one of the most remarkable films of the 90's. The party scene is one of the scariest sequences caught on film...ever.… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

LankMint

Mar 31, 2014

52? Seriously? This movie is absolutely brilliant. If you're someone who enjoys being fed meaning then it's simply not for you. Those prepared to feel their own way and drop the barriers between dream and "reality" will find an intangible joy in unusual and familiar dark places. When I first52? Seriously? This movie is absolutely brilliant. If you're someone who enjoys being fed meaning then it's simply not for you. Those prepared to feel their own way and drop the barriers between dream and "reality" will find an intangible joy in unusual and familiar dark places. When I first watched Mulholland Drive I felt cheated, disturbed and confused. I've since learned to give in to the confusion and explore all the gaps between my stupid expectations. I find it rather offensive that Mulholland Drive has such a high rating in comparison to Lost Highway and can only assume that it's due to the nudity and lesbian scenes. I really hope that isn't true. David Lynch uses sex as a vehicle for something far more erotic and devastatingly honest. His movies leave me twisting for truth and dreaming within dreams that turn on themselves and walk their way "back" into life. I will always have a sincere love and respect for the artist that showed me what I want by failing to deliver what I learned to need. Thank you for denying me this and granting me so much more.… Expand

5 of 5 users found this helpful50

alejandro970

Jul 15, 2022

A nightmare subtly disguised as a movie, and it's not because it's a bad movie, but because its characters -and the story itself- seem to come out of a bad dream, to the point that it doesn't allow us to be distracted or blink; and with a puzzling final act that leaves questions unanswered.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

MovieMasterEddy

Apr 6, 2016

One of the hallmarks of a David Lynch film is the element of surprise -- the sense of not knowing what will happen next and the queasy dread that what you're about to see could disturb and haunt you and linger in your head for a long time.

Lynch established that agenda in "Eraserhead,"One of the hallmarks of a David Lynch film is the element of surprise -- the sense of not knowing what will happen next and the queasy dread that what you're about to see could disturb and haunt you and linger in your head for a long time.

Lynch established that agenda in "Eraserhead," his first feature- length film, and he hasn't abandoned it to a futile quest for mainstream acceptance.

It's impossible to imagine Lynch making a conventional film with "normal" people and "normal" entertainment values -- a fact that binds his fans to him but alienates many critics and moviegoers.
In "Lost Highway," which opens today at Bay Area theaters, Lynch continues his exploration of the unknown and delivers a dreamlike meditation on reality, identity and paranoia. Set in a bland city that resembles Los Angeles, "Lost Highway" stars Bill Pullman, fresh from play ing the enthusiastic president in "Independence Day," as Fred Madison, a spooked saxophonist who finds himself terrorized by a man who enters his house when he's asleep and videotapes him and his girlfriend Renee (Patricia Arquette) as they sleep.

At a party, he meets a smirking trickster, played in ghostly white makeup by Robert Blake, who declares himself the culprit. Blake invites Pullman to dial his own phone number and to listen as Blake, who's standing before him, "answers" at the other end of the line.

That's just a taste of what Lynch and co-writer Barry Gifford, whose novel "Wild at Heart" inspired Lynch's 1990 film of the same name, have to offer.

There's also a murder; a fire; a personality transformation involving an auto mechanic (Balthazar Getty); a gangster's moll, also played by Arquette, who cons Getty into committing a crime; a memory lapse by Getty; a reappearance by Pullman; and a series of bizarre foreshadowings and precognitive images that may or may not pro vide clues to the mystery of "Lost Highway."

The result is a world, part film noir, part apocalyptic acid nightmare and pure Lynch, in which nothing can be trusted or relied upon -- least of all our psychic well-being.

It's a weird movie, in that spooky/sicko, deadpan way that Lynch's movies always are, and it's guaranteed to repel anyone who likes entertainment wrapped in tidy resolutions and optimistic fade- outs.

The visuals, Angelo Badalamenti's music and Lynch's sound design -- his perennial sound designer, Berkeley's Alan Splet, died in 1994 -- are all effective, and the comic bits, specifically Robert Loggia's scene as a mobster berating a tailgating motorist, are all effective.

Filmmakers such as Lynch deserve our admiration for creating new cinematic idioms and exploring new ground. At the same time, "Lost Highway" often feels like a stunt -- like an arcane, deliberately perverse game that Lynch knew would never make sense. It's also feels, with its similarities to "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me," "Blue Velvet" and "Wild at Heart," like overly familiar territory. Lynch's great wish is to shock and arouse us, but in using the same kind of music, camera effects and offbeat editing rhythms over and over, his work is beginning to look like variations on a single theme.

Arquette, whose low-in-affect style is perfectly matched to Lynch's, gives the strongest, most memorable performance -- and brings to mind Kim Novak's similar dual roles in "Vertigo."

There is also a cameo by Richard Pryor, along with appearances by Gary Busey, rock star Henry Rollins and Natasha Gregson Wagner, daughter of the late Natalie Wood.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

MattBrady99

Oct 30, 2021

"We've met before, haven't we."

Before finally getting around to watching the whole movie I would always watch "The Mystery Man" scene. Everything from the the audio from the noisy party gets drowned out, like they’ve entered a separate dimension. The color grading changes as the music"We've met before, haven't we."

Before finally getting around to watching the whole movie I would always watch "The Mystery Man" scene. Everything from the the audio from the noisy party gets drowned out, like they’ve entered a separate dimension. The color grading changes as the music goes down when he walks up to Bill Pullman. Robert Blake (The Mystery Man) has no eyebrows or eyelashes. His face, his voice, his laugh. Pure creepy.

David lynch is the type of director who explains nothing but shows us everything we need to know to gasp it's dark and yet deep meaning.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

TonyB.

Aug 8, 2009

Figure it out...I dare you....pretentious claptrap.

0 of 1 users found this helpful

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99	#99 Best Movie of 1997
30	#30 Most Discussed Movie of 1997
59	#59 Most Shared Movie of 1997