[Fantastic Fest Review] ‘LYNCH/OZ’ clicks its heels, takes us into the fantasy world of filmmaker David Lynch

Travis Leamons // Film Critic

Not Rated, 108 minutes.
Director: Alexandre O. Philippe
Featuring: David Lynch, Amy Nicholson, Rodney Ascher, John Waters, Karyn Kusama, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, and David Lowery

Good artists borrow, great artists steal, and David Lynch goes to Oz. In his mind and on the screen, Lynch has been venturing outside Kansas throughout his career as a director. Sometimes the references are obvious. Often, though, they are subtle and easily disregarded.

Who better than Alexandre O. Philippe, a documentarian who loves making movies about movies, to draw the parallels between a 1939 cine-bomb now cine-classic and David Lynch? Philippe’s movie obsession and our collective obsession with movies allow him to creatively geek out and be a fan, a critic, and a historian all at once. 78/52: HITCHCOCK’S SHOWER SCENE was my introduction to Philippe’s style, with him examining Hitchcock’s PSYCHO and how its famed scene flourished beyond movie screens to become part of the cultural zeitgeist. MEMORY: THE ORIGINS OF ALIEN (which I covered during a previous Fantastic Fest) deconstructs the infamous chest-burst moment, but it does a bit too much interposing with allusions to Greek mythology and other underlying themes.

LYNCH/OZ is his most abstract critical examination to date. Philippe’s earlier docs always felt like a compendium of insights from other directors, actors, and film scholars. This time he’s the wizard – the man behind the curtain. The documentary is broken up into six parts, each one covering a different theme with a different narrator. Most voices are filmmakers, except for critic Amy Nicholson (who did an entire “Unspooled” podcast episode on THE WIZARD OF OZ with co-host Paul Scheer). She kicks things off with “Wind” and how sound is incorporated. You hear it as Dorothy opens the door and enters Oz. Lynch, meanwhile, uses wind as a gateway to process shock or injury.

The successive essays cover a different subject but ultimately correlate to what they love about and how they react to the classic’s fairy-tale surrealism, their appreciation for David Lynch’s works, and the intersection of both. Philippe takes their words and matches them with a continuous montage of movie clips and a few archival sound bites from Lynch. Concentrating on the key visuals helps make a case that was long established by Lynch during a Q&A session in which filmmaker Karyn Kusama was in attendance:

“There is not a day that goes by that I do not think about The Wizard of Oz.”

Kusama’s piece for the doc, “Multitudes,” may be the most personal. Before directing films like GIRLFIGHT, JENNIFER’S BODY, and THE INVITATION, Kusama worked as a waitress at a New York City diner that Lynch frequently visited. It may sound like a small, tangential connection. Still, I guess her service with a smile somehow invaded Lynch’s subconscious and may be why FBI agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan’s character in TWIN PEAKS) enjoys drinking coffee and having a slice of cherry pie.

Ruby red slippers, billowy curtains, Isabella Rossellini as Dorthy Vallens and Dennis Hopper as Frank Booth (a nod to Frank Morgan who played Professor Marvel aka “The Wizard”) in BLUE VELVET, to Lynch’s WILD AT HEART as an unabashed homage to the 1939 film, the visual motifs can be found throughout his oeuvre. The broader, more thematic motifs of the dream world and reality (particularly within MULHOLLAND DRIVE) are harder to read and probably why many cinephiles will want to revisit David Lynch’s works after watching the documentary.

Then again, filmmaker David Lowery’s final essay “Dig” makes the case that if you look hard enough, you’ll see that Lynch isn’t the only filmmaker who has a connection to THE WIZARD OF OZ. Montages of works by Martin Scorsese, Wong Kar-Wai, and Jane Campion, among others, are visual proof that there’s no place like Oz.

Who would have expected THE WIZARD OF OZ to have a prevailing influence more than 80 years after its release? It was a box office failure that would grow to be a cult hit before becoming an unmitigated classic. LYNCH/OZ may emphasize the visual and the broader reaches of David Lynch’s psyche, but it’s hard to argue that no other filmmaker has been as heavily influenced by a specific film as Lynch has been with OZ. For that, LYNCH/OZ is required viewing for movie lovers and scholars alike.

Grade: B+

Fantastic Fest takes place in person from September 22nd through the 29th, and @Home from September 29th through October 4th.