Woodyanders A dejected little boy (an effective performance by Richard White) who suffers at the hands of his monstrously abusive parents (portrayed with startling ferocity by Robert Chadwick and Virginia Maitland) plants some weird seeds in order to grow himself a caring and nurturing grandmother (sweetly played by Dorothy McGinnis).Naturally, this spooky and unsettling early short by David Lynch doesn't have much in the way of a coherent story (the whole thing unfolds like a child's bad dream complete with evil adults who bark like dogs and even crawl around on all fours), but nonetheless still makes a strong impression due to its surreal brooding atmosphere, striking wealth of bizarre visuals, inspired use of jarring sound effects that really add to the overall nightmarish mood, occasional bits of funky stylized animation, and the way the narrative works as a loopy meditation on birth, life, and death with a poignant central point on the basic human need to feel loved and accepted. Worth a watch for fans of challenging outre fare.

druid333-2 David Lynch,who started out as a painter,moved into conceptual art,then moved into film,first with a piece that involved six animated heads vomiting something like six times (Six Figures Getting Sick). He then moved on to his first short film,'Alphabet',some time later. In 1970,he directed his second short film,'The Grandmother'. To call this film short surreal would be like calling the Grand Canyon vast. 'Grandmother' told the tale of a young boy (played by Richard White,who is just credited as "The boy"),who has to deal with two of the most dysfunctional parents (Virginia Maitland & Robert Chadwick),who crawl around on all fours,bark & whine like a pair of dogs,and make the boy's existence sheer hell. The boy figures there must be something better out there,and from a seed found in a bag marked "seeds" plants the biggest one,from which a kind of spiny vegetation sprouts. When the vegetation/plant gives birth to a full term,adult grandmother (Dorthy McGinnis),the boy now has some kind of link to parental love. David Lynch,in addition to writing & directing this bizarre,dreamy (and occasionally nightmarish),surreal film,also photographs,edits,creates stop motion animation & has a hand in the sound design (with Alan Splet,who also worked with Lynch on Eraserhead). Not widely screened,but well worth seeking out for fans of experimental/avant garde/midnight cult films (it was shot in 16mm,which would somewhat limit it's distribution to cinemas that are equipped for films of that nature). Not rated by the MPAA,but does have some rather unsettling,if not outright disturbing sequences that would give some young 'uns some screwed up nightmares.

kuuipo829 My college roommate and I were flipping through channels last night, and were suddenly startled by the image of a pale boy in a suit with seemingly bloodied teeth, looking through a bag to find a seed that was whistling to him. Yeah, we were so flabbergasted by the whole thing that we were in one of those situations where you want to look away, but you can't! We watched it until the "thing" began growing out of his bed and then had to change it because we were getting too freaked out. I really don't understand this movie, but I'm totally curious to see the rest of it! Does anyone who's seen it think it'll give us nightmares tonight, because I think it might. My suggestion: definitely worth checking out! But be prepared to lie awake at night contemplating it.

MisterWhiplash The Grandmother, like other surreal short films (and, of course, like the rest of Lynch's work), is not that concerned with logic, at least in conventional terms. If there is anything at all conventional about the the film is that it has at its core that small statement on youth and innocence that can be interpreted a hundred ways to Sunday- if you're lonely and dejected you'll look for companionship. It's just that in this case the conventional wisdom of finding someone at the playground or at school is bypassed- here the boy, in isolation from his barking, mad parents, plants and grows a grandmother to spend time with. But is it all as it should be? Lynch, much as he did with Eraserhead, leaves so much up to interpretation that on a first viewing it's almost not even necessary to find something coherent in what goes on. But in that sense, of course, many will likely be befuddled, disturbed, and maybe even offended at the lack of typical cohesion from start to finish.What it does provide, however, is a kind of cinema experience that has to be felt, seen, heard, taken in as cinema on the technical and artistic side of things always goes. Even when I didn't know what was "going on" with the boy and his grandmother and parents, I didn't mind as long as I knew Lynch was doing something with the camera or lighting or editing or music or animation or all of the above to make it a visceral experience. Yes, there are some tedious moments here and there (which, even in being a 35 minute short film, are possibly more so than the ones in Eraserhead), yes the first two to three minutes takes some time to adjust to, and yes there ending is left about as ambiguous as can be. But it shook me up all the same, like the best parts of 90's music videos. Any time, for example, that Lynch used a sort of stop-motion technique during the live action I was thrilled in a way. The animated sequences have a crude quality that could only be matched by Gilliam's Python animations. And the actors (or maybe just pieces) in Lynch's macabre framing and set ups and pay off seem all perfect for the parts.If you're already a fan coming on to this DVD set of Lynch short films, this may or may not come as the most eccentric, wonderfully outrageous of the lot of them; it could also be for some the most 'huh' of all of the films as it is the longest and with the most density in the surrealism. It is the mark, interested in it or not, of an artist leaving something out for a good look and soak into what it is or could be or is lacking. Grade: A