lasttimeisaw After completing all three seasons of TWIN PEAKS, the TV series, one's final closure is this cinema prequel, aka, the last days of Laura Palmer, made in 1992 after the first two reasons, and was intended to herald an expanding Black Lodge universe, which was ill-fatedly scrubbed after the film's dead-on-arrival reception. The meat of Twin Peaks story is affixed to a prologue taking place one year prior in a God-forsaken town Deer Meadow, where FBI agent Chester Desmond (Isaak) mysterious disappears when he tries to retrieve a lost ring belongs to the murder victim Teresa Banks (Gidley), which triggers the concern from FBI Regional Bureau Chief Gordon Cole (Lynch) and agent Dale Cooper (MacLachlan), with the latter presciently foretells that another killing is imminent. The prologue gives us a glance of Lynch's original conception of its botched sequels, what happened to Agent Desmond, and the introduction of David Bowie's Special Agent Phillip Jeffires, who has gathered first-hand information about the eldritch rabbit hole, would have spirited us onto a Lynchian journey in another continent. Back to Twin Peaks, FIRE WALK WITH ME, is a watchword of Laura Palmer's (Lee) scourge, delineating roughly the last week of her life and pruning less pertinent threads, Lynch emphatically puts Laura under scrutinizing and Sheryl Lee gutsily takes it on herself to reify Laura's distraught psyche to a thoroughly haunting and transfixing effect, a vulnerable, terrorized, traumatized girl whose only rebellion against the creepy demon willing himself to overtake her is to give herself up to the complete abandon, when one's heart is dead, who cares about the body? It is a crying Oscar-caliber achievement goes criminally unsung, also Ray Wise stirringly amplifies his demonic impersonation of Laura's father, altogether, their effort speaks volume of what we habitually turn a blind eye on: incest and sexual abuse, human's original sin. Lynch's trademark nonsensical touches in the beginning gradually morph into a psychedelic horror (suffused with tawdry iridescence, exploitative nudity and nocturnal killing) when the film inches toward that bloody foregone conclusion peppered with frantic editing and benighted screaming. For Lynch's votaries, the movie is par for the course of earning the reputation as a film maudit, yet, assessed under a broader spectrum, as a singular piece, it still holds its own with Lynch's peculiar conceits pumped up in high voltage, an eerie, spine-tingling voyage into a cosmic myth, the puzzle is unsolved, but redemption elevates itself in the final shot, rest in peace, Laura Palmer, an angel mired in the temporal vice.

framptonhollis I have seen this film a number of times, and it still affects me brutally. The film just gets such an emotional response out of me every time I see it that when I'm done watching it, the power of certain visuals and performances (Sheryl Lee and her horrified expressions are hard hitting and it's so sad to see that she practically got no recognition for her performance in this when it was first released to much unreasonable and confusing hatred) still linger. Lynch...Lynch...Lynch...how brilliant can one man be? I have spent many a review gushing over his projects and their artistic, absurdist, and avant garde brilliance. It feels as if my constant, passionate praise has sucked the man dry of any further discussion, and yet there's always MORE things I can compliment Lynch for. Lynch makes the mundane seem horrific and surreal, he turns the tables on the viewer and subverts any and all expectations on a nearly scene by scene basis. The entire first half hour of this movie is one prolonged, darkly humorous examination of an anti-Twin Peaks, a terribly bizarre, disconnected, and mean spirited little town named Deer Meadow. With this first section of the film, Lynch takes one of his most popular, well established products and basically just parodies it with a multitude of characters viewers of the original series had never seen or heard of before...and he pulls it off as more than just some kind of "troll"; instead, he uses it as a vessel to explore the everpresent doppelganger theme that appears in much of his work, Peaks in particular, while also helping bring some comedy in the mix of this otherwise painfully tragic and disturbing work of surrealist horror.Then, things get even weirder when we are faced with familiar faces, particularly the face of the iconically quirky and chipper Agent Dale Cooper who's looking much more worrisome and disturbed than usual. And then Lynch goes all out insane with the surrealism, every shot is experimental, audio overlaps and lights flash and images of wild absurdity are constant. This scene must be experienced to be believed, there is no describing such a momentous David Lynch sequence. There is no describing of it.Scenes like this consistently pop out of the blue throughout the movie...except they aren't "out of the blue" at all. A first time viewer may be baffled by some of these visuals and scenes, but a devoted enough explorer of the Twin Peaks universe(s?!) will soon be able to realize that all of these moments have some sort of purpose. Lynch is telling a story, but, as Lynch always does, he tells this story in an unconventional way, breaking as many boundaries as he can get away with.And yet the film is still relatable and emotionally affecting. It's simultaneously a creepily atmospheric surrealist nightmare and a deeply troubling dark tragedy about a young woman coming to terms with the pains of abuse and her own twisted world that steadily shreds its fabric day by day...Even after this barrage of disturbing and borderline traumatizing imagery and sounds (the score for this film is just phenomenal...but it's also the most demented and distressing movie soundtrack I've ever heard), there is still a brief flash of light at the end of the title.And then the legend of Twin Peaks is ready to truly begin...(Cue Twin Peaks theme)

Smoreni Zmaj This stands as independent movie that can be watched even without any knowledge of TV show, but in that case you probably won't like it. It is meant for fans of series and it rounds it perfectly. Chronologically, movie is prequel to the show, but in my opinion, it is perfect final episode. It is significantly darker and heavier than series and it lacks that distinctive charm and atmosphere we got to love during original series, but it does not make it any less awesome. My only objection is new actress in Dona role, cause she's not anywhere close to looks, charm and energy Lara Flynn Boyle had. Beside that, I'm sorry that movie does not show bunch of characters from series that, I'm sure, we all wanted to see one last time. Many of them were included in shooting of this movie but their scenes were cut in final version. This is very good movie, but I would not recommend watching it without thorough knowledge of previous TV show.8/10

Rickting Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me is the prequel to the Twin Peaks TV show, which depicts the last 7 days in the life of Laura Palmer. Twin Peaks was an awesome show and the upcoming revival is something to anticipate hugely. The film is a different thing. It's darker and more adult, the wonderful theme tune from the program only appears once, many of the characters from the show, including Dale Cooper, are barely in it and this overall is far more of a horror film. If you thought the TV show was baffling, wait until you see this. It's a hugely confusing film with many things that feel rushed or incomplete, while not only does Dale Cooper get completely marginalized, but he seems more subdued than he was before. The subtle explanation of what happened in the series finale is appreciated though. The film is as brilliantly made as one would expect from David Lynch, and is filled to the brim with his deliriously insane cinematic skill. It's a disturbing film as well, and despite its craziness perhaps what it truly is in the end is a surreal examination of the trials and difficulties of adolescence. Still, as a film, it feels incomplete, overly open and too many characters from the show are either missing or reduced to distantly seen cameos. Sheryl Lee is good as Laura Palmer, but some of the other acting, especially Moira Kelly as Donna Hayward, is really bad. This is undoubtedly a flawed effort, but it's an underrated and interesting movie that still has plenty to say. 7/10