Lost Highway
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A tormented jazz musician finds himself lost in an enigmatic story involving murder, surveillance, gangsters, doppelgängers, and an impossible transformation inside a prison cell.
What critics thought
DivisiveLost Highway landed in 1997 as a genuinely divisive film, with Siskel and Ebert leading a camp that found it visually accomplished but narratively empty, while a smaller group of supporters argued the deliberate incoherence was precisely the point. Retrospective reassessment has been considerably kinder, with cult-film enthusiasts positioning it alongside Mulholland Drive as one of Lynch's most daring personal statements — a gap between initial and later reception that is itself part of the film's story.
“beautifully made but emotionally empty”
Kenneth Turan·Los Angeles Times
“traded some of his disturbing originality for noir formula and schticky weirdness”
Stephanie Zacharek·Salon
“an audacious move away from conventional narrative and back toward the formal beauty of Eraserhead”
Jonathan Rosenbaum·Chicago Reader
“uneven and too deliberately obscure in meaning to be entirely satisfying”
Todd McCarthy·Variety
“in many ways, it's Lynch at his most daring, emotional, and personal”
Jeremiah Kipp·Slant Magazine
Accolades
Genres
Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Cast & Crew
David LynchDirector
Patricia ArquetteRenee Madison / Alice Wakefield
Bill PullmanFred Madison
Balthazar GettyPete Dayton
Robert BlakeMystery Man
Robert LoggiaMr. Eddy / Dick Laurent
Michael MasseeAndy
Natasha Gregson WagnerSheila
Richard PryorArnie
Gary BuseyBill Dayton
Lucy ButlerCandace Dayton
Jack NancePhil
Jack KehlerGuard Johnny Mack
Angelo BadalamentiComposer
Barry GiffordWriter
Peter DemingCinematographyLost Highway
A tormented jazz musician finds himself lost in an enigmatic story involving murder, surveillance, gangsters, doppelgängers, and an impossible transformation inside a prison cell.
What critics thought
DivisiveLost Highway landed in 1997 as a genuinely divisive film, with Siskel and Ebert leading a camp that found it visually accomplished but narratively empty, while a smaller group of supporters argued the deliberate incoherence was precisely the point. Retrospective reassessment has been considerably kinder, with cult-film enthusiasts positioning it alongside Mulholland Drive as one of Lynch's most daring personal statements — a gap between initial and later reception that is itself part of the film's story.
“beautifully made but emotionally empty”
Kenneth Turan·Los Angeles Times
“traded some of his disturbing originality for noir formula and schticky weirdness”
Stephanie Zacharek·Salon
“an audacious move away from conventional narrative and back toward the formal beauty of Eraserhead”
Jonathan Rosenbaum·Chicago Reader
“uneven and too deliberately obscure in meaning to be entirely satisfying”
Todd McCarthy·Variety
“in many ways, it's Lynch at his most daring, emotional, and personal”
Jeremiah Kipp·Slant Magazine
Accolades
Genres
Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Cast & Crew
David LynchDirectorPatricia ArquetteRenee Madison / Alice WakefieldBill PullmanFred MadisonBalthazar GettyPete DaytonRobert BlakeMystery ManRobert LoggiaMr. Eddy / Dick LaurentMichael MasseeAndyNatasha Gregson WagnerSheilaRichard PryorArnieGary BuseyBill DaytonLucy ButlerCandace DaytonJack NancePhilJack KehlerGuard Johnny MackAngelo BadalamentiComposerBarry GiffordWriterPeter DemingCinematographyStream
Rent & Buy