Much has been written about director David Lynch and his films, but THE DREAMER’S PATH approaches his canon from a distinctive angle, seeking to unpack and examine the sum of Lynch’s work as an on-screen performer and, by extension, where and how this unique, heretofore unexplored, and surprisingly substantial part of his enormous creative output intersects with his broader embrace of “the art life.”
For someone not generally thought of as an actor, Lynch managed to put his inimitable stamp on a memorable collection of characters who each, in their own way, fed his idiosyncratic off-screen persona—from 1988’s ZELLY AND ME (recounted here in detail by Isabella Rossellini and writer-director Tina Rathborne) and television’s LOUIE to the tenderhearted LUCKY and THE FABELMANS.
All of these projects and more—including Lynch’s renowned weather reports, plus curios like short film THE BLACK GHIANDOLA and an unknown 2009 Russian film—receive loving, detailed tribute, in addition to Lynch’s voice work in animated efforts like THE CLEVELAND SHOW, FAMILY GUY, ROBOT CHICKEN and his own DUMBLAND. Naturally, centerpiece examination is also afforded Lynch’s portrayal of FBI Regional Bureau Chief (and later Deputy Director) Gordon Cole in TWIN PEAKS—both in the trailblazing run of the original series, its 1992 film spin-off, and its striking, equally complex 2017 return. In plumbing the central question, “We are like the dreamer who dreams, and then lives inside the dream—but who is the dreamer?” this work explores the significance of Lynch stepping so deeply inside a world of his co-creation and what that says both about him and TWIN PEAKS as a whole.
Commingling analysis and scholarship with more than 70 new interviews and warm first-person reminiscences from key collaborators and facilitators of these works (everyone from Jennifer Lynch, Duwayne Dunham, Ron Livingston and John Carroll Lynch to Seth Green, Louis C.K., Heather Graham, Flying Lotus and Gabriel LaBelle), THE DREAMER’S PATH is a one-of-a-kind look at a one-of-a-kind artistic talent, and the breadth and depth of his lasting legacy.
