Here’s hoping Jennifer Lynch has become a much better filmmaker since 1993’s Boxing Helena, because it looks like she’s finally taking another crack at her father’s profession. Yes, the author of The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer (which I devoured before the Season Two premiere of Twin Peaks), is finally ready to make her sophomore feature, an "indie supernatural thriller" titled Surveillance about an FBI Agent’s rough time in a small town full of duplicitous folk. Gee, that’s not very Lynchian at all!
The film will star Bill Pullman as, I presume, the FBI Agent, while the supercute Pell James and the superhoshitshesstillworking Julia Ormand will play… women. In a movie like this, you need… women. In fact, there’s more… women attached. Former SNL star Cheri Oteri and the little girl from Sherrybaby, Ryan Simpkins, will also be playing… women.
Oh, and all you French Stewart fans? He’s in this, too.
Look, there’s not a whole lot to say about this project at present, but it is nice to see Jennifer Lynch trying to atone for the Boxing Helena, which, you’ve hopefully forgotten, flat out failed on every level. Even as an outré anti-feminist riff on male possessiveness (work your mind around that), it doesn’t work because Sherilyn Fenn’s character is thoroughly unlikable. The movie is grade-school surrealism – long on indulgence, short on coherence and prone to peeing its pants. Even Art Garfunkle can’t save it.
But I really am looking forward to Surveillance.