Director David Lynch is usually described with the charitable phrase of “an acquired taste”. There seems to be little middle-ground of opinion. For every cineaste you can find who raves about the man’s brilliance you can find another movie buff just as likely to employ the term “batshit” in their assessment of his filmography.
Either the case whenever Lynch embarks on any project the results are almost beside the point. If things make zero sense then everyone is in agreement that was exactly what was expected. If he manages something that is pedestrian in nature – almost quotidian in fact – then it manages to come off as truly bent and disturbing, because it is David Lynch executing the mundane and therefore it must be off-kilter. The latter is the case with his line of coffees.
Some years ago it was initially announced that Lynch was coming out with his own brand of joe, David Lynch Signature Cup coffee, in three flavors. This at first strikes of the odd; has the auteur sold out?! Then you recall how his television series Twin Peaks featured the caffeine-addled FBI agent Dale Cooper, and things started to make a little more sense. By “sense” I mean it now felt a little weird, and that was because the screwy director was doing something completely banal.
I bring all this up because yesterday I snagged a peek at a new message from the director via Twitter. (Make what you will of Lynch “tweeting”.)
Just his parting line alone seems warped coming from him. He provides a link to a new commercial he did for his brew, a four minute spot that delivers all the disturbing elements you would come to expect. It is signature Lynch, so to speak, as it is compelling and disturbed at the same time. The video creates a paradox; at once you are left with a feeling of the artist selling out, but the commercial is so artfully overt you cannot believe he would be able to sell anything as a result.