The Best David Lynch Directed Movies, a list by sadpandas

8.0

/107476/

78

/2053/

77

/1719/

4.2

/148955/

95

/112/

91

/1578/

86

/32/

4.0

age 13+

A retired farmer and widower in his 70s, Alvin Straight learns one day that his distant brother Lyle has suffered a stroke and may not recover. Alvin is determined to make things right with Lyle while he still can, but his brother lives in Wisconsin, while Alvin is stuck in Iowa with no car and no driver's license. Then he hits on the idea of making the trip on his old lawnmower, thus beginning a picturesque and at times deeply spiritual odyssey.

84

7.9

/421539/

76

/10734/

78

/6802/

4.3

/1090053/

84

/264/

87

/10340/

87

/38/

4.0

age 18+

Blonde Betty Elms has only just arrived in Hollywood to become a movie star when she meets an enigmatic brunette with amnesia. Meanwhile, as the two set off to solve the second woman's identity, filmmaker Adam Kesher runs into ominous trouble while casting his latest project.

82

79

8.9

/3084/

88

/658/

85

/640/

4.6

/259301/

65

/80/

78

/2157/

An idiosyncratic FBI agent investigates the murder of a young woman in the even more idiosyncratic town of Twin Peaks. (This standalone version of the series pilot was produced for the European VHS market and has an alternate, closed ending.)

79

8.2

/279431/

79

/4362/

80

/3793/

4.3

/378282/

91

/65/

93

/3297/

78

/16/

2.0

age 14+

A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man being mistreated by his "owner" as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of great intelligence and sensitivity. Based on the true story of Joseph Merrick (called John Merrick in the film), a severely deformed man in 19th century London.

78

7.2

/141544/

71

/3588/

73

/2664/

3.8

/493650/

87

/84/

82

/4766/

87

/15/

age 16+

First-time father Henry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newly born mutant child.

75

6.8

/68017/

69

/1517/

69

/1209/

3.9

/163344/

72

/117/

75

/4265/

73

/25/

4.0

age 17+

When actress Nikki Grace gets the lead role in a cursed film, her world becomes more and more surreal, blending realities and ideas of infidelity, reincarnation, and supernatural forces.

73

6.8

/3517/

65

/54/

62

/68/

3.5

/3980/

100

/6/

77

/47/

3.0

40 international directors were asked to make a short film using the original Cinematographe invented by the Lumière Brothers, working under conditions similar to those of 1895. There were three rules: (1) The film could be no longer than 52 seconds, (2) no synchronized sound was permitted, and (3) no more than three takes.

73

7.7

/240677/

75

/5418/

76

/3682/

4.1

/798553/

91

/141/

88

/5564/

75

/15/

1.0

age 18+

The discovery of a severed human ear found in a field leads a young man on an investigation related to a beautiful, mysterious nightclub singer and a group of psychopathic criminals who have kidnapped her child.

71

7.3

/117215/

75

/3640/

74

/2163/

4.3

/396473/

66

/82/

78

/2157/

45

/29/

In the questionable town of Deer Meadow, Washington, FBI Agent Desmond inexplicably disappears while hunting for the man who murdered a teen girl. The killer is never apprehended, and, after experiencing dark visions and supernatural encounters, Agent Dale Cooper chillingly predicts that the culprit will claim another life. Meanwhile, in the more cozy town of Twin Peaks, hedonistic beauty Laura Palmer hangs with lowlifes and seems destined for a grisly fate.

70

7.6

/167960/

75

/3799/

75

/2849/

4.1

/380645/

69

/62/

87

/3626/

53

/21/

2.0

age 18+

A tormented jazz musician finds himself lost in an enigmatic story involving murder, surveillance, gangsters, doppelgängers, and an impossible transformation inside a prison cell.

69

6.4

/16622/

61

/859/

63

/511/

3.3

/112093/

93

/14/

71

/47/

In a locked down train station, a homicide detective conducts an interview with a tormented monkey who is suspected of murder.

68

7.2

/111072/

71

/2379/

70

/1830/

3.9

/256231/

65

/57/

81

/2093/

52

/18/

2.5

age 18+

Young lovers Sailor and Lula hit the road to start a new life together away from the wrath of Lula’s deranged, disapproving mother, who has hired a team of hitmen to cut the lovers’ surreal honeymoon short.

73

66

6.7

/5771/

67

/112/

65

/149/

3.5

/11462/

100

/6/

71

/133/

Commissioned to mark the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, "To Each His Own Cinema" brought together 33 of the world's pre-eminent filmmakers to produce short pieces exploring the multifarious facets of cinema and their perspective on the state of their chosen artform in the early 21st century.

70

64

6.9

/9009/

69

/236/

68

/268/

3.7

/40109/

A story of a group of humanoid rabbits and their depressive, daily life. The plot includes Suzie ironing, Jane sitting on a couch, Jack walking in and out of the apartment, and the occasional solo singing number by Suzie or Jane. At one point the rabbits also make contact with their “leader”.

68

63

6.7

/9333/

65

/228/

65

/236/

3.6

/38295/

76

/42/

A woman's dark and absurdist nightmare vision comprising a continuous recitation of the alphabet and bizarre living representations of each letter.

70

63

7.1

/8017/

67

/177/

66

/177/

3.6

/24717/

76

/66/

To escape neglect and abuse from his parents, a young boy plants some strange seeds and they grow into a grandmother.

78

60

7.5

/15174/

74

/555/

72

/256/

4.0

/43147/

89

/1/

Ninety minutes of deleted and alternate takes from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, assembled by David Lynch to continue the story of the final week of Laura Palmer’s life.

76

53

7.1

/673/

70

/25/

73

/27/

3.7

/2561/

87

/83/

82

/4747/

David Lynch discusses the making of the film "Eraserhead."

51

6.2

/191296/

67

/7660/

62

/3315/

2.8

/263418/

36

/117/

65

/4350/

41

/20/

1.0

age 14+

In the year 10,191, the most precious substance in the universe is the spice Melange. The spice extends life. The spice expands consciousness. The spice is vital to space travel. The spice exists on only one planet in the entire universe, the vast desert planet Arrakis, also known as Dune. Its native inhabitants, the Fremen, have long held a prophecy that a man would come, a messiah who would lead them to true freedom.

53

46

5.6

/7039/

51

/157/

55

/203/

3.1

/21321/

43

/28/

Lynch's first film project consists of a loop of six people vomiting projected on to a special sculptured screen featuring twisted three-dimensional faces.

53

45

5.5

/5230/

48

/121/

51

/131/

2.9

/11504/

A double amputee attempts to write a letter while her nurse gets in the way. [The Amputee was produced in order to test two different black and white video stocks for the American Film Institute. There are therefore two different versions of the film, each using the same script but shot on different stocks and differing in other incidental ways in terms of performance, sound design and duration. This is Version 1.]

56

42

5.5

/2757/

54

/65/

54

/78/

3.1

/5241/

Two young women find themselves in a dark room where there is a distinctly strange feeling.

66

41

7.0

/2114/

65

/45/

59

/39/

3.7

/3641/

66

/14/

After her boyfriend ends their relationship, the dreamself of a heartbroken woman floats through the air over an industrial wasteland singing ballads of love.

66

40

6.7

/1743/

67

/89/

62

/22/

3.5

/15280/

A short film about the events following a murder.

77

39

7.3

/204/

68

/7/

69

/8/

3.8

/728/

91

/141/

88

/5564/

Fifty-three minutes of deleted scenes and alternate takes assembled by David Lynch.

59

37

5.8

/1468/

61

/37/

55

/45/

3.2

/3554/

A journey into night.

56

37

5.6

/1613/

55

/55/

54

/65/

3.0

/7003/

A man approaches a woman in a field.

63

36

5.4

/294/

62

/18/

61

/19/

3.1

/2336/

Popcorn

79

/363/

David Lynch turns this digital video of a ballerina into an impressionistic exercise.

68

35

6.2

/193/

75

/8/

63

/6/

3.3

/1492/

65

/81/

78

/2157/

A surreal short film that Lynch made for the 2008 Twin Peaks Festival. It only screened once and is in black and white. In this film, Lynch is speaking backwards in what looks to be a cross between the floors of Eraserhead and the Twin Peaks Red Room. Sitting next to him is a plastic doll with the face of Laura Palmer.

66

33

6.9

/936/

63

/22/

62

/27/

3.5

/1783/

A collection of deleted scenes from David Lynch's 2006 surrealist horror INLAND EMPIRE.

66

31

6.4

/484/

65

/15/

74

/30/

3.3

/1067/

71

/7/

58

/2/

Duran Duran: Unstaged is a multimedia event that takes the audience on a cinematic journey with one of the most successful acts in the world during their performance at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles.

60

29

5.6

/462/

60

/22/

65

/24/

3.1

/3026/

Blue Green is a surreal, ambient short film capturing the mood and the lone tone of a giant industrial setting.

55

28

5.2

/566/

54

/31/

57

/27/

2.9

/3596/

In 1967, a young David Lynch grabbed his new Bolex 16mm camera, to film his friend and mentor Bushnell Keeler and brother Dave Keeler sailing on the Chesapeake Bay in Bush's King's Cruiser. This was David Lynch's very first film, which he prefers to call a "home movie". It depicts a man, a painter, who changed David's life forever pursuing the artist's life, which he continues to this day.

55

28

5.2

/670/

51

/28/

60

/23/

2.9

/3236/

In a solemn, haunted environment, a small bug crawls over the silhouette of a house.

55

27

5.1

/544/

58

/22/

52

/26/

3.0

/2682/

"A short video featuring my friends the ants along with cheese, etc. and one-and-a-half tracks from the Thought Gang album."

66

25

6.4

/965/

65

/44/

70

/3/

3.4

/6436/

Lynch made the animation film Pożar (Fire) in 2015 after the Polish-American composer Marek Zebrowski created a musical composition as a tribute to him. The film was included in the 2018 retrospective "Someone Is In My House".

56

24

5.3

/505/

55

/14/

57

/23/

3.0

/1587/

A nearly wordless portrait of the renowned fine art printing studio in Paris, capturing the intricate process of lithography.

56

23

4.8

/482/

55

/14/

56

/15/

2.9

/1772/

66

/14/

Music is produced by different objects in an industrial and desolate landscape.

68

23

6.7

/179/

71

/21/

64

/8/

3.5

/2191/

A 16mm film experiment conducted in 1967 and 1968 in Philadelphia which feature small parts of the Alphabet and the Grandmother.

58

22

5.4

/337/

56

/15/

62

/15/

3.0

/1729/

Humorous short film in which David Lynch and his son Austin observe the follies of their neighbor.

46

21

3.9

/337/

49

/26/

45

/19/

2.6

/3710/

An aspect of life.

50

21

4.4

/309/

53

/17/

46

/16/

2.9

/3679/

No one knows what has been going on behind the closed doors of the city's macabre and noisome abattoir.

55

20

4.9

/246/

50

/18/

62

/8/

3.1

/2423/

The Disc of Sorrow gets installed.

43

18

3.9

/335/

42

/18/

44

/12/

2.5

/3584/

Life can be hard on planet Earth, especially when you're running out of air.

45

16

3.8

/209/

46

/18/

49

/11/