David Lynch: the Art Life

This insight into film-maker David Lynch's idiosyncratic and highly original mind explains a lot about his attitude to storytelling - and art in general. Following Lynch hard at it in his studio, where he creates works in so many disciplines - painting, drawing, sculpture, craft and furniture - that multimedia barely begins to cover it, this intimate documentary allows the director to tell his own story to a patient and perhaps overly reverential camera, recalling fascinating snippets that often come to a sudden and frustrating end. Hardcore Lynch fans will likely be familiar with most of it - notably his roots as a struggling art student in Philadelphia, a grim time that inspired the industrial world of his directorial debut, Eraserhead - but Lynch tells these stories well, and for newcomers there are certainly revelations. Overall, though, it falls just that little bit short, setting the bulk of his film work aside and leaving Lynch, by and large, unchallenged.