While David Lynch prepares to team up with Werner Herzog to make a guerilla-style murder drama, his daughter is doing quite well on her own, thank you very much. indieWIRE reports that Surveillance, the first film by Jennifer Chambers Lynch in 15 years, has been picked up by Magnet Releasing for distribution in the US. The thriller will be playing out of competition at Cannes next week in one of the three Midnight screening slots. Surveillance is set in the Santa Fe desert, where a blood-curdling killing spree has been unleashed, according to the official synopsis. The FBI arrives and listens to three eyewitnesses, including an eight-year-old girl whose family was brutally murdered. It becomes clear that the little girl knows something about the FBI agents ... and then two more bodies are found.
Creepy, eh? But not nearly as creepy as Lynch's first film, Boxing Helena, in which a surgeon held a woman captive and started amputating her limbs, all in the name of love. Based on the premise, Surveillance sounds much more straightforward, but perhaps the younger Lynch has some surprises up her sleeve.
The film stars Julia Ormond and Bill Pullman (David Lynch's Lost Highway) as the FBI agents, Pell James, Ryan Simpkins, and Kent Harper as the witnesses, and Michael Ironside as the local police chief. French Stewart and Cheri Oteri are also featured. Harper co-wrote the script with Lynch. Magnet Releasing, the genre arm of Magnolia Pictures, plans a fall theatrical roll-out.
1. I've actually seen Surveillance and thought it was okay. It has some moments of brilliance (watch out for a breakout performance from Jennifer Lynch's former hairdresser, Mac Miller), but overall is just average. The plot and the twists are interesting, but it seems as though Lynch doesn't know what to make of the little girl (Ryan Simpkins) even though she is key to the story. Michael Ironside is criminally underused and the film's co-scriptor Kent Harper is rather terrible. However, I won't deny that it is fairly entertaining (the opening sequence might give you nightmares) and probably better than your average thriller. Those looking for something as unhinged as "Boxing Helena" might be disappointed as it is mostly a mainstream film, with a slight edge.
Posted at 6:58PM on May 15th 2008 by Dominique