✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
United States, Denmark · 2017
1h 29m
Director Olivia Neergaard-Holm, Jon Nguyen, Rick Barnes
Starring David Lynch, Lula Lynch, Edwina Lynch, Donald Lynch
Genre Documentary
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An intimate journey through the formative years of cult filmmaker David Lynch's life. From his idyllic upbringing in small-town America to the dark streets of Philadelphia, we follow Lynch as he traces the events that helped shape one of cinema's most creative minds and enigmatic directors.
Where The Art Life proves most informative to longtime Lynch fans is in its closely observed depiction of his creative process, glimpsed here as he putters around his home studio in the Hollywood Hills, his adorable toddler daughter in tow, creating paintings, sculptures, music, or whatever else strikes his fancy.
The New York Times by Ben Kenigsberg
Mostly, the documentary is a fond portrait of how one man nurtured his artistic temperament and risked being misunderstood — sometimes by his own family.
The Playlist by Chris Evangelista
The Art Life is more concerned with the art rather than the life of Lynch, and this is the only true weakness of the doc. While informative to a certain degree, there’s always a sense that something is missing here. That there’s more to Lynch than the film cares to explore.
Throughout the documentary, the undisguised regret and longing of David Lynch's reminiscences are often startling.
The Hollywood Reporter by Deborah Young
David Lynch, The Art Life will entrance the director’s fans and, who knows, inspire budding, out-of-the-box creators in an artistic coming-of-age tale, told in his own words and deliberate tones.
There’s much to interest the Lynch fan here, but it also might be an unparalleled assessment of the artistic learning of a great American filmmaker.
Screen Daily by Fionnuala Halligan
Jon Nguyen’s carefully-calibrated ode to Lynch is in itself Lynchian, an essential picture for the director’s legion of fans.
Nominally focused on the celebrated filmmaker’s lesser-known dabblings in fine art, The Art Life emerges as a more expansive study of Lynch’s creative impulses and preoccupations, as he relates first-hand the formative experiences that spurred and shaped a most unusual imagination.
Time Out London by Tom Huddleston
This intimate documentary about the leftfield American filmmaker David Lynch is insightful and absorbing.
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