‘Adios, Red Rock...’
David Lynch is a filmmaker so associated with surrealism that it’s sometimes forgotten that most of his work falls into the neo-noir category. If you take away the surrealism and nostalgia for an idealised 1950s version of American then you are left with Red Rock West – a film that is clearly indebted to Lynch but still effective in its own way…
Lynch isn’t the only auteur whose fingerprints are all over this thing. The plot about a normal guy (Nicolas Cage) getting caught up in a criminal investigation due to a bizarre series of coincidences is straight out of the Hitchcock playbook, too. Twin Peaks alumna Lara Flynn Boyle is our femme fatale. Blue Velvet‘s antagonist Dennis Hopper all but reprises his role from that film here (and is similarly unhinged), and beloved ’80s/’90s character actor J.T. Walsh serves as the plot’s catalyst.
This is the kind of film that was ten a penny in the ’90s but is sorely absent from the big screen today. Director Jon Dahl (The Last Seduction, Rounders) uses the blues and greys typical of neo-noir, but that doesn’t mean it’s not stylish. Red Rock West looks great, it sounds great, and Cage gives an uncharacteristically reserved performance, instead allowing Hopper and particularly Walsh (who is excellent throughout) to take centre stage. There is a nagging feeling that film could perhaps benefit from a little Lynch weirdness, but then that would perhaps tip Red Rock West into rip-off territory rather than loving homage.
While Dahl (who also co-wrote the film with his brother, Rick) wears his influences on his sleeve here, there is no denying that this sophomore effort (after 1989’s Kill Me Again) is a stylish and effective noir thriller that would probably be winning Oscars if released today. This is what they have taken from us…
