(Photo by Courtesy Everett Collection)
All David Lynch Movies and Series Ranked by Tomatometer
Visionary. Surreal. Maverick. A rare set of directors may be described by one of these descriptions. Even fewer pick up all three, and only one simply embody them in total: David Lynch. His gloomy, industrial feature debut Eraserhead helped illuminate, in stark black-and-white, a pathway to American cinemas for independent oddballs of the early 1980s, whose ranks include the likes of Sam Raimi, Jim Jarmusch, and the Coen brothers.
But as startling and grotesque Eraserhead was, Lynch was a humanist champion, frequently seeking compassion in the trenches of forgotten society, as seen in his next feature, 1980’s The Elephant Man, and 1999’s The Straight Story. His films oscillated between the supremely subversive (Blue Velvet), surreal (Inland Empire, Lost Highway), and studio (Dune, which was virtually enough to steer him away from the majors), with his masterpiece Mulholland Dr. (2001) a combination of all his wild-at-heart impulses.
Lynch, of course, also elevated TV storytelling with Twin Peaks, his supernatural, open-ended treatise on the push-and-pull of good and evil. A true cult classic in every sense, fun and challenging not just journeying through its wildly divergent tones in comedy and horror, but also the way it whiplashes viewers with a legendary first season, a suspect second, and an audacious prequel film (Fire Walk With Me) before a third season (The Return) 25 years later in the midst of peak TV, which Lynch had laid for its blueprint.
Lynch passed away in 2025 but leaves with us, though his many direct video messages to his fans online and a family statement, a message of clarity and hope: “Keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole. It’s a beautiful day with golden sunshine and blue skies all the way.”
#1
Critics Consensus: With strong performances and director David Lynch at the helm, The Straight Story steers past sentimental byways on its ambling journey across the American heartland.
Synopsis: A retired farmer and widower in his 70s, Alvin Straight (Richard Farnsworth) learns one day that his distant brother Lyle
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#2
Critics Consensus: Surreal, suspenseful, and visually stunning, this return to Twin Peaks is an auteurist triumph for David Lynch.
#3
Critics Consensus: David Lynch's relatively straight second feature finds an admirable synthesis of compassion and restraint in treating its subject, and features outstanding performances by John Hurt and Anthony Hopkins.
Synopsis: Dr. Frederic Treves (Anthony Hopkins) discovers Joseph (John) Merrick (John Hurt) in a sideshow. Born with a congenital disorder, Merrick
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#4
Critics Consensus: If audiences walk away from this subversive, surreal shocker not fully understanding the story, they might also walk away with a deeper perception of the potential of film storytelling.
Synopsis: College student Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) returns home after his father has a stroke. When he discovers a severed ear
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#5
Critics Consensus: Twin Peaks plays with TV conventions to deliver a beguiling -- and unsettling -- blend of seemingly disparate genres, adding up to an offbeat drama with a distinctly unique appeal.
#6
Critics Consensus: David Lynch's surreal Eraserhead uses detailed visuals and a creepy score to create a bizarre and disturbing look into a man's fear of parenthood.
Synopsis: Henry (John Nance) resides alone in a bleak apartment surrounded by industrial gloom. When he discovers that an earlier fling
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#7
Critics Consensus: David Lynch's dreamlike and mysterious Mulholland Drive is a twisty neo-noir with an unconventional structure that features a mesmerizing performance from Naomi Watts as a woman on the dark fringes of Hollywood.
Synopsis: A dark-haired woman (Laura Elena Harring) is left amnesiac after a car crash. She wanders the streets of Los Angeles
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#8
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A detective interrogates a talking monkey that is suspected of murder.
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#9
Critics Consensus: Typical David Lynch fare: fans of the director will find Inland Empire seductive and deep. All others will consider the heady surrealism impenetrable and pointless.
Synopsis: Nikki (Laura Dern), an actress, takes on a role in a new film, and because her husband (Peter J. Lucas)
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#10
Critics Consensus: Marking a further escalation in David Lynch's surrealist style, Lost Highway is a foreboding mystery that arguably leads to a dead end, although it is signposted throughout with some of the director's most haunting images yet.
Synopsis: From this inventory of imagery, Lynch fashions two separate but intersecting stories, one about a jazz musician (Bill Pullman), tortured
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#11
Critics Consensus: One of director David Lynch's more uneven efforts, Wild at Heart is held together by his distinctive sensibilities and compelling work from Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern.
Synopsis: After serving prison time for a self-defense killing, Sailor Ripley (Nicolas Cage) reunites with girlfriend Lula Fortune (Laura Dern). Lula's
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#12
Critics Consensus: Twin Peaks answers its central question with diminishing returns while struggling to establish worthy new mysteries, but there are enough mesmeric flourishes to keep devotees dreaming of what lies in the Red Room.
#13
Critics Consensus: For better or worse, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me is every bit as strange and twisted as you'd expect from David Lynch.
Synopsis: In the folksy town of Deerfield, Wash., FBI Agent Desmond (Chris Isaak) inexplicably disappears while hunting for the man who
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#14
Critics Consensus: This truncated adaptation of Frank Herbert's sci-fi masterwork is too dry to work as grand entertainment, but David Lynch's flair for the surreal gives it some spice.
Synopsis: The long-awaited film version of Frank Herbert's classic science fiction epic, Dune, explodes on the screen with dazzling special effects,
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