(Photo by Courtesy Everett Collection)
All David Lynch Movies and Series Ranked by Tomatometer
We’re ranking all of director David Lynch’s films and series, from the legendary Twin Peaks franchise (on the TV side, we’re only including The Return since that’s the only full season he directed), prestige pics (The Straight Story, The Elephant Man), and, of course, surreal classics like Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, and Mulholland Dr.. Discover David Lynch’s movies, ranked by Tomatometer! —Alex Vo
#1
Adjusted Score: 103600%
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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Adjusted Score: 99631%
Critics Consensus: Surreal, suspenseful, and visually stunning, this return to Twin Peaks is an auteurist triumph for David Lynch.
Adjusted Score: 97156%
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.
#4
Adjusted Score: 100343%
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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#5
Adjusted Score: 98332%
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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#6
Adjusted Score: 96007%
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
Adjusted Score: 93885%
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
Adjusted Score: 76312%
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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#9
Adjusted Score: 72548%
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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#10
Adjusted Score: 69183%
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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Adjusted Score: 69334%
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.
#12
Adjusted Score: 70941%
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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#13
Adjusted Score: 46888%
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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95%
72%
36%
