Crwthod
A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.
Odelecol
Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.
Bluebell Alcock
Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies
Michael Neumann
Before directing his breakthrough cult classic 'Eraserhead' David Lynch made this thirty-minute art school oddity, sketching on a smaller canvas the same nightmares that would later haunt his feature films. Using a raw, experimental style combining exaggerated live action with naive animation, Lynch flaunts his preoccupation with psychosexual imagery and symbolism, showing all the creative freedom (and many of the pretensions) of an artist discovering his true medium. Yes, the film does have a plot, but it's not really about a boy and his grandmother, any more than 'Eraserhead' was about a man and his baby. Shown on the same program (when I saw it, at the Red Vic Theatre on Haight Street in San Francisco) was the eight-minute animated 'Alphabet', another early Lynch project, and definitely not the sort of pre-school primer taught on Sesame Street. Viewers familiar with his more recent work will know exactly what to expect.
preppy-3
Sick, disturbing and surreal short from David Lynch. A man and a woman get married and have a son who they don't really want. The child grows up being horribly abused by his parents. Then, in a dark sinister room, he plants a seed who sprouts into a grandmother. She, in a way, shows him the affection his parents never gave him. There's more but I won't spoil it.The film mixes live actors with animation seamlessly. It has sound but no dialogue--the actors just make sounds somewhat like human speech. It's in washed-out color which certainly fits the subject matter. Also you see Lynch using odd noises on the soundtrack which he perfected years later with "Eraserhead". I'm giving this film a 10 but it is VERY disturbing. It's definitely not for everybody. The abuse scenes are horrible to watch and the nonstop morbidness did start to wear on me, but I couldn't stop watching. It all leads to a very sad ending. Sick, troubling and (at times) horrifying movie but just incredible. A 10 but only for those who can stand extreme subject matter.
Polaris_DiB
Okay. Basically I have only one major thematic element I can really comment on.In this short, Lynch seems to be particularly keen on dehumanizing humanity in every sense of the word. First, they characters are grown as plants, and they germinate (?) children rather than birth them. Then they're animals, both in personality and actions. Beyond just barking and snuffling and whining like dogs (Matt! Matt! Matt!), the way they treat each other is very abusive and inhuman.So then what's this whole thing about the grandmother? Is she supposed to be more human because of the love she shares with Matt? That's the reading that's readily apparent, but it doesn't really work out like that. If she was human, why is she a teakettle? Why does she birth, literally, from a tree? The short goes to levels that are hard to really comprehend.Which is fine. Fully comprehending a Lynch film isn't really the point.However, I would like to mention that this short has some of the strongest imagery, in a sense, of Lynch's career. The shots especially of the staircase just scream art even though they really aren't that particularly stylistic as compared to a lot of what else he's done. This is a much more aesthetically intriguing world, this short.--PolarisDiB
Michael_Cronin
Long-time Lynch collaborator Jack Nance once said that watching The Grandmother was like spending half an hour in the electric chair. Mixing live action (both colour and black & white) with animation, along with a dark & unsettling soundscape created by Alan Splet (still Lynch's sound designer today, three decades later), the film is an intensely disturbing experience.The Grandmother deals with the story of a boy, abused by his brutal, animal-like parents, who grows himself a kindly grandmother in the attic.
Although it does suffer from a certain 'student film' feeling, this half-hour short is a must-see for all fans of David Lynch, particularly those who admire the stark & surreal world of Eraserhead. One can definitely see the genesis of Lynch's next film within it.
