Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Asad Almond A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

JLRVancouver David Lynch brings us an unsettling vision of a bed-wetting boy, his abusive parents, and the grandmother that he grows from a seed. The film, which toggles between live action and animation (reminiscent of Terry Gilliam), is dark, organic and surreal, especially when the 'grandmother seed' germinates into a spiky, phallic mushroom, growing from a pile of dirt centered on an old-fashioned bed. Reversing normal progression, the grandmother is pulled from the womb, fully dressed, by the child, who then engages in revenge fantasies against his parents following an incredibly unappetizing dinner scene. Best watched at night, in the dark for full effect, "The Grandmother" is a series of strange, and sometimes unpleasant, images strung together by the barest of stories. Not for all tastes but a must for fans of Lynch or of experimental filmmaking in general. My ranking is based on neither really liking nor really disliking the film, but probably not really 'getting it' either. Maybe you will...

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.

MisterWhiplash The Grandmother, like other surreal short films (and, of course, like the rest of Lynch's work), is not that concerned with logic, at least in conventional terms. If there is anything at all conventional about the the film is that it has at its core that small statement on youth and innocence that can be interpreted a hundred ways to Sunday- if you're lonely and dejected you'll look for companionship. It's just that in this case the conventional wisdom of finding someone at the playground or at school is bypassed- here the boy, in isolation from his barking, mad parents, plants and grows a grandmother to spend time with. But is it all as it should be? Lynch, much as he did with Eraserhead, leaves so much up to interpretation that on a first viewing it's almost not even necessary to find something coherent in what goes on. But in that sense, of course, many will likely be befuddled, disturbed, and maybe even offended at the lack of typical cohesion from start to finish.What it does provide, however, is a kind of cinema experience that has to be felt, seen, heard, taken in as cinema on the technical and artistic side of things always goes. Even when I didn't know what was "going on" with the boy and his grandmother and parents, I didn't mind as long as I knew Lynch was doing something with the camera or lighting or editing or music or animation or all of the above to make it a visceral experience. Yes, there are some tedious moments here and there (which, even in being a 35 minute short film, are possibly more so than the ones in Eraserhead), yes the first two to three minutes takes some time to adjust to, and yes there ending is left about as ambiguous as can be. But it shook me up all the same, like the best parts of 90's music videos. Any time, for example, that Lynch used a sort of stop-motion technique during the live action I was thrilled in a way. The animated sequences have a crude quality that could only be matched by Gilliam's Python animations. And the actors (or maybe just pieces) in Lynch's macabre framing and set ups and pay off seem all perfect for the parts.If you're already a fan coming on to this DVD set of Lynch short films, this may or may not come as the most eccentric, wonderfully outrageous of the lot of them; it could also be for some the most 'huh' of all of the films as it is the longest and with the most density in the surrealism. It is the mark, interested in it or not, of an artist leaving something out for a good look and soak into what it is or could be or is lacking. Grade: A

kyra-6 This film is a lesson. A lesson on how you can, with minor means,create a work which explores all ways of cinematography. And thiswithout any dialogue. In my idea films are not there to tell a story(they can be used as such tough) and this movie goes straightback to the time where films were shown at carnivals and gave youa glimpse of new worlds to be explored. Don't worry too much about the (lack of) narritive story. Just sit backand enjoy the huge amount of emotions that will come to you.Fear, hatred, love and desire for a better world.