David Lynch’s Best Movies and TV Shows From ‘Twin Peaks’ to ‘Dune’

On By Littum

The saying “one of a kind” is overused, but certainly fits David Lynch, a filmmaker known for constantly reinventing his own weirdly wonderful form before smashing that thing to pieces.

Iconoclastic, influential and lovably eccentric, Lynch created surreal landscapes on screen and populated them with a host of oddball characters, from a disfigured Londoner to a stubborn G-man obsessed with coffee, cherry pie and solving a small-town murder . The Oscar-nominated director, who has died aged 78, left no genre untouched, digging into everything from sci-fi and neo-noir to period biographies, and our culture is all the more interesting for it.

“Ideas that come are like gifts, and we were just lucky to get those ideas, I think,” Lynch said in a 2014 USA TODAY interview about his seminal TV show “Twin Peaks.”

In honor of his strange and brilliant filmmaking mind, here are Lynch’s five essential works:

David Lynch dies: The legendary director of ‘Twin Peaks’ and ‘Blue Velvet’ was 78 years old

‘The Elephant Man’ (1980)

Three years after debuting with “Eraserhead,” Lynch tackled the true story of Englishman John Merrick (played by John Hurt)—in real life, Joseph Merrick—who is labeled a freak because of his facial and body deformities. The black-and-white drama earned eight Oscar nominations and led to the creation of the best makeup category. And while it may be Lynch’s most straightforward film, it’s a satisfying and sentimental exploration of humanity and how society treats its outsiders.

‘Dune’ (1984)

While Denis Villeneuve’s recent two-part sci-fi adaptation brought fresh eyes to author Frank Herbert’s expansive “Dune” world, Lynch was the first to bring giant sandworms to the big screen, casting frequent collaborator Kyle MacLachlan as a cosmic hero who occupied the room evil to the rock sounds of Toto and Brian Eno. It’s a fun, crazypants ride that became a cult hit and, unlike anything like it, is still watchable. Lynch once called this film “a total failure” – we respectfully disagree.

‘Blue Velvet’ (1986)

Lynch began to realize his signature surrealist style and made his audience uncomfortable (in a good way!) with this mix of noir, horror, mystery and demented psychological drama. MacLachlan is a college student who returns to his home in North Carolina and discovers a discarded ear, and it only gets more scandalous from there. Isabella Rossellini plays a lounge-singing femme fatale, while Dennis Hopper had a career resurgence with one of his most memorable roles as a sadistic, gas-guzzling gangster.

‘Twin Peaks’ (1990)

In April 1990, there was only one question on the minds of television fans: Who killed Laura Palmer? Lynch took the usual detective procedural and turned it into a water cooler series – led by MacLachlan’s enjoyably serious FBI agent Dale Cooper – full of metaphors and visual nightmares that pioneered serial storytelling on the small screen. Even after Laura’s murder was solved, “Twin Peaks” found life in a movie prequel, “Fire Walk With Me,” and Lynch revisited Cooper and Co. for a new generation with the third season in 2017 labeled “The Return”.

‘Mulholland Drive’ (2001)

This noir mystery was also supposed to be a TV series, yet wound up as a movie—albeit a bizarre and entertainingly trippy one. Naomi Watts made her Hollywood breakthrough as an aspiring actress in LA who befriends a woman (Laura Elena Harring) suffering from amnesia after a car accident, and the two get on the radar of a slick film director (Justin Theroux) , who are threatened by gangsters. Sure, it doesn’t make much sense, but like much of Lynch’s oeuvre, it offers various quirks to ponder for a long time.