I saw Inland Empire over the weekend and I’m still mulling it over. And I don’t know if I can offer an equitable assessment of the film until I’ve seen it again or at least thought more about it. I’ll only say that any film that leaves me almost totally stripped of brain and emotion is doing something right. And I’ll have more to say on this later. In the meantime, one of the more ruminative reviews I’ve read is Manohla Dargis’s. I agree with Dargis when she writes, “‘Inland Empire’ isn’t a film to love. It is a work to admire, to puzzle through, to wrestle with. Its pleasures are fugitive, even frustrating. The first time I saw it, I was repulsed by the shivers of Lynchian sadism, a feeling doubtless informed by my adoration of the far more approachable, humanistic ‘Mulholland Drive.’ On second viewing, though, ‘Inland Empire’ seemed funnier, more playful and somehow heartfelt.”