What Did Jack Do? (2020) - Movie Review

I honestly never thought I’d be able to do this on this blog. I always assumed that the window in which I could watch and review new David Lynch movies had past me by. But then this little number showed up on Netflix, a former art gallery exclusive from 2017 (these reviews are dated by Australian release/access date, hence why I’m getting away with calling this ‘new’), and there’s not a herd of wild horses that could stop me from grabbing this chance with both hands. And he doesn’t seem to have lost a touch of his weirdness after all this time.

Right from the off, the film looks like something Lynch would put together. The crackly black-and-white footage, the sudden jazz number interjection, the flowery film noir prose; it fits with Lynch’s penchant for retro surrealism, like with the 50’s chic of Twin Peaks or how much The Wizard Of Oz has influenced a hefty amount of his filmography.

Then there’s the effects work on the titular Jack, a capuchin monkey who is being questioned by a detective (played by Lynch himself) about his potential involvement in a murder. Information is scarce on who exactly is voicing Jack here, but the actual visual work of putting human lips on this animal are quite well-done. Maybe I’ve seen way too many Baby Geniuses movies, but I’m quite surprised at how well it turns out here.

As for the story, we’re in familiar dream-logic territory, which itself also turns out to be a surprisingly good fit for the director’s sensibilities. It builds on the prototypically purple dialogue in the more classic film noirs, and throughout gradual reveals of what the world within the film looks like, where animals have the same level of sentience as humans, the constant metaphors and similes used make this story feel as normal as anything. Honestly, it kind of reminds me of Warren Ellis’ Transmetropolitan in how the writing that describes what’s going on feels so ludicrous, and yet the world crafted for those events is so equally ridiculous that it’s all too easy to think that all of these figurative notions are literally happening in this world. It’s a cool effect.

It’s a bite-sized serving of Lynch, but a well-measured one, and whether the immediate reaction from a given audience is confusion or even a fit of giggling at how bizarre this all is, it’s a safe bet to say that this won’t be forgotten in a hurry. Part of me is still going to be hankering for the man to return to feature-length productions, but knowing the face of the independent scene right now, I’m just thankful that the man is still at work and still as perplexingly captivating as ever.