Lynch/Oz examines the influence of the 1939 Victor Fleming-directed film The Wizard of Oz on the work of American filmmaker David Lynch.[2] The concept for the film originates from a response Lynch gave during a Q&A panel at the 2001 New York Film Festival following a screening of his film Mulholland Drive. When asked about the impact of Fleming's film on his work, Lynch said, "There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about The Wizard of Oz." Lynch/Oz attempts to reevaluate the filmmaker's extended filmography within this enduring influence, from his very first short film, The Alphabet (1969), to his latest series, Twin Peaks: The Return (2017). The film was officially described as an exploration of "one of the most fascinating puzzles in the history of motion pictures: the enduring symbiosis between America's primordial fairytale, The Wizard of Oz, and David Lynch's singular brand of popular surrealism."[6][7]
Lynch/Oz was selected to be screened in the Spotlight Documentary section of the Tribeca Festival,[10][11] where it had its world premiere on June 9, 2022.[12] Before its premiere, Lynch/Oz was picked up for worldwide release by Dogwoof, a British film distributor specializing in documentaries.[1] The documentary had its UK premiere during the BFI London Film Festival. It received a limited UK theatrical release by Film 4 on December 2, 2022. The film received a limited theatrical release by Janus Films in North America, beginning at New York's IFC Center on June 2, 2023.[6][13]
Reception
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 83% based on 69 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The website's consensus reads, "Thoughtful and absorbing, Lynch/Oz offers an appropriately unique analysis of one of cinema's most idiosyncratic artists."[14] According to Metacritic, which assigned a weighted average score of 62 out of 100 based on 18 critics, the film received "generally favorable reviews".[15]
Screen Daily's Tara Judah wrote, "With its impressive array of hundreds of film clips, frenetic editing and whip-smart narrators, Lynch/Oz offers an exciting prism through which to view Lynch's oeuvre."[9] David Ehrlich of IndieWire wrote, "Lynch/Oz is less compelling for any of its individual theories or observations than for how it frames movies as permeable membranes that flicker between personal obsession and the collective unconscious."[16]Variety's Owen Gleiberman wrote, "Lynch/Oz is bursting with ideas [...] but the movie is too pie-in-the-sky to quite make it over the rainbow."[3]
