There I was, wondering what I was going to write about today, and Netflix drops a new short film by David Lynch, on his birthday. Evidently made in 2016, it’s called What Did Jack Do? and it has to be seen to be believed. Go watch it, before the spoilers, before it’s memed out of existence, and then we’ll talk.
What I love about Lynch’s work is its ability to completely short circuit my brain. On paper, it’s a terrible idea. Lynch (not a tremendously versatile actor) interrogates a monkey with a superimposed human mouth using a succession of noir cliches. It’s brilliant.
Lynch’s sense of humour is underappreciated, I feel. He doesn’t mug or tell obvious jokes, he does stuff like this. It’s a nightmare worse than Cats, but it’s much funnier. There are so many great lines – Bristol, chicken breasts – and the song is amazing. Not to dissect the frog here, but the production company is called Absurda, so he knows what he’s doing.
I dunno, I said I was going to write about this, but I mainly want to point you towards it and wave with joy at its existence. I got into a massive Lynch phase last year, watching the entirety of Twin Peaks and quite a few films, and I’m glad this spectacularly strange film is on Netflix, of all places. I hope they just start shoving it at unsuspecting users. What a day.
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