Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
In a locked down train station, a homicide detective conducts an interview with a tormented monkey who is suspected of murder.
David Lynch's surrealist short is an utterly singular piece of filmmaking — a black-and-white noir interrogation between a hardboiled detective and a capuchin monkey suspect, complete with a torch song. The cinematography nails classic noir atmosphere with genuine commitment, and Lynch's deadpan 'acting' opposite the monkey is weirdly compelling. The novelty is off the charts: there is simply nothing else like it. The plot, being a short, is deliberately thin and more of a premise than a story, and the ending, while tonally consistent, doesn't fully resolve so much as evaporate — which is very Lynch, but limits the payoff.