IdleRich

IdleRich
It's explicitly about puzzles, it's not unreasonable to hope that the film's puzzles can be solved by the viewer in the same way the story line puzzles are solved by the protagonists.
 

version

Well-known member
I'm not convinced there's a solution to the puzzle though. I think you're just left with all this information and that's it. It is what it is. You can try to connect the remaining dots or just move on. Some of the stuff could be metaphorical, some literal. It's up to you. The director's taken the same line as Lynch and apparently didn't even explain certain things to the people working on the film.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
I'm not convinced either but it kinda of pushes you in that direction by showing them having successes where the clues lead to a result... or is it saying "but they're completely mental, whatever you do don't go in that direction"?
 

luka

Well-known member
but the problem for me, i did enjoy it btw, but the problem for me is that it doesnt point to anything outside itself. it doesnt want to tell you anything, or let you in on any secret. they're just easter eggs which exist to give you the pleasure of finding them
 

luka

Well-known member
i dont have any interest in or aptitude for puzzle solving but i do enjoy reading things the puzzle solvers write. i love reading about how Dannys jersy proves Kubrick faked the moon landing footage. i love all that. but im never going to be the one freezing the frame and counting candle sticks
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
but the problem for me, i did enjoy it btw, but the problem for me is that it doesnt point to anything outside itself. it doesnt want to tell you anything, or let you in on any secret. they're just easter eggs which exist to give you the pleasure of finding them
Yeah mainly. At one point when he goes to that party with the dope cookie it looks as though it's maybe gonna be about the satanic hollywood elite that you get in Society or Starry Eyes... but really this tells its own myth. Maybe it's part of the same thing though.
 

luka

Well-known member
i do think this is an increasingly common strategy for film and television and really comes into its own with the internet becasue of the crowd sourced problem solving aspect
 

luka

Well-known member
and how the internet allows you to gather up all the information you might need. like how version mentioned the white rabbit then i saw the name jefferson on the bangle as soon as he said it and then that made me think of jefferson airplane.
 

version

Well-known member
but the problem for me, i did enjoy it btw, but the problem for me is that it doesnt point to anything outside itself. it doesnt want to tell you anything, or let you in on any secret. they're just easter eggs which exist to give you the pleasure of finding them
Yeah, one thing I found myself wondering was how much of it was simply decoration, "easter eggs" as you put it, that's just there for the sake of being there and something to spot. The set designer I watched an interview with pointed out a headstone visible at one point which read "HITCHCOCK" and said they just stumbled across it and were like "Oh, we've got to get that in there!".
 

luka

Well-known member
i like it, as a model of engagement with a film or show, im positive about it. teaching people to watch a film like a conspiracy theorist watches the news.
 

version

Well-known member
I think Pynchon's still the best at it because of what you said about pointing to things outside. He manages to do it, make it entertaining and point you toward mountains of real stuff, e.g. Operation Paperclip, the Herero genocide, MKUltra etc. He's like an entertaining history teacher.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Yeah, one thing I found myself wondering was how much of it was simply decoration, "easter eggs" as you put it, that's just there for the sake of being there and something to spot. The set designer I watched an interview with pointed out a headstone visible at one point which read "HITCHCOCK" and said they just stumbled across it and were like "Oh, we've got to get that in there!".
I wondered what that was doing in there... too blatant to be an easter egg even.
 

luka

Well-known member
another thing they do, which isnt necessarily a bad thing, is piggy back on whats already there as myth, eg the number 23
having that door number isnt a trippy coincidence its just a nod to the 23 thing
 
Top