David Lynch and a Talking Monkey: A Review

Blake Reid, Entertainment Editor

The primate who performs as superstar crooner Jack Cruz, as seen in David Lynch’s short Netflix film, “What Did Jack Do?” (Netflix)

There’s strange, and then there’s this film… 

The master David Lynch, the one behind such films as “Eraserhead,” “Blue Velvet,” “Mulholland Drive,” and his last film, made back in 2006, “Inland Empire,” has returned to the screen with his beautifully strange 17 minute short film “What Did Jack Do?”

The film’s synopsis reads, “In a locked down train station, a homicide detective conducts an interview with a tormented monkey.” The tormented monkey: Jack. The film is compiled with witty, noir-styled, rapid-fire dialogue where characters talk in references and figures of speech, making for such an interesting and specific mood that will keep you in suspense throughout its entirety and leave you wondering, “What did Jack do?”

There’s really not much else I’d like to say about this film, because I’d prefer you to just watch, and being that it’s only 17 minutes long, take some time off of Instagram, curl up with a blanket wherever it is you watch movies, and have your senses of everything you have ever known about movies be absolutely blown.

It’s become a cliché phrase, but I can seriously, without doubt, promise you that this is nothing like you’ve ever seen before. David Lynch himself stars in it. And his co-star? A monkey. Sounds ridiculous right? Maybe so at the beginning, but once you start getting invested in the story, you forget that you’re actually listening to a talking monkey, and instead you focus more on the drama of it all.

So go watch “What Did Jack Do?” 

You’re going to want to find out what Jack did.