Rabbits (2002)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

The first must-see film of the year.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

"Rabbits" is a 43-minute short film from 2002, so this one has its 15th anniversary this year. The writer and director is the (in)famous David Lynch and the voices you hear in here are basically all people who worked with Lynch on "Mullholland Dr." and a couple other films too the most known being Oscar nominee Naomi Watts. Anyway, this short movie here is probably one of Lynch's more known short film works. Camera is static and we watch several rabbit characters from start to finish how they interact with each other. It is all very mysterious and offers lots of room for interpretation. There is not one definite explanation/elaboration that makes sense, but it is all about the subjective take on what you see and especially what you hear. Occasionally the action and dialogues are interrupted by laughter and other sounds from the audience making this one look a bit like a sitcom. But there is really nothing funny about it and if you take a look at IMDb you see that all genres are pretty much included here with the exception of comedy. So yeah as always with Lynch there is some mystery and darkness attached to the movie. Quality-wise it is nothing too memorable though and the statement I made in the title may very well apply. It was probably only clear to him, maybe to the cast too, what was going on exactly, but for audiences the film keeps losing itself in its dark atmosphere and mysterious plot on so so many occasions. Way too many for such a brief film. Watch something else instead.

(I shouldn't say 'merely'. It makes it look like I'm downgrading this work, I'm not.)I think it's a mind boggling ride where traditional conventions of language, logic and storytelling are thrown out the window. If you want to understand this non-sequitur, surrealist style of writing please look up "Theatre of the Absurd". It'll explain this kind of work very nicely. Bravo to David Lynch for making a movie/play in this style!From Wikipedia(But please go elsewhere to get a deeper understanding): The Theatre of the Absurd (French: Théâtre de l'Absurde) is a designation for particular plays of absurdist fiction written by a number of primarily European playwrights in the late 1950s, as well as one for the style of theatre which has evolved from their work. Their work expressed the belief that human existence has no meaning or purpose and therefore all communication breaks down. Logical construction and argument gives way to irrational and illogical speech and to its ultimate conclusion, silence.Traditional plot structures are rarely a consideration in The Theatre of the Absurd.[151] Plots can consist of the absurd repetition of cliché and routine, as in Godot or The Bald Soprano. Often there is a menacing outside force that remains a mystery....

I think the movie sets out to do exactly what it was design to do. David Lynch basically got a huge kick out of seeing all the reactions of the people who saw it, I mean it's a real knee slapper. He made it for himself folks. It's entertaining for him to see how people are so easy to manipulate into seeing something that isn't there. There's no deeper meaning. I think people should critic themselves instead of the movie. For anyone who has said or will say in the future "Well, yes I can see exactly what kind of experience he wanted to create for the viewer, while at the same time trying to convey a sense of.....blah blah blah" I have this to say.....No you don't...the joke's on us buddy!!! I was going to give it a 1 for the time I've wasted on that. But then I thought that, since I got a big kick out of people trying to give me their own analysis of it, I wanted to give it a 10. So I'll give it a 5.

the misplaced dialog, off-timed schizo audience tracks, blurred thundering somewhere, sustained cigarette burns, menacing appearance of chanting mouth cut-out, characters fading in and out, unmoving camera position, repetitive character and dialog configurations - watching rabbits is like slumbering in someone else's head - there is no danger only repetitive surprises and soothing crashes of events on our retina; nothing connects and everything for sure was connected once. to repeat, the misplaced dialog, off-timed schizo audience tracks, blurred thundering somewhere, sustained cigarette burns, menacing appearance of chanting mouth cut-out, characters fading in and out, unmoving camera position, repetitive character and dialog configurations - watching rabbits is like slumbering in someone else's head - there is no danger only repetitive surprises and soothing crashes of events on our retina; nothing connects and everything for sure was connected once.