David Lynch’s 2006 digital Hollywood nightmare, Inland Empire stars Laura Dern as a "woman in trouble". The plot, like most Lynch plots, is layered and complex. In its simplest form, it follows a troubled film production as an actress (Laura Dern) and leading man (Justin Theroux) find their lives unravelling around them during the shoot. Narrative coherence becomes unbalanced as Lynch and Dern explore what kinds of physical and psychological trouble might be specific to women, and the roles they perform.

Shot (without a finished screenplay) predominantly on a Sony camcorder by Lynch, Inland Empire baffled its stars as much as audiences when it premiered at Venice. Returning to some of the dark Tinseltown fairytale through-lines of Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway feels like familiar territory, but here reality has degraded past a point of understanding. Lynch has long been obsessed by the balance of light and dark, often utilising Dern as the lighthouse: the beacon of hope and illumination as the weight of darkness, corruption and insidiousness fester at the edge of frame.