section_path: Artistry/Style
section_name: Style
paragraph_text: Style
  
  "An academic definition of Lynchian might be that the term 'refers to a particular kind of irony where the very macabre and the very mundane combine in such a way as to reveal the former's perpetual containment within the latter'".
  
  Lynch's distinctive style blends surrealism with classic Hollywood storytelling and "pulpy" romanticism, often employing experimental filmmaking techniques alongside elements from commercial genres such as film noir, supernatural horror, soap opera, camp comedy, and erotic thriller. His films have been said to evoke a "dreamlike quality of mystery or menace" through striking visual imagery, and frequently combine "surreal or sinister elements with mundane, everyday environments". Critic Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian called Lynch "the great American surrealist" and described his subversive narratives as "splitting and swirling in non sequiturs and Escher loops". Film analyst Jennifer Hudson wrote, "Like most surrealists, Lynch's language of the unexplained is the fluid language of dreams". Ryan Gilbey called Lynch "the greatest cinematic surrealist since Buñuel " and "the most original film-maker to emerge in postwar America".
  
  J. Hoberman wrote that Lynch's work is characterized by "troubling juxtapositions, outlandish non sequiturs and eroticized derangement of the commonplace". Hoberman called his approach "more intuitive" than that of his surrealist precursors, and suggested that his art synthesized the disparate styles of Hollywood filmmaker Frank Capra and modernist author Franz Kafka. Dennis Lim suggested that Lynch's films "push clichés to their breaking point and find emotion in artifice." B. Kite of the BFI called Lynch's approach "stylised but not mocking", arguing that Lynch was "singularly brave and direct in his approach to heightened emotion" in an era where most filmmakers would opt for ironic distance. Nick De Semlyen of Empire described his films as moving "back and forth between violent chaos and otherworldly beauty", and suggested that "while other filmmakers tried to wrestle order out of chaos, compacting their stories into neat three-act structures, Lynch revelled in the tumult—that feeling that life is a beautiful, terrifying mystery."
  
  Lynch's work inspired the use of the adjective "Lynchian" to describe art or situations reminiscent of his style. Phil Hoad of The Guardian called the term Lynchian a "go-to adjective to describe any sniff of the uncanny and esoteric on screen", adding that his "destabilising vision has become a common lens for discerning the truth about the 'normal world'".
  
  "An academic definition of Lynchian might be that the term 'refers to a particular kind of irony where the very macabre and the very mundane combine in such a way as to reveal the former's perpetual containment within the latter'".
  
  Lynch's distinctive style blends surrealism with classic Hollywood storytelling and "pulpy" romanticism, often employing experimental filmmaking techniques alongside elements from commercial genres such as film noir, supernatural horror, soap opera, camp comedy, and erotic thriller. His films have been said to evoke a "dreamlike quality of mystery or menace" through striking visual imagery, and frequently combine "surreal or sinister elements with mundane, everyday environments". Critic Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian called Lynch "the great American surrealist" and described his subversive narratives as "splitting and swirling in non sequiturs and Escher loops". Film analyst Jennifer Hudson wrote, "Like most surrealists, Lynch's language of the unexplained is the fluid language of dreams". Ryan Gilbey called Lynch "the greatest cinematic surrealist since Buñuel " and "the most original film-maker to emerge in postwar America".
  
  J. Hoberman wrote that Lynch's work is characterized by "troubling juxtapositions, outlandish non sequiturs and eroticized derangement of the commonplace". Hoberman called his approach "more intuitive" than that of his surrealist precursors, and suggested that his art synthesized the disparate styles of Hollywood filmmaker Frank Capra and modernist author Franz Kafka. Dennis Lim suggested that Lynch's films "push clichés to their breaking point and find emotion in artifice." B. Kite of the BFI called Lynch's approach "stylised but not mocking", arguing that Lynch was "singularly brave and direct in his approach to heightened emotion" in an era where most filmmakers would opt for ironic distance. Nick De Semlyen of Empire described his films as moving "back and forth between violent chaos and otherworldly beauty", and suggested that "while other filmmakers tried to wrestle order out of chaos, compacting their stories into neat three-act structures, Lynch revelled in the tumult—that feeling that life is a beautiful, terrifying mystery."
  
  Lynch's work inspired the use of the adjective "Lynchian" to describe art or situations reminiscent of his style. Phil Hoad of The Guardian called the term Lynchian a "go-to adjective to describe any sniff of the uncanny and esoteric on screen", adding that his "destabilising vision has become a common lens for discerning the truth about the 'normal world'".