“Jack, you know anything about birds?” And so begins David Lynch’s 74th birthday present to his fans – an absurd, surreal and pretty hilarious short film, titled, What did Jack Do? The film’s logline is fairly simple – “A detective interrogates a monkey suspected of murder.” Right. Well, it is Lynch.
Lynch has been fairly quiet since receiving his honorary Oscar in 2019 and his well-received Twin Peaks revival on Showtime.
Netflix has categorized the short film, which features the strangest use of a monkey since Mountain Dew’s “PuppyMonkeyBaby,” as a crime drama, and it is easily one of the weirdest things you will find on the streamer. Set in a dark, one window train station diner and shot in a noir-ish black and white, the short recalls some of Lynch’s best black-and-white work – Eraserhead, The Elephant Man and the harrowing episode from Twin Peaks season 3, Gotta Light?
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Here, we have Lynch and Jack, a suited monkey voiced by a mysterious Jack Cruz, in an intense interrogation about a murder that ranges from WTF to… WTF? After being interrupted briefly by a waitress (Emiy Stofle) serving them coffee (Lynch loves his diner waitresses), their conversation moves from birds to murder to roosters to communism and more. It’s all compelling, and somewhat unsettling, from beginning to end.
Lynch’s last major project was the Twin Peaks revival series on Showtime, which was released in 2017 to much critical acclaim. The series consisted of 18 episodes, and concluded in September 2017 with a two-part finale. There has been speculation as to whether there will be another season of Twin Peaks.
Although Lynch has not denied the possibility of another season, he has said if it were to happen, it would be a fourth season that will not air before 2021.
But who knows what the gifted auteur is working on in his home overlooking Mulholland Drive? We’ll have to wait and see.
You can stream What did Jack Do? on Netflix now.
Contact Colin Costello at colin@reel360.com or follow him on Twitter, @colinthewriter1.
