The Story of a Small Bug (David Lynch, 2020, USA)

The Story of a Small Bug is a short film directed by David Lynch in 2020. The film tells the story of a Lynch seeing a caterpillar on a hill in his garden in the Hollywood Hills. It opens with footage of Lynch himself explaining the events. The insect is eating some kind of root, but the bug continuously falls while chewing on a root. The film ends with the caterpillar being eaten alive by a snake. This is accompanied by disturbing chewing sounds added in post-production, along with a typical Lynchian droning soundscape behind the images. The whole film appears to have been shot on a cell phone. 

Watching this film inevitably raises the question - "If this film was directed by anyone else on earth would anybody care?" The answer is no. However, I tend to think of these things differently. Lynch is a filmmaker who has worked on various scale projects throughout the years - from mega-budget blockbusters (Dune) to traditional TV shows (Twin Peaks), and everything in between. If he chooses to express his creativity just by using a cell phone, I am open to whatever he has to present, obviously keeping in mind the limitations of what he can do with the medium.


The Story of a Small Bug is certainly not one of Lynch's most exceptional films, and not one I will be revisiting, but that being said, we are lucky to be getting anything from this auteur in the 2020s. We here at Cinephilic Musings are hoping for at least one more feature from the great director, but he seems to be channeling much of his energy into his paintings and his music. It makes sense, given that he has much more control of these projects than anything he would be making in the film medium.


5/10

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