Machine embroidery on men's Russell Athletics crewneck (vintage blue) 50% polyester 50% cotton, preshrunk π "A WOMAN IN TROUBLE" David Lynch's Inland Empire (2006) is often referred to as the director's most challenging or 'weirdest' film. Lynch shot the film using a handheld digital camcorder, and often worked without a screenplay: handing actors pages of freshly written dialogue at the beginning of each day. When asked to describe the plot of the film, Lynch would say Inland Empire is "about a woman in trouble, and it's a mystery, and that's all I want to say about it." Inland Empire is exactly three hours long, with Laura Dern at the center of it all. Dern plays Nikki Grace, an actress starring in an American remake of an unfinished foreign film (based on a Polish folktale) in which the two leads were murdered. As she continues to film the movie, Dern's character finds it increasingly difficult to separate the film's script from her real life. Eventually, Nikki falls into a nightmarish world containing elements from the film, her life, the Polish folktale, and a family of rabbits. Lynch self-financed the majority of Inland Empire's production costs, and opted for self-distribution of the film theatrically. Lynch embarked on a 10-city promotional tour in January 2007 with a cow, explaining "I ate a lot of cheese during the film, and it made me happy. I'm looking forward to meeting theater owners and getting out among the people with the cow." The LA stop of Inland Empire's promotional tour occurred in the middle of Hollywood boulevard, and featured a large banner advertising Laura Dern's performance. When asked about the cow (named Georgia) Lynch would only say that "without cheese there wouldn't be an Inland Empire." Dern did not receive an Academy Award nomination.
