David Keith Lynch died on Jan. 15, 2025, five days shy of his 79th birthday. Not only was Lynch one of *the* defining U.S. filmmakers of the last half-century, but he was a truly great American, artist, ally and human.

Throughout his 40-year filmmaking career, Lynch bounced back and forth from the cinematic mainstream.

“Eraserhead” (1977), “The Elephant Man” (1980), “Blue Velvet” (1986), “Twin Peaks” (1990-1), “Wild at Heart” (1991), “The Straight Story” (1999), “Mulholland Drive” (2001) and “Twin Peaks: The Return” (2017) were contemporary critical and/or commercial hits, with “Twin Peaks” being such a runaway success it would cement his place in pop culture history.

“Dune” (1984), his “Twin Peaks” prequel “Fire Walk With Me” (1992), “On the Air” (1992), “Hotel Room” (1993), “Lost Highway” (1997) and “Inland Empire” (2006) all bombed and/or were reviled upon release.

But success or its absence didn’t matter to Lynch — he was ultimately interested in creating unique, expressive and emotional experiences for himself. He gained as much pleasure making a short about cooking quinoa for davidlynch.com, or running a pandemic weather channel, as he did working with million-dollar budgets and huge stars. It was about the abstract ideas themselves, their roots and branches, for Lynch.

And here’s the thing about Lynch’s 10 feature films, four television shows, and many, many short films (this is, of course, leaving out his painting, music, sculpture and literary works): I haven’t seen every short but I can say that out of the two dozen-plus film projects I have seen, there are maybe a couple that don’t succeed and even those make for fascinating viewing experiences. Many are among my very favorite works of cinema/TV.

Lynch, a sweet, ever-sincere LA-based Montanan, was unparalleled in the way he juxtaposed placid American iconography with its underlying White violence. His women characters endured so much terrifying, un-glamorized torture at the hands of men, while never giving up their strength, individuality or agency. His work has long held a special significance to queer audiences, and Lynch’s character’s line in “The Return” about supporting trans people became a rallying cry: “Fix your hearts or die.”

Another of my favorite Lynch quotes, regarding his infamous practice of refusing to offer any explanation of his works: “As soon as you finish a film, people want you to talk about it. And it’s, um … the film *is* the talking.”

So I suppose it’s best I leave it there, as no matter what I or he or anyone might say, in the end, it’s the films that are the message. Please, go watch them and spend some time dreaming with David Lynch.